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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Bad Ideas

Bad Ideas

by Tim F|  March 10, 20089:18 pm| 32 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, Democratic Stupidity

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The blogosphere is practically bursting with bright, novel perspectives. Here’s Ezra Klein, for example, on the Spitzer news.

This is sort of the boring take on Spitzer, but what we’re seeing here is not the fall — if indeed he does fall — of a high-flying governor. It’s the final tumble of a crushed reformer. Spitzer, for reasons both structural and personal, has been utterly humbled by Albany. The new capitalism he promised, the age of transparency he spoke of, the national ambitions he harbored — all have broken before the obstacles he faced in the governor’s mansion. When you think of the hype he was getting only a couple years ago, that’s a rather remarkable fact. I don’t care about the prostitution. But the capacity of the system to stand against those who would reform it, and who come into office with a broad mandate to do so, is really quite sobering.

Then again, on any given day some don’t make the cut.

Bill Kristol. Steve Benen lingers on Kristol’s silly idea that Clarence Thomas in the VP slot would hardly help McCain’s campaign (more evidence, by the way, that the GOP is freaking out over tearing down a black guy), but that’s peanuts. If you think that the activist right hates McCain now, picture for a minute how they will react when McCain pulls a rock-solid GOP vote-o-matic off the Supreme Court under a Democratic Senate. Heh. If McCain was even toying with the idea he would have voted in February to outlaw waterboarding.

Jacki Schechner. Here is a bit of electoral math – if Obama runs as an independent there will be two Democrats against one Republican. In a presidential election that means that the Republican wins. Cognoscenti call it “splitting the vote.” I didn’t set out to give Aravosis a hard time for hiring one of CNN’s blogreaders but yeesh, pointless noodling like this is why I can’t bear listening to political pundits on the teevee*.

***

(*) Partial fib. You and I both know that I’ll be livedrunkblogging the FOX News suicide watch in November.

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32Comments

  1. 1.

    Asti

    March 10, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    The new capitalism he promised, the age of transparency he spoke of, the national ambitions he harbored—all have broken before the obstacles he faced in the governor’s mansion.

    $3,000 hookers isn’t new capitalism? Sure fooled me.

  2. 2.

    tBone

    March 10, 2008 at 9:25 pm

    $3,000 hookers isn’t new capitalism?

    Nope – world’s oldest profession, remember? Hell, if you look at the rate of inflation since the dawn of civilization, $3,000/hour is a steal.

  3. 3.

    p.lukasiak

    March 10, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    could someone explain to me what spitzer actually did? I mean “paying hookers for sex” is one thing (not a resigning offense for a governor—for a DA, sure, but not a governor), “being involved in a prostitution ring” is something entirely different (sounds like a resigning offense to me).

  4. 4.

    DougJ

    March 10, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    He was transferring large sums of money to them, p luk. It was just doing it to pay his hooking bills, but I think it looked worse initially.

  5. 5.

    Tim F.

    March 10, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    When three hookers equals my Honda, all I can say is that he better have been bloody ecstatic.

  6. 6.

    Asti

    March 10, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    Nope – world’s oldest profession, remember? Hell, if you look at the rate of inflation since the dawn of civilization, $3,000/hour is a steal.

    Really, well, there’s still plenty of women out on street corners who will do it for less than a Ben Franklin.

  7. 7.

    Asti

    March 10, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    When three hookers equals my Honda, all I can say is that he better have been bloody ecstatic.

    Or one hooker for three hours. Damn sad, isn’t it?

  8. 8.

    Asti

    March 10, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    Nope – world’s oldest profession, remember? Hell, if you look at the rate of inflation since the dawn of civilization, $3,000/hour is a steal.

    I wouldn’t know. I’ve always gotten it for free.

  9. 9.

    DougJ

    March 10, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    Off topic…I’ve got a new idea for a game: The Fed Pool. You pick all the politicians you think will get busted by the feds over the next year. They can’t be people already under investigation.

    Based on The Dead Pool of course.

  10. 10.

    Fred X. Quimby

    March 10, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    Bad Idea Jeans

    http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5579379

  11. 11.

    jake

    March 10, 2008 at 9:45 pm

    What the hell is Ezra babbling about? It almost sounds as if Albany drove Splitzher into the arms of prostitutes. Dude, shut up.

    picture for a minute how they will react when McCain pulls a rock-solid GOP vote-o-matic off the Supreme Court

    You misspelled “veg-o-matic.”

  12. 12.

    protected static

    March 10, 2008 at 9:57 pm

    You and I both know that I’ll be livedrunkblogging the FOX News suicide watch in November.

    As my mother-in-law says, “From your lips to God’s ears.”

  13. 13.

    borehole

    March 10, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    “Veg-o-matic.” Hee. It’s funny because he never asks questions when hearing cases, like, ever, which tends to make one apprehensive about his position. Hee, I say.

    But what was that about prostitutes’ arms? You’ve been getting ripped off, buddy.

  14. 14.

    Dug Jay

    March 10, 2008 at 10:02 pm

    I’m with Jake in his comment above. Ezra’s comments are patently absurd. As any number of observers from New York have commented, there’s a certain poetic quality to this final act of Spitzer’s. His extraordinary popularity with members of the media was rooted in his willingness to leak, sotto voce, allegations of misconduct in the personal lives of the subjects of his investigations. The press loved the juicy headlines. His motivation was apparently to embarrass and intimidate the subjects of his investigations so that they would be forced to comply.

    But this is not just schadenfreude. As the NYT writer put it, there’s a matter of serious public concern beneath the cheers and smirks of those who won’t be sorry to see Spitzer fall from the bully pulpit. What the federal wiretap has uncovered is not just a sex scandal but a dark crack running through the character of New York’s governor. One would think that a man who deployed his aides to whisper about a corporate executive allegedly “banging” his assistant, would be wise enough to the ways of the world to avoid putting himself in a position where he could be blackmailed. That he lacked such wisdom—or ignored it—shows a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the high office to which the people of New York elected him.

  15. 15.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 10, 2008 at 10:14 pm

    He’d have been better off bumping uglies with top-flight appellate counsel, and probably saved money in the process.

  16. 16.

    SenderC

    March 10, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    VP nominee Thomas would be awesome because you could ask him questions like “if you are elected, will you talk during your term” or “you haven’t said a word on the bench in the last two years — isn’t that batshit insane?” Angry Jack and The Quiet Man — a team to lead America!

  17. 17.

    ThymeZone

    March 10, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Dug Jay said “sotto voce.”

    I swear, it’s right up there, he said it.

  18. 18.

    Tax Analyst

    March 10, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    I wonder if Spitzer was making Cash Bank withdrawals for amounts over $10,000? I believe that requires filling out some paperwork. I know depositing over $10K in cash does, because I once made an over $10K deposit for a guy I was working for.

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    March 10, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    I believe Dug Jay needs to shut the fuck up as he has no standing to rag on Spitzer after defending Republicans doing the same or worse.

    The rest of us though, still get to bitch about him being an idiot and a hypocrite.

  20. 20.

    rawshark

    March 11, 2008 at 12:11 am

    But the capacity of the system to stand against those who would reform it, and who come into office with a broad mandate to do so, is really quite sobering.

    Is this a Wire discussion thread?

  21. 21.

    Geoduck

    March 11, 2008 at 12:25 am

    The Constitution doesn’t say that a person can’t both be VP and on the Supreme Court at the same time…

  22. 22.

    protected static

    March 11, 2008 at 1:00 am

    Tax Analyst:

    I wonder if Spitzer was making Cash Bank withdrawals for amounts over $10,000?

    IIRC, one of the things that 9/11 changed (apart from, you know, like, everything, right?) is that the $10K limit isn’t a hard and fast rule any more. Yes, transactions above $10K still have to be reported, but so does anything else that a the financial institution deems ‘suspicious.’ Any deviation from your regular financial patterns could be deemed suspicious.

  23. 23.

    Asti

    March 11, 2008 at 1:14 am

    IIRC, one of the things that 9/11 changed (apart from, you know, like, everything, right?) is that the $10K limit isn’t a hard and fast rule any more. Yes, transactions above $10K still have to be reported, but so does anything else that a the financial institution deems ‘suspicious.’ Any deviation from your regular financial patterns could be deemed suspicious.

    Yup, it was only after 9/11 that I went to a casino once and because I did, my bank decided to freeze my card just to make sure I really made those transactions. It really sucks when you are are running out of gas and can’t buy more because you don’t carry cash and your card suddenly stops working after someone at the bank got a bug up their ass.

  24. 24.

    Asti

    March 11, 2008 at 1:16 am

    Of course, that same bank has no problem when someone steals my card and manages to use it for five separate transactions totally over $580 in the space of two hours.

  25. 25.

    Asti

    March 11, 2008 at 1:17 am

    totally = totaling (it’s obviously bedtime for me).

  26. 26.

    Enlightened Layperson

    March 11, 2008 at 1:36 am

    Ezra Klein is making the point that Spitzer was on his way down even before this scandal broke. (If he had been wildly popular as governor, he might even have survived it). The traits that made Spitzer a successful Attorney General –aggressiveness, combativeness, an authoritarian style, relishing making enemies of the powerful — are disasterous in a governor who has to get along with the legislature and make compromises.

  27. 27.

    bwaage

    March 11, 2008 at 2:33 am

    Ezra Klein was making the point that he’s thought way too much about The Wire these last few days.

  28. 28.

    Jay C

    March 11, 2008 at 5:23 am

    The traits that made Spitzer a successful Attorney General—aggressiveness, combativeness, an authoritarian style, relishing making enemies of the powerful—are disasterous in a governor who has to get along with the legislature and make compromises.

    Especially in NY State, whose legislature has had a reputation for being infamously dysfunctional since, oh, the Eighteenth Century or so.

  29. 29.

    Jay C

    March 11, 2008 at 5:37 am

    And as I was going to say before my computer pre-posted the above: I find myself astonished to half-agree with a post of Dug Jay’s. But since his comments are generally half-assed (at best) I guess it’s appropriate…

    I don’t find Ezra Klein’s assertions at all “absurd” – the structural problems with the State Government in Albany have defeated better Governors than Eliot Spitzer, and will probably be around (sadly) long after he’s a historical footnote. But as DJ says, he who lives (politically) as an agressive media-manipulating asshole will surely (politically) die as one. And Spitzer has definitely dug his own grave – AND paid for the headstone (at $4300 a pop!).

  30. 30.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 11, 2008 at 5:43 am

    Dug Jay said “sotto voce.”

    I swear, it’s right up there, he said it.

    Is that Italian for ‘pie’?

  31. 31.

    Dug Jay

    March 11, 2008 at 7:40 am

    The rest of us though, still get to bitch about him being an idiot and a hypocrite.

    And where were your ancestors on or about December 7, 1941, TenguPhule?

  32. 32.

    HyperIon

    March 11, 2008 at 11:56 am

    rawshark Says:

    ….broad mandate

    in Spitzer’s dreams.

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