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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
Gee, host, could Spitzer have made some enemies in the corporate world when he was AG? Nah, couldn't be. It could NEVER happen that someone with an axe to grind would get wind of this investigation and start a leak. I mean it's not like Spitzer managed to get a billionaire fired from his own company or anything. Or that he hammered Wall Street with corruption charges.
And FBI officials with law school friends on Wall Street would NEVER let something gossip about something juicy like this.
Host, you LOVE to see conspiracies among the Republicans. Your world seems to be either black or white. I see shades of grey and admit that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. You've never made any such admission.
You've supplied no proof that this was a DoJ "hit job" as you put it. You can "suspect" all you want, but you have zero proof of that. Regardless of how much information you try to bury me under (and I suspect that's coming since it's your trademark), it will be, at best, vague speculation until someone comes forth and admits it. Which we both know will never happen. And that makes my theory equal yours in credibility.
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I'm not going to do anything other than what I always do, and that is to use this amazing internet medium to put in front of you, the info that shapes my opinion. You insist that it be presented in USA Today "Mcnews" length "snippets", but that is not how I think it best to present it. Neither do the folks who put together the NY Times and the Washington Post.
I am sharing some points that I am in agreement with, and you probably are not.
If you think this thread and the points I've posted in it are "off the mark", please consider the following observations and opinion, and then take another look at the "kindergarten" the "Spitzer" thread has deteriorated to.
It's almost as if Mr. Greenwald waded through that thread and then wrote what appears below, isn't it?
I could see what has overtaken the "Spitzer" thread, happening in a "general discussion" forum, but it's discouraging, yet not unexpected to see it happening in this forum. I'm not "the problem" in "the Politics" forum, The_Jazz, and you do me a disservice posting like you did in your post I've quoted. You encourage the wrong "direction" on this forum, sometimes, and you certainly attempt to discourage me for the method and the direction I try to take it and keep it going towards.
I am pleased to set this thread next to the "Spitzer" thread for a side by side comparison. Which thread is intended to influence you to think, and which one sets a course that could lead you to end up trading "fart" jokes?
Who is it, if you had to pick one TFP Politics forum participant, that, time and again, predictably attempts to "raise the bar" on this forum? Is it the posters who have made the "Spitzer" thread, what it has become? Is it you?
Take a quick glance at your last ten posts on this forum that do not include orange colored text, and then glance at my last ten. Do my practices here really warrant what you sent at me? Do you see "a problem" over at the "Spitzer" thread? Might you scrape it up and transfer it over to "general discussion" so it stops stinking up this place?
I think you and I see different potential for this forum. That's fine, but the position I'm trying to set the bar in, no matter how partisan or biased you think my views are (I do support, to the best of my ability, a high percentage of the opinions I post), doesn't anticipate pages #2 and #3 of the "Spitzer" thread.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwa...ion/index.html
........* All decent people agree that what Eliot Spitzer did is repulsive, morally disgusting and totally nauseating -- which is why it's so important to learn about and report on every last titillating detail about what he did, the kind of sex he had, with whom he had it, how many times he had it, and <a href="http://www.pagesix.com/story/spitzer+s+hooker+revealed">what his partners looked like</a>-- <h3>because it's all so completely appalling that it's critical that we stay fully informed.</h3>
* Because Eliot Spitzer is a wretched hypocrite who mercilessly and cruelly prosecuted others for the very acts in which he himself engaged, and because he's so very sleazy, there's <a href="http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/11/eliots-mess/">no reason to question</a> the vast, <a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/12/campos-was-spitzer-targeted/">extraordinary law enforcement resources expended</a> -- <a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/12/campos-was-spitzer-targeted/">under highly unusual circumstances</a> -- by the Bush DOJ and FBI to investigate a crime that the Federal Government almost never prosecutes. Therefore, here's what we should ignore in order to focus on the much more important matters of Spitzer's sex life and his relationship with his wife (which is very much our concern), from today's <a href="http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page94?oid=198602&sn=Detail">The Wall St. Journal</a>:
<h3>It isn't clear why the FBI sought the wiretap warrant. Federal prostitution probes are exceedingly rare, lawyers say, except in cases involving organized-crime leaders or child abuse. Federal wiretaps are seldom used to make these cases; search warrants usually suffice. Wiretap applications generally are reserved for serious crimes, such as drug, weapons and terrorism-related cases. There typically are no more than 1,400 wiretaps in use nationwide at any given time.</h3>
* Governors who hire adult prostitutes must resign immediately lest the public trust be forever sullied. Presidents who break the law by spying on Americans with no warrants, who torture people in violation of multiple treaties and statutes, who start hideously destructive wars based on false pretenses, who repeatedly proclaim the power to ignore laws, and who imprison people -- including Americans -- with no charges of any kind, should remain in office for as long as they want. Anyone who suggests otherwise is an irresponsible, shrill, partisan radical.
UPDATE: Caveats that should be unnecessary but won't be:
Yes, prostitution is against the law in New York. No, Eliot Spitzer is not entitled to break the law. Yes, Eliot Spitzer should be treated the same as any average citizen who hires prostitutes (neither better nor worse). No, I have no sympathy for Spitzer personally given how aggressively he prosecuted multiple prostitution cases and how guilty he is of rank hypocrisy and overzealous prosecutions....
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