He just resigned, and the SOB dragged his near sobbing wife, who looks like she hasn’t slept in 5 days, up to the podium to look like she was about to have a breakdown while he gave a two minute speech which featured the word “I” thirty seven times.
I really am trying to feel sorry for him, but the glee he took and the abuse he stowed on people as Attorney General keeps me from being able to muster any sympathy. I really hate bullies, and bullies who have an office are even worse, even if they are doing “the right thing” in the big picture. Looking at his beautiful and broken wife makes me want to punch him in the face. Selfish bastard. I don’t know how someone could do that to his wife and kids.
Vlad
Can you give a quick refresher on what he did in office that was so terrible? I honestly don’t know.
Vlad
Other than the hooker thing, I mean.
Jake
Not before time.
John Cole
It as mainly the way he went about things- he was, I think, responsible for helping to clean up some shady Wall Street practices, but he did it through methods I find reprehensible. Bullying, threatening, prying into personal lives.
Billy K
I’m totally speculating, and perhaps I shouldn’t, but this does not seem to be a man who would be very kind to his wife, and the way he’s used her the last couple days REALLY makes me feel sorry for her.
Davebo
Could you elaborate on that a bit John? Because I know Wall Street thought he was a bully, but in the end those folks turned out to be crooks in many cases.
It seems to me that he did a nice job reforming several industry practices.
jcricket
I feel a little sorry for the guy, but not a lot. He was rich, powerful and knew better. He was also married. He’s solely responsible for hurting his wife, kids, family, supporters and the state of NY. I think he handled this about as well as can be expected (dragging the wife out there is common practice, and I doubt anyone’s gonna stop doing it soon) – taking questions is pointless, resigning right now is all that matters. No invoking “I have sinned against you my lord” with crocodile tears and a plea to stay on (unlike the way Republicans seem to do apologies).
I also don’t think his methods were all that reprehensible in other investigations. Hardball, yes. Aggressive, yes. Bullying, yes. But corporations these days are so well insulated with lawyers and money that it takes a lot to penetrate their defenses and get them to admit anything. It’s why, for example, I support the existence of large punitive damage awards and the banning of SLAPP lawsuits. At worst he was dishing back a teensy portion of the tactics corporations use to silence their critics and cow government into acquiescing to the corporations demands.
Tim
But by law of false equivalence aren’t we supposed to support him the way the GOP continues to support Vitter and Craig?
Oh wait that’s right, Gay sex in a bathroom and a Baby Fetish are approved by Fundamentalists but high priced Call Girls are verboten……
horatius
Yeah. I think people who make big money need their personal lives pried into, just to get a taste of what the rest of the populace is getting. I endorse Spitzer’s tactics and if he could keep it in his pants, he’d be my favourite kind of pol.
John Cole
Spitzer knew that all he needed to do to ruin people and a company was to indict them, even if the indictment was bullshit. He used that threat of indictment as a tool to get people to change pratcices that I think we all agree needed to change, but that still does not make it kosher.
And the delving into people’s personal lives was unseemly and grotesque as well, and widely reported during the Grasso bit.
horatius
I am just hoping Andrew Cuomo has balls twice as large as Spitzer and manages to keep it in his pants at the same time. There are a lot of crooks to be caught yet and most of them are in wall street.
jcricket
Of course not a minute goes by before I read that perhaps I was a tad bit hasty in my defense of his tactics.
To be straight about this:
1) Hardball and bullying against corporations? Fine.
2) Using your power/office to settle personal scores/vendettas? Unacceptable.
4jkb4ia
This is all incredibly sad. It is a lesson in hubris that he had to cheat on his wife at all. It is appalling that he had to resign simply because of this when, as bmaz has been saying at length, they don’t know what sort of valid charge the Feds can bring against him.
Get going, St. Louis U.! Come on!
zsa
A $2500 per hour hooker does strange things to a man.
Shouldn’t he have been smart enough to pay in cash?
Joe Max
New Democratic campaign slogan:
“The Men of the Democratic Party – our sex scandals are with WOMEN!”
But really, it’s the money laundering, stupid.
There is really nothing that makes any hooker worth $4000+. Sex with a $4000 hooker is not four times better than with a $1000 hooker. Men like Spitzer (and Clients #1-#8) are buying the “Emperor Club” prestige — “I had sex with a $4000 hooker! I am *so* rich!!!” Which is particularly bizarre considering that you can’t brag to anyone about it. It lacks a certain public ostentatiousness, unlike driving a $500,000 Lamborghini. But the impulse is the same.
It was the money laundering that did him in. If he’d have been satisfied with
Jake
Nope. Sorry. See Goldman-Sachs. See any pharmaceutical company. Being indicted is a rite of passage for big corporations and it doesn’t hurt them one little bit. They probably don’t let CEOs of unindicted corps use the really nice restroom.
Michael D.
I sim[ply cannot fathom why, when you have such a beautiful wife, you need to hire a hooker!
Faux News
I’m still shaking my head over this. Like I said yesterday $4300 would buy a great HDTV big screen, with lots of money for beer and porno movies.
Then again I’m overweight, bald, and almost 50. So the above scenario sounds good to me. I understand these 5K diamond hookers “are intelligent and can hold a good conversation”, but I’ll settle for much less.
The Moar You Know
What a saint.
I hope his wife takes him to the cleaners in the inevitable divorce.
demimondian
My God, his wife looked awful. The poor, poor woman.
John Cole
I am reasonably sure a Harvard educated lawyer, former Attorney General, and governor of NY is pretty able to determine whether or not the Feds have a case against him.
In fact, his resignation is all the proof you need that they did in fact have a case. Spitzer is from the Clinton wing of aggressive, in your face pols. If he thought he could get away with this, he would try.
b. hussein canuckistani
If it’s any consolation to his wife, she got treated like trash for the sake of really expensive hookers and not the cheap ones you find on the sidewalk.
searp
People who do this in private – hurt their family, engage in immoral and hypocritical behavior “in private” cannot possibly be good leaders, simple as that.
I agree wholeheartedly with John. Absolutely and completely reprehensible. If a crime was committed then he should go to jail.
The words “rat bastard” come to mind.
Con Mhac
Perhaps his tastes were, ahh, unconventional?
Xenos
Spitzer’s wife coming out was not a humiliation, but an act of defiance. If she had hid, when would she feel safe to come out in public?
If anything, her loyalty in the face of his marital treason just makes him look twice the cad. The ones I really feel for are his teenage daughters.
zmulls
I think the only new view I can make to this discussion is to justify the $1100/hour hooker (4 hours for $4400).
The extra money wasn’t for the sex, it was for the assurances of privacy. If you’re that big a name, and you’re paying a woman for sex, you have to find someone who can’t be bought, not cheaply.
A prostitute who is charging that much, is not going to give away her client list to anyone. Someone making one-tenth that might be tempted to go to the National Enquirer for a quick payoff.
I’m sure the multi-diamond women are highly educated, articulate and well-versed in the courtesanical arts, and worth a bit more than average, but the top-of-the-line dollar amount is for the security.
JR
John Cole, I really appreciate your viewpoints most of the time. But is there a rule that Progressives cannot support those who fight for our causes? I thought throwing Nader under the duopoly bus was an aberation, but maybe abandoning your Fighters when they’ve been rolled by the Establishment IS a progressive principle.
Wow. We have lost one of the few tough guys actually fighting against corporate rule. They just bagged him through a politicized “justice” system, over a personal matter — and The People cheer it? So do you have to be some Mary Poppins figure to battle the big boys … ? I don’t think people properly understand the stakes here, or exactly how rough our current political system has become.
In review, today’s America:
Those perceived as liberal or fighting for The People will be ruined for private consensual adult sexual misdeeds.
Those who will wear the “conservative” label can lie, cheat, steal, instigate phony wars, perjure at will, obstruct justice, disclose national secrets for political gain, commit illegal surveilance, subvert elections, trample the Constitution and conduct torture in our name. (yes, future unbelieving historians, TORTURE.)
The Right is redefining crime like they redefined patriotism. It is not criminal if a “conservative” does it, just like “patriotism” is defined as something a “conservative” does.
The lesson is clear: The Law is for little people like Progressives, Liberals and any others not prepared to bow down to the new “conservative” aristocracy.
As long as Vitter and Craig are in office, and Scooter Libby is free, we should have stood behind Spitzer to remain in office. Oh, wait, people are reading the f’ing Wall Street Journal to make up their minds aboout Spitzer. I say we need to have a moritorium on beating up the righties for being ‘teh stupid.’
Wiki on Vitter: “Marianne Means, a syndicated columnist for Hearst Newspapers, reported that Republican senators gave Vitter a “loud standing ovation” which she characterized as hypocritical by contrasting this with the Republican attitude toward President Clinton’s marital infidelity…”
People fell for it. Again. Yes, again … again! Is this what it means to be a Democrat? An incapacity to see what is really going on?
In other news, Dkos Dems blame Ralph Nader.
Jake
But if she were a dog, that would be all right!
tim
Oh for god’s sake, John. Grow up!
Men have been cheating on their wives and hiring hookers since time immemoriam. Why do Americans always play this “oh my god, this is so shocking, such a despicable, never heard of, occurence, oh my god, oh my god,” game when someone in the public eye is caught with hookers? For myself, I believe it is the deeply ingrained American Puritanism against which I also struggle in myself. I was raised in it, but I don’t have to succumb to it.
For all we know, Spitzer’s wife KNEW about the hookers and didn’t care. For all we know, he liked certain acts which she found distasteful, so he looked for them elsewhere with professionals and she looked the other way. For all we know, she knew NOTHING about any of it and is truly in shock. Though cynic that I am, I tend to believe people who are completely blindsided by something this vast have been living in willful denial; perhaps she didn’t see what she didn’t WANT to see.
Bottom line: his sex life and their marriage is NONE OF OUR FUCKING BUSINESS. I would love it if a complete sex pig was in the white house, but one who hadn’t invaded Iraq and murdered hundreds of thousands of people.
In a country in which HALF of staight marriages end in divorce, and in which a goodly percentage of the remainder are certainly somewhat compromised, how does ANYONE have the gall to judge and pontificate and weep and moan and spew in regard to someone else’s marriage?
I wish Spitzer had given the finger to the establishment media and poltical world and stayed in office.
In regard to Mrs. Spitzer presenting her traumatized self beside him on the stage, that is just bizarre. She is at least complicit in that; can she not say NO? Can she not REFUSE to be up there? When are we going to start asking women such as her to be responsible for their own decisions and choices. In presenting her as a victim, John, you are trivializing her own power of choice, her status as an adult, and her humanity. Again, you don’t KNOW why she was up there, and you never will, and guess what: It’s not your business because in the end she CHOSE to be up there.
Please respond.
Teak111
I suspect they have other things on the guy, that the 4k hooker is the least of his legal worries, that his resignation was part of a deal, not to expose more. Because, really, a little public contrition and some face time at church/temple with the wife and kids makes this go away. As far I’ve read he was an effective pol. So there is more. Tough on the wife and kids for sure, but the wives of powerful men are fooling themselves if they think their men get power by being a mensch.
Sinister eyebrow
There is certainly a state law case against him—solicitation of a prositute is a state crime. I expect there are probably a couple federal charges involving his knowingly transferring funds to shell corps to be used in illegal activities. Banking/finance laws are many and convoluted–most I think deliberately so in order to allow corporations and financial institutions to push the envelope on morally acceptable behavior by hiding in the legal maze they helped construct. The Mann Act stuff could be used, I think, but as far as I know it is rarely used to prosecute those who patronize prostitutes (at least not for 40 years or so). The Mann Act is more directed at purveyors of hookers, not their patrons. Call it the anti-pimping act.
There are a number of cases where the act was used as a Jim Crow tool to prosecute black men who offended delicate sensibilities by dating and traveling with white women (See Joe Johnson, Chuck Berry). Mostly in the 1920s-1950s.
Myrtle Parker
Oh for god’s sake, Tim. Grow up!
Humans have been murdering other humans and raping and pillaging since time immemoriam. Why do Americans always play this “oh my god, this is so shocking, such a despicable, never heard of, occurence, oh my god, oh my god,” game when someone is caught with murdering and raping and pillaging?
tim
“But is there a rule that Progressives cannot support those who fight for our causes?”
Thanks for that, JR.
As much as I enjoy and appreciate reading John’s blog, I keep in mind that it wasn’t that long ago that he was rah-rahhing GWB into war in Iraq.
Just sayin…
Dork
I have a suspicion that you are largely unawares of how arrogant, crooked, and reprehensible many of the “players” on Wall Street truly are. Threats and bullying are the only thing that fazes these bastards.
Ordinarily, I’d agree with you about the bullying, but some of the people associated on Wall Street most certainly deserved the beatings they took from Spitz.
tim
Myrtle:
The fact that you equate rape, murder, and pillaging with consensual sex tells me all I need to know about your Puritanical, sex-is-evil mindset.
thanks for making my point, and for sharing.
Jake
I recall some pretty loud howls for Foley, Craig and Vitter to get the fuck out while the Republicans were still walking around with their thumbs up their asses and muttering about personal lives, political attacks and persecution by the Librul Media. Foley had to go because there was no way even the Repubs could spin dirty TMs to minors. Or male minors. Craig stayed and they decided not to push (fear of possible dirt airing from Craig perhaps) Vitter apologized to Jesus and his wife and got a Standing O.
But now a Democrat is in the same situation (and no matter how you slice it prostitution is illegal) and to be good Democrats we’re supposed to rally around him because this is a personal matter and he’s under political attack and he’s being persecuted by the CONservative media.
I Kan Haz Wht UR Smokin?
Zifnab
It’s New York politics. You break my knee-caps and I break yours right back. Wall Street firms will happily give you a giant middle finger if they think they can get away with it. See: The Bush Administration. Spitzer used the tools he had at his disposal to get the job done. Were they the nicest, gentlest tools at his disposal? Probably not. But he was fighting a bunch of ruthless money-whoring crooks. As a NY DA, he wasn’t being paid to be a nice guy.
You play nice, friendly, insider softball and you end up with a state like Texas, where all the good’ole’boys get to bully all the outsiders without a fear in the world of repercussions. It’s really, really, really hard to build up righteous indignation against Spitzer when I live in a state that could really use a guy like him to clean it up.
Zifnab
That said, the whoring was bad. Why he couldn’t keep it in his pants (or in his wife – seriously wtf? I’d hit that) is beyond me. But he needs to go, either way.
John Cole
I imagine he could be prosecuted under this law:
He is a hypocrite and an asshole. You can bring up my past stupidity regarding Bush and Iraq all you want, but those of you cheering for Spitzer just because he is a fighter with a (d) after his name are part of the problem.
And in case his hypocrisy still has not sunk in, let me restate what that law he signed did:
That is right. He signed a law increasing the penalty on johns while getting his nob polished at a cost of 5,000 an hour.
Tlaloc
Can we please stop assuming we have the slightest clue what he or his wife are feeling. For all we know she looks miserable because she’s the ultimate gold digger and her meal ticket just got canceled.
Unfair? Probably, but it is based on just as many hard facts as the “Oh the poor girl has been so abused by her mean husband” schtick.
We don’t know a thing about their relationship and its dynamic, so let’s stop acting like we do. We don’t have any good reason to believe he “dragged” her with him. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. Assuming one or the other is stupid.
As for him being a bully in office. That’s probably fair, although frankly since the people he was bullying were themselves bullies of the worst sort I see it as a plus not a minus. Kind of hard to deal with the briggands when you limit yourself to strongly worded emails.
SenderC
I feel for his three teenage daughters. The teens are some tough years, especially for girls. As happens in a lot of these situations, their sense of betrayal might be stronger than even their mother’s. It may take him a long time to gain their trust again. Let’s hope the family can work past it.
Gus
Those of you who think this is about him cheating on his wife, guess again. Whether or not you think prostitution should be legal (I think it should be), it isn’t. He broke the law by his own admission. For someone who made his name in law enforcement, the hypocrisy alone renders him unfit to discharge his duties. I don’t feel the least bit sorry for him. He fucked up in a big way. I’ll save my sympathy for the people who trusted him, the voters and especially his family.
myiq2xu
IOW – He was a hypocrite about paying for sex and deserves to get fucked.
If he was just another politician who was caught with his pants down it would be different. Even though he’s a Democrat and the investigation may have been politically motivated, I say fuck him.
Give him the full $80k worth.
Tlaloc
“He is a hypocrite and an asshole. You can bring up my past stupidity regarding Bush and Iraq all you want, but those of you cheering for Spitzer just because he is a fighter with a (d) after his name are part of the problem.”
Come on, Cole. You can defend his fight with wall street without defending his hypocrisy on prostitution.
I’m defending him because he had a d after his name. I’m defending him in the place where he was right- reaming the asshole wall street bastards who are destroying the country. In that he was dead on and we could use 100 more like him.
I don’t castigate him for visiting a prostitute because I think it’s stupid prostitution is illegal and it should be between him and his wife.
I do blame him for being hypocritical on prostitution by pushing for bigger sentences against people doing what he himself was guilty of. And yes he should step down for that (and the structuring issue of trying to avoid getting caught).
Tlaloc
should be “I’m NOT defending him because he has a d after his name.”
:P
Nikki
Since when does beauty equal sexual prowess or stamina?
jrg
I don’t think so. Even if he had a legal case against the prosecution (let’s say, for the case of argument, that illegal wiretaps were involved), I doubt he would stay in office and slug it out. His political life is over, and he knows it.
However, if this was another politically motivated DOJ fishing expedition, or if warrantless surveillance is involved, he could pursue a civil case for monetary damages (I think – IANAL). If he resigns and goes that route (civil action), he could overturn a lot of rocks, potentially well into the next presidential administration, which (presumably) would be much less likely to stonewall.
Of course, I’m speculating wildly based on a fishy feeling I’ve got about this investigation. In short, I think his goose is cooked, so he may as well go for a scorched earth approach.
Tsulagi
Spitzer better hope his wife doesn’t have a little of my S.O. in her. She wouldn’t have been anywhere near that podium, and I wouldn’t have wanted her to be, but if stupidly I dragged her up there for that mess, there’d be a ball bat wakeup, or extended sleep, in my near future. Likely around 4am.
But where are Malkin’s legions of tarded citizen jurnos when they could be useful? Instead of photos and bios of countertops, how about of Kristen, the $5K hooker? I’d go to her site for that. Or maybe Captain Ed in his new Malkinboi role can get the scoop earning a pat on the head from his mistress.
4tehlulz
Spitzer’s a prick, but we knew that. What gets me is commentary like this.
She lets him. You think this is the first prostitution ring he’s been involved with? Please. And the fact that she’s allowing herself to be used as a prop only reinforces that perception.
I wish she interrupted the announcement and stated she was
running off to Mexico with medumping his ass and taking him to the fucking cleaners.cbear
With all due respect–Give me a fucking break.
Neither you nor anyone else here has the slightest clue about the dynamics of the Spitzer’s marriage, and/or the wife’s motivations for appearing with her husband.
IMO, you demean her more by asserting that this intelligent accomplished woman is incapable of making her own decisions as to whether to appear with or support her husband than the situation already has.
Maybe they have an “open” marriage.
Maybe she has her own bit of fluff on the side.
Maybe she loves him but doesn’t like sex.
etc., etc., etc……..
The point is, we just don’t fucking know, and nor should we.
It’s their own goddamn business and no one else’s.
The travesty here is that our sick society, with its seemingly overwhelming desire to strip bare the intimate details of other people’s sex lives for our collective amusement, would even focus on this tripe.
Ain’t it great. Everybody can now satisfy their most prurient impulses as we enjoy a 2-week media blitz concerning l’affair Spitzer. Brought to us courtesy of the vaporous 13-yr-old’s in the media, and aided and abetted by various and sundry fainting goopers.
BTW, am I the only one here who has an unpleasant tingling sensation, and some soreness, around my asshole after learning of John McCain’s selling of his office to his lobbyist buddies on the Airbus/Boeing deal, and countless others?
I almost feel like a hooker that not only got fucked, but then didn’t get paid… and was robbed to boot.
Wonder if there’s any chance the media will spend more than an hour looking at that situation?
Point #2-
Oh boo-fucking-hoo. I’m just appalled, appalled I say, that a Governor or AG might use something less than the most genteel of methods in prosecuting the titans of our society who are only practising their God-given right to rape and pillage virtually every goddamn economic sector of our society.
God forbid that these fine people and institutions should be subjected to the same BULLYING or HARDBALL tactics that virtually every other citizen who gets caught up in the justice system endures. You know, the people who steal, rob, or embezzle about .000000000001 percent less than the cretinous fucks that Spitzer went after.
LOOK, there’s a BLACK guy robbing a 7-Eleven!!!
Throw that motherfucker under the jail…after the perp-walk of course, cause we all need to get a look at his mangy ass.
Like I said, give me a fucking break.
Liberal Masochist
Interesting take by Jim McGreevey’s ex wife on standing up there…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/opinion/12mcgreevey.html?hp
Ninerdave
Shorter cbear: He did things I like therefore he’s not a criminal.
Liberal Masochist
Freakonomics guys have a Q&A with a high priced call girl
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/a-call-girls-view-of-the-spitzer-affair/
Cyrus
Cbear and tim, were you too lazy to read jcricket’s link at 11:20 a.m., or do you support gratuitous indictments without the evidence to back them up in retaliation for critical editorials?
4jkb4ia
That’s a state law. It proves hypocrisy but not a federal case.
Please bear with me: the marvelous A-10 referees have just sent SLU and Dayton to OT.
4jkb4ia
Sorry, missed earlier response.
Lee
At first read I thought John was refering to dragging his wife up there in front of the press.
Apparently I was wrong?
I condem him more for putting his wife on stage with him than for employing a hooker.
4jkb4ia
Sorry, missed earlier response. He could resign to stop a prosecution, or he could resign because he would be nothing more than a laughingstock ever after. We won’t know which it is.
John Cole
Both, for chrissakes.
You are an idiot.
Hypatia
I haven’t seen a political wife look so traumatized since Lee Hart. Poor thing.
Exactly.
MNPundit
Jesus Christ Cole, as far as I know he went after the people who bear a huge responsibility for the current economic fuck up. He was forcing them to follow the laws of this nation and he was facing some of the most greedy, short sighted, arrogant, vain, and corrupt people in the history of the human race!
So what if you don’t like the man? He was doing fucking awesome work, work no one else had the guts to do.
RareSanity
Bless that woman’s heart…this is just terrible. That being said, I’d like to throw in a little brevity.
Maybe she can use this as a springboard to a seat in the New York State Senate and eventually a run for Gov. I hear going through these situations provides you with the necessary “experience” to hold the office that your spouse once held.
And…
Is it just me or does is she dressed like a
stewardessflight attendant?jenniebee
I’m curious about where the line is actually supposed to be drawn. I don’t see how Spitzer is guilty of anything more than a Class A misdemeanor here, so the line must be somewhere south of that, but I can’t figure out where it should be. I mean, would Drunk in Public be enough to bar a person from public office? What about getting hit with Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor after your kids throw a wild party while you’re out of town? I ask, because if we’re not going to throw farewell parties for pols on a case-by-case basis, we ought to have a clear, reasoned approach to where the lines get drawn.
The Other Steve
Spitzer did the right thing. Good riddance to him.
Although I did find it fascinating that the biggest insult the republicans could come up with was to call him “moralizing”.
The Other Steve
He laundered money to hire prostitutes.
You don’t see this as wrong?
OriGuy
The press conference reminds me of Sir Norman Fry in Little Britain, especially his wife.
jenniebee
Also, if you haven’t read the rude pundit’s comments on this… well, you should read them!
b. hussein canuckistani
I said it when Clinton was being railroaded, and I’ll say it again.. you Americans sure get your jockeys in a knot about consensual adult sex.
I’m not impressed by John’s hypocricy claims. Human trafficking is an odious crime in a way that sex for money isn’t, and changing the level of a misdemeanor sounds to me like dropping speed limits and them speeding yourself – not that big a deal.
Wake me up when it turns out he embezzled his hooker money or pimped out his daughters to the same brothel. Until then, leave the poor bastard alone and let him and his wife deal with it.
mark
Good cartoon on that subject.
James F. Elliott
I really rather thought that a nice ending to “Spitznotswallowsgate” would be for Silda Spitzer to stab her husband in the spleen on national television. Not a jury in the world would convict her.
Even while many of us applaud most or even all of Spitzer’s targets, he knowingly broke the law — both when he was a state’s top law enforcement officer and the chief executive of that state. Whether we agree with the law in question or not, Spitzer has not denied breaking it. He violated his oath to the people of New York, and is now paying the price. One can only wish his wife and daughters didn’t also have to pay.
Cyrus
He publicly, falsely accused some people of crimes, because they criticized him.
You don’t see this as wrong?
(h/t: TOS)
Cyrus
h/t jcricket too.
w vincentz
Just got a phone call from a friend who deals unregistered handguns. Said he sold one to some crazy lady named Silda.
I expect headlines tomorrow in the Daily News.
“Jilted J-A-P Justices Ex-Gov”
Dork
I’m sure she’s quite consoled by that fact.
4tehlulz
>>“Jilted J-A-P Justices Ex-Gov”
1985 called. They want their slur back.
gypsy howell
The unbelievable thing to me is that he thought he could get away with it. Here’s a guy whose whole career was dedicated to figuring out ways to catch guys doing just this sort of thing and prosecuting them for it, so he must have known there were a jillion ways he could, and ultimately would, get caught. Was he that dumb, that arrogant, or just that horny?
Zifnab
Ah, well. That’s news to me. Hang’m high, then.
Liberal Masochist
gypsy howell – probably a mix of doors 2 and 3…
tBone
Personally, I get my jockeys in a knot when a law-and-order politician breaks the law in pursuit of consensual adult sex. But I guess context is for wimps.
Crust
John Cole:
Is it definitely true that Spitzer pried into Grasso’s personal life? I see even Fox News phrases that as an allegation (emphasis added):
No question Spitzer is a hypocrite. Just pointing out that not every nasty thing people say about him is necessarily true.
w vincentz
4teh,
1985 can have it. At least the soon to be justiced ex-gov demonstrated backbone to Tadisco’s (R) threat…right?
If you live on 5th Ave and hear a “BANG!” in the night, you might know what it is.
Jewish-American Princesses rule!
Jewish men seem to have lots to prove (other “issues” that I won’t get in to, though I think it comes from their mommies).
Raenelle
I didn’t care about Clinton’s sex life. I didn’t care about Vitter’s. I didn’t care about Craig’s. And I don’t care about Spitzer’s. [JFK fucking Marilyn–that was interesting for maybe a couple of decades. But, even there, shelf life and all.]
Oh, and I don’t care about people being hypocritical. Something about some innocent guy throwing the first stone comes to mind in that area, too.
Eliot Spitzer was simply a fierce partisan fighter, and that’s exactly what the Dems need far, far more of. What a fucking shame.
No wonder we hate France in this country. They consider us fools. That’s pretty bad. What’s worse is that they’re right.
Crust
Oops, I meant to put italics around “supposedly” not “suggesting” above. I.e. according to Fox, it is supposedly (not definitively) true that Spitzer raised questions about Grasso’s personal life.
cbear
Perhaps.
Although you don’t seem to have read the lines IMMEDIATELY below the section of my comment you have quoted where I state that we have no fucking idea what is in the heart or mind of Mrs. Spitzer, nor should we.
My point, however inelegantly put, is that its’ none of our goddamn business what either of the Spitzer’s motivations might be and we wouldn’t even be speculating on the subject were it not for the prosecution of people engaging in consensual acts.
I in no way meant to denigrate Mrs. Spitzer–merely to point out the absurdity of trying to analyze another’s marriage based on. If I failed to make that clear, then my apologies to Mrs. Spitzer.
Similiarly, while I commend your chivalry, I happen to think that you diminish her as a woman and a human being by assuming she has been forced to act in a manner inconsistent with what she deems to be the best interests of her and her family.
Additionally, if we didn’t live in a society so skewed by the hypocritical morals and mores of your former compatriots, we might not even be having this conversation.
Finally, your bleating about the tactics used on those poor sad souls who happen to control our world’s most powerful corporations and institutions is still quite unconvincing.
Laertes
I knew this guy, and his wife was terrific. Smart, gorgeous, young. They’d been married maybe five years. After a few drinks one night we got to chatting about this and that, and speaking about his marriage he said:
“She’s awesome. Sometimes, though, I’d just like to fuck someone else.”
Yeah, Mrs. Spitzer is a pretty thing, and her CV proves that she’s smart and capable. But there’s this outfit that’ll hook you up with this 19-year-old magazine-cover model with The Perfect Body, and those cheekbones, and those young eyes. And all you gotta do is make a phone call that’s easy to make, and cough up an amount of money that you ain’t gonna miss.
I can see how a guy would resist such temptation forever. A lot of love for your partner and a certain amount of willpower and you can resist any temptation.
But I can also very easily see how a guy could yield to that, especially if it’s routine for the men in his set to play on the side with supernaturally gorgeous young toys.
cbear
Shorter Ninerdave- I can’t read or understand anything more complex than My Pet Goat.
Dennis - SGMM
Great men have needs, they move in different circles than we do. Things that might seem unacceptable to us are excused and even condoned in those circles. The good that they do excuses their petty falls from grace.
That’s why we’re in fucking Iraq.
Zifnab
Maybe he beats his wife. Maybe she just fell down a flight of stairs. YOU don’t know. I don’t know. So why can’t we just stop passing judgement?
/snark
DougJ
Does it strike you that Spitzer is probably the most self-righteous Democrat in recent memory? I was a *huge* supporter of the guy (because I hate Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno) but his crusading, holier-than-thou ways should have been a tip off that he might ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were totally safe.
Why is it always the moralists who get busted?
Zifnab
Cheers to that.
That’s what you get when you elect hypocrisy, kids. If you thought it was going to end with Spitzer’s hookers, you haven’t been paying attention to politics for the last
71450248 years.HyperIon
i just wish any of these guys could own up to the REAL problem: “i got caught doing something illegal.” they never admit that they would still be doing it if they hadn’t got caught.
evidently old ES did not think he would be caught.
thus, his moronicity is proved.
Jamey
Silda’s not Jewish. Sorry, gang.
And JAP works today as well as it did in 1985. Which is to say not at all.
cbear
Well put. But we’re also in Iraq, and witnessing the destruction of our country, because almost every strong voice against those who would fuck us has been ignored, marginalized, or otherwise driven from the public square.
I’m sickened by both the sheer stupidity of Spitzer’s actions and the public humiliation of his family (as I was with Bill Clinton) but I’m immensely more concerned with the impact that this has on progressive politicians and causes. In my view, this is just one more example of how the media, the goopers, and the DOJ bring down strong Dems.
To be clear, Spitzer may very well be a small-minded, self-serving, moralistic, petty, hypocritical, bullying prick, BUT he is one of the only people in recent memory that has effectively gone after the powerful interests that are raping each and every one of us, every day.
So, while I would much prefer that our few strong advocates be purer than the driven snow, I just don’t see a lot of perfect heros on the horizon, and I’ll take my redress where I can get it.
Tsulagi
Yeah, $5K an hour circles.
For dragging his wife up to the podium, here’s hoping his nickname among the ladies was two-minute one-cup wonder. To be done in two but still have to pay for 60 would really hurt.
Cyrus
It was news to me too. Unlike DougJ, I knew little or nothing about Spitzer before all this came up. But, assuming that what jcricket linked to is accurate and not misleading, then he did, yes.
But I’m sure that when he treated the real criminals like that, it was because he genuinely cared about the plight of their victims. Right.
Ninerdave
Ooohh…with the Bush insult!
Well I’ll tell ya, I do know that spending money on a hooker is well, illegal. I think I read that in “Mommy, Why Does Daddy Smell Like Cheap Perfume?”. I also know that as a former AG and current Governor he knows that, especially since he cracked down on prostitution. I believe I got that from the “My First Hypocrite” picture book.
Paul L.
Keep the narrative of the “swiftboating” of Eliot Spitzer (Mr. Clean) alive nutroots
And keep pushing the private life BS.
Whited sepulchre watch
cbear
Heavens to Betsy, Dave–you mean he was ACTUALLY consorting with prostitutes??? Why that’s positively scandalous!!!
Maybe I didn’t read the news reports carefully enough because I had no idea we were talking about HOOKERS.
Well now, by all means we do need to drive this horrible cretin from office, banish him from decent society, and probably cut off his balls as well.
I only pray we can get a nice, clean, God-fearing Republican to replace him.
I’m ever so grateful, ninerdave, that you’ve explained the full import of this dreadful situation to me–you fucking Nimrod.
Brachiator
The one thing (beautiful wife) is not connected to the other thing (desire for a hooker). Even the tag line “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is a nod to the idea that satisfying our desires (and not getting caught) doesn’t have a lot to do with common sense.
True. But rancid fables of class and ethnicity are never far behind. A Slate Magazine piece on the Spitzer’s can’t help but mention the social distinctions between Silda and her husband (The Silda Spitzer Lesson):
The rest of the article is a cautionary tale for powerful women not to quit their day job, with an added twist about how Mrs Switzer’s social standing may fall.
All men and women have needs. Fewer have the means to satisfy them. Fewer still have the means to satisfy them no matter what the cost to others.
THAT’S why we’re fucking in Iraq.
cmorenc
Um…we DID already try that with Bill Clinton. Although I have to admit, but for the mess his lying about being a sex pig with Ms. Lewinsky, it worked out splendidly better than the irresponsible, arrogant thug we have in the White House now.
Dave_Violence
The whole point is that he broke the law. And thus gave his enemies the ammo they needed to get rid of him. And that’s why he resigned; there’s no way he’d win. This is about the laws that are on the books and nothing more. Had he simply cheated on his wife, well, tough for her, but no law was broken. In the present case, several laws were broken. Spitzer knows this (now…) and he hasn’t got a leg to stand on and would lose in impeachment. This is Elloit Spitzer and he’d never back down unless he knew the jig was up; he’s no Bill Clinton (who did the same thing by lying to a grand jury – ooops, that’s against the law…)
Spitzer made himself an easy target. That says the world about his judgment (which, we have thus learned, is bad).
Ever wonder why the cop sits at the bottom of a hill with the radar gun? Doesn’t he have better things to do, like go out and catch the REAL criminals?
Well, no. It’s not about catching criminals, it’s about law enforcement. And that means nail those people who break the speed limit.
The law is the law until it is changed.
Tough.
Dave_Violence
Also, I think Spitzer’s wife is ugly. She’s too skinny and looks drawn out. Me, I prefer plumpers, hot ones…
Zifnab
Paul L, would you consider Spitzer a better or worse DA than Nifong? We need a guy with an expert opinion on the matter.
Paul L.
Another opinion of Spitzer’s wife
Mine, yours and hours
Funny how that standard does not apply to the cheating of Larry Craig/David Vitter/Newt Gingrich/Bob Livingston with the left.
wobbly
He DRAGGED his wife in front of the cameras?
Show me some proof!
Seriously, Ms. Spitzer could have refused to stand there, and chose not to…
Whatever her reasons were, I respect them.
Marriage is a complicated business, as is love and sexuality…and let’s not even talk about parenthood!!!!
I agree with Spitzer’s decision to resign, just as I agreed with Bill Clinton’s to stick it out.
And I respect Senator Clinton’s decision to stay with her husband despite the Monicas and Gennifers…
You young never-married whippersnappers just don’t get this…
With any luck, you will marry and have a kid, and then…when the spouse turns out to have a few failings…
I hope your first impulse is not get the lawyer on the phone!
Get OUT of high school, people!
Put the CHEETOS down!
Laertes
“Funny how that standard does not apply to the cheating of Larry Craig/David Vitter/Newt Gingrich/Bob Livingston with the left.”
If you WANT to pay attention only to the voices on the left that are no smarter than yourself, you can find any kind of filth you want.
If, however, you take an honest survey of the opposition (fat chance) you’ll find that an awful lot of people on the left felt that the police had no business harassing Sen. Craig in the first place.
Seriously, it shouldn’t be all that big a surprise to you when lefties are against cops hassling gay men. That’s YOUR side that’s always hating on teh gays.
scav
Hey, but torture is kewl — ‘n’ so’s invading places –
we’re Americans. So Impeachment is off the table!
Jesus I don’t get this country.
You seriously bore me.
Thom
Misoginyst.
I kid.
But really – why are you insisting that he “dragged her out there” like so many others have? Maybe that 50ish-year-old person made her own choice about where’d she be.
MNPundit
Where in that quote did I ever say what he did was wrong or not legal. Spitzer’s work as AG is a shining example of what we need in this country (and frankly this planet): someone to stand up to people who have destroyed this world and the people on it in the name of increasing their personal wealth.
Jake
No! She is a poor fragile flower of a victim with no mind of her own who should dump him RIGHT NOW (unless she’s a hoity-toity bitch queen or maybe a gold digger).
Step aside, we must pour all of the feelings of chivalry we repress when we joke about revenge boning Michelle Malkin into this one woman (unless she’s a hoity-toity bitch queen who should have kept her job she needs to DUMP HIM NOW).
Why hasn’t she dumped him yet?
Ceerist.
Hypatia
Yes, but. I don’t like prying into people’s private lives, but I also don’t think the spectacle of rich and/or powerful men exploiting their power position over women – whether those women be wives, prostitutes, or lovers — is something to be dismissed or winked at. (Whether the women collude in it is relevant, but not the end of the matter.) When Mitterrand died, there was a lot of discussion about how his mistress and natural daughter were allowed to attend the funeral, and how enlightened this was. I agree that it was enlightened, but I also wonder how all the Mitterrand ladies, official and unofficial, felt about having to put up with half a loaf over the decades while the gentleman lived with apparent satisfaction in his captain’s paradise.
The French will probably change their minds about our foolishness if the Germans ever decide to get badass again. They’ll find nice things to say about us silly American puritans then.
The Other Steve
That’s nice, but what does this have to do with the money transfers and prostitutes?
The Other Steve
Ah ha! Paul L. finally found the connection to North Carolina!
Damned at Random
Behaving like a Republican- yuck.
Too bad the guy wanted a geisha – you should be able to expect some discretion at the prices he’s paying. In addition to intelligent conversation, music, hot baths, warm sake, etc.
Americamn whores are so declasse.
Jared
“Looking at his beautiful and broken wife makes me want to punch him in the face.”
There’d be a long line for that, John.
liberal
John Cole wrote, It as mainly the way he went about things- he was, I think, responsible for helping to clean up some shady Wall Street practices, but he did it through methods I find reprehensible. Bullying, threatening, prying into personal lives.
Ken Starr did the same thing. I forgot her name, but one of the women who presented two different stories about something related to Clinton had her personal life completely f*cked up…something about an adoption getting goofed up (too lazy to google right now).
And we know that Ken Starr (or his henchmen) leaked grand jury proceedings like a sieve. And that’s against the law, right?
And for all of this, Ken Starr suffered, was disbarred, etc. LOL!
liberal
John Cole wrote,
Yeah, God forbid rapacious Wall Street bastards who’ve totally f*cked up the economy and who are currently getting cheap dough from the Feb (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars) should ever be bullied.
The Duke lacross players have my utmost sympathy. Wall Street parasites, not so much. (Nor Spitzer, either, of course—no clean sorting of good and evil here.)
tBone
You sound like a Bizarro RedState commenter. Excusing criminal behavior doesn’t help the progressive causes you’re so concerned about.
Brachiator
Their marriage. Their business. I don’t know why there is still a puritanical streak in this country that wants to insist that public infidelity is automatic grounds for divorce. Hell, couples have stuck together when one has committed murder.
What people agreed was enlightened was the absence of malice. This is not to say that people were not pained by the situation. A further irony is that Mitterand’s daughter by his mistress turned out better than his natural sons. She was given charge of his papers.
But the family on the side thing is not just a European thing. Consider Gordon Getty, one of the heirs to the Getty oil fortune (with a nod to Wikipedia):
And then there’s British tycoon Jimmy Goldsmith, who once said: “When you marry your mistress, you create a job vacancy.”
Brachiator
Now interested parties can determine whether Spitzer got his money’s worth (Woman at the Center of Governor’s Downfall )
DougJ
Interesting that while Slida isn’t Jewish, Kristen apparently is. Frankly, as non-Jewish person with a lot of Jewish friends, I’ve never really understood the whole Jewish vs. shiksa thing. But you can bet Slate and others will have a field day with this.
cbear
Aw fer chrissakes tbone, I’m not condoning criminal behavior. I’m condoning behavior between consenting adults that has been criminalized, and to no good end.
As you’re one of the people here whose views and comments I almost always agree with, I won’t return the Redstate insult, but dude, do you really want to assume the “It’s the Rule of Law we’re concerned with” mantra that was so in evidence by the goopers during the Clinton impeachment?
Think about it.
jake
Um … I had the snark up to 11 there. If she wants to stay with him 4evar, that’s great. If she wants to dump him, that is equally great.
Of course if she does stay with him she can expect to be Hilloried. A number of the people sniffling over her sad fate today will start to mutter and hiss: “What’s wrong with her? Why doesn’t she dump him? She seems so intelligent. Why doesn’t she dump him? She’s setting a bad example for her daughters. She needs to dump him! Maybe she’s a lesbian, but she still needs to dump him. OMG, she must just love him for his money/be too brain-washed to dump him/be a raging dyke, that poor stupid/evil money grubbing/lesbian bitch …” Ad nauseum.
Tlaloc
People should take a deep breath, chill the fuck out and listen to cbear. He’s being far more rational.
Lets stop accepting the puritannical bullshit and FOR FUCKS SAKE, LET’S STOP DEFENDING THE WALL STREET PARASITES.
They already control one and a half parties, let’s not just hand them our testicle as well.
Ninerdave
and therefore you are condoning criminal behavior, just because you don’t like the law (and I think it’s stupid, I also think all drugs should be legalized) doesn’t give you an excuse to break it. How hard is that to understand?
Ninerdave
Nobody is saying that you clown. People are saying: Spitzer broke the law and should be punished.
cbear
“People” say a lot of stupid fucking things you moron.
Are you really too goddamn dense to understand that, in losing one of our strongest advocates for our progressive causes (however flawed), WE are the ones being punished?
demimondian
Actually, cbear, I would think it’s unlikely that anyone who posts here is “too goddamn dense” to understand that. I think, instead, that they understand that the core of progressive causes is equality — including equality before the law.
I don’t care about his flaws as a person. He was clearly trying to play bank games to avoid money laundering alerts being triggered, so he knew his behavior was suspicious. I understand the limitations under which my job puts me, and I obey them. I expect the same of my elected officials.
cbear
Yeah? How’s that working out for you?
I guess I must have missed the hounding from office and/or resignations of a shitload of criminal goopers–especially the ones who left with their own team cheering their departure.
Sorry, I have a little thing in my head that causes me to judge the relative equivalency of certain matters and not apply the same judgement in all cases. I’m funny that way.
JR
“…do you really want to assume the “It’s the Rule of Law we’re concerned with” mantra that was so in evidence by the goopers during the Clinton impeachment?
Well said, cbear.
Most Americans react promptly to the technicolor show the media puts on when they want the fair citizenry to become engaged and incensed about “wrong-doing.” And then this same citizenry is made sleepy and bored when the picture fades to grainy black and white monotony over “Downing Street Memos” and Scooter Liiiiby and enhanced inter-e-gaat—zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Please, Americans, wake up.
tBone
That’s my problem with your view here – I think you’re drawing a false equivalency between this case and the Clinton impeachment. Clinton was run down by a partisan lynch mob for actions that were not illegal. That he may have perjured himself once he was cornered was something I was willing to forgive, considering the circumstances.
Spitzer broke the law before any partisan funny business took place. For the record, I think it’s a stupid, useless law, but it’s the law nonetheless. He, of all people, should have known better. I’m not going to make excuses for him and I’m not going to shed any tears over his downfall. If we’re going to condemn Republicans for corruption, we’d damn well better make sure our own house is in order.
Apologies for the RedState comment, btw. I was in a shitty mood after suffering through one of those Ferraro threads.
cbear
No problem, thanks for the apology.
I guess I just see a world in which IOKIYAR is the guiding principle by which our government and society functions and yet we, being good little progressives, give in to our better angels—and lose a lot of battles.
The other guys have no such compunctions (see: Vitter being applauded on his return to the Senate) and I, for one, am willing to overlook certain character flaws (and crimes) in the politicians that support my causes.
Yes, I am cynical, but I would rather see an asshole like Spitzer retain his power to further those causes than the alternative.
Ninerdave
You’re fuckin’ kidding. You have to be a spoof. I mean no one outside of the freakish wingnut circles could spew that without laughing. Nice one though, you had me for a bit.
cbear
The same guy who’s screaming “Rule of Law, RULE OF LAW” accuses me of adopting gooper talking points???
Nice projection there scrote.
Pelikan
Zipping to the end here, but A:) At least he did the right thing in the end, and quit, and B:) Who the hell defends his wife, who’ve you’ve never met? Look, it sucks to get cheated on, and I’m not blaming the victim, Fer Chrissakes, his career is OVER, and deservedly so, but defending his “beautiful wife,”? Have you folks ever been a relationship? Being beautiful does not make you any less likely to be a horrendous bitch, the kind that would attract a horrendously foolishly power-hungry man, who’d marry you and then crave more. In fact, being beautiful just makes you more likely to be that person, willingly that person.
It’s time you all wised up and realized that, in many ways, you’re better off than those who crave political power.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never felt the need to snort Heronin off the back of a 12 year old, or whatever then the next Repub senaator or governer is going to get busted for.
Pelikan
Aggh, “Heroin,” You can’t get high off of long-necked waterfowl, no matter how hard you try. Trust me.
cbear
Try stuffing them with opium before you cook em.
Randolph Fritz
Possibly the best discussion of this over at the rude pundit.
Johnny Pez
Cheney turned to Mukasey with a grin. “Now let’s go after the blind nigger!”