Eliot Spitzer
 

I don't think prostitution should be illegal, and I did vote for Eliot Spitzer for governor back in 11/06. Nevertheless, I thought this was the funniest headline I have seen in weeks. And I wouldn't have expected that from The Economist.

Well, we all know economists love to get their freak on. :p

This is probably the best time for a lesser politician to become embroiled in a sex scandal - election year. He should consider himself lucky.

And yeah, I don't care if he sees prostitutes, what's more I think it's none of my business. His wife may feel differently. :)

"economists love to get their freak on"????

Next thing you know they'll be having parties with the actuaries and accountants.............

maybe it's just the British ones...

Witty headlines are The Economist's trademark. I love this story. Yet another arbiter of morality proven to be a Grade A hypocrite. When are people gonna wake up and stop expecting anything else?

Yeah let me rephrase that: Poor Judgement.
I agree, he should resign. He's got a bunch of daughters too, sadly.
You (poster #7) want to turn this into an indictment of Bush - some how, some way - color me unsurprised.

Nice contribution, I learned ....what? From it? I started a new thread related to this, because....what is there to discuss about Spitzer's situation. He's a hypocrite, he should resign.

That however, IMO, is not what should be examined and discussed. What are the investigative priorities of the FBI, during a never ending domestic, "Code orange alert" period?

Why should he resign? Apparently he's not going to, but Clinton didn't resign. Granted, he didn't pay for it, but I don't see this as being a particularly heinous crime.

As AG, Spitzer showed light on some pretty unsavory business practices. Unfortunately, one of those involved a friend of mine who's not out of the woods yet, but he'll be the first to tell you that he did what he did.

He should finish his term. This doesn't change any of his accomplishments, although it probably kills his White House aspirations, at least for now.

Okay, The_Jazz....bingo!!!! Now, it fucking stinks.....

Spitzer comes from a very wealthy family...why would the feds be monitoring his financial transactions looking for "bribes", unless it is because of "pay back"...officially sactioned politically motivated revenge..... or other political expediency?

Can you say partisan witch hunt, using the DOJ to intimidate and crush political opponents? Sheesh,....hasn't everyone learned yet....not to expect anything less from the Bush junta? These are thugs...what will it take to suspect and be skeptical of everything connected to them?

Can you even consider that this is setting an example for all other democrats who now are on notice that the police state is watching everything they do, too? Can you comprehend that the gutting of FISA was for the purposes of consolidating the politcal power of these thugs? No judge to oversee their snooping gives them the untraceable means to turn their intelligence collection against anyone for any reason.....

So you are saying its not the FBI's job to investigate public officials committing crimes and if they are a Democrat then its just a witch hunt even when it turns out its true?

Spank my ass and call me Ishmael but I think you are doing the white whale thing again.

I've shown on the other thread, that FBI referrals for prosecution are down 40 percent, Secret Service down 58 percent. Spitzer is a wealthy man of impeccable reputation, embroiled in bitter partisan politics in his own state, and he brought down Richard Grasso of the NYSE and Hank Greenberg of AIG, but Ustwo sees nothing out of the ordianry about the feds monitoring his financial transactions....

WTF?

Update...Spitzer paid cash.... if he wasn't Spitzer democratic governor, do you think he would be noticed or publicly named?

You are reacting the same way you did to the deliberate outing of Valerie Plame's ID and employment? You don't even see it.

Of course how could I miss the obvious connection. Its obviously a politically biased investigation, much like the one that destroyed the Republican party in Illinois. Oh wait....



There is your key word, otherwise you just end up on the police blotter, but the same goes for any crime with a public offical.

Frankly, I couldn't care less about what a politician does in the sack, whether they paid for it or not. Like my Grandfather always said, "A stiff prick has no conscience."

Problem here is that he is a high profile character in violation of a federal law (granted the Mann Act is archaic, but it's still on the books). The Justice Department has to go after the guy with all they've got or risk losing credibility by not prosecuting the big fish. The irony of him being a former attorney general, assistant district attorney, and huge anti-crime governor only adds to the necessity of prosecuting.

Ustwo, how many times would I have to hold you down and rape you anally before you started trembling just from seeing my car turning into your driveway? You're a smart man, how come you feign no understanding of what I am talking about?

Ustwo, this statement turned out to be misleading enough to charecterize as a lie...why would they lie like that?
How many opposition politicians does the Bush DOJ have to single out for "special treatment" before questioning everything they tell us becomes acceptable to you, Ustwo......one governor....two.....three?

This may well be the greatest line that has ever graced TFP, fuckin hilarious.

Haha...you're off your frickin' rocker, man.

They haven't charged Spitzer, and they were investigating him BEFORE they found out about the prostitution ring.

How many times do you think the IRS gets forms from banks documenting cash transactions over $10k or groups of closely sequenced cash transactions adding up to over $10, and refer them to the FBI for investigation and the FBI quickly dismisses the inquiry, if it is true that FBI referals for prosecution on all crimes are down 39 percent since 1987?

Why is it reasonable that the FBI would pursue a full blown investigation of a wealthy man like Spitzer, over such relatively small, considering his wealth, amount cash transactions? He apparently was removing cash from an account, not putting it in.....hardly evidence to trigger a legitimate bribe taking investigation....he also was in a bitter political feud with republican legislative opponent, Joseph Bruno.

It is not the first recent democratic government that this partisanized DOJ had set it's sites on.....

Your right Host they nailed McGreevy too, oh wait that was Israeli soldier.

Anyway here is a man who prosecuted hookers, but can dabble in them himself, as Ralph Kramden said he is the hippiest crit of them all.

Shame though becuase if this was a republican, Host you would be having a field day posting 4 pages of links.

actually, if it was a Republican it wouldn't be a female escort, it would likely be a gay boy in a public restroom.

While generally I'm against what I see as the overuse of medications for mental instability, I do think there are exceptions.

Get help, you have a problem.

I'm not the one who has consistently supported what is documented here:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpos...9&postcount=15

Or the destruction of a sovereign foreign nation, hundreds of thousands of it's inhabitants dead, and nearly 4000 of out own soldiers dead, justified by what will be described in this coming report, quashed for four long years:
...and no, Robb-Silberman was a "white wash" that was ordered by the president to avoid examining what he knew, vs. what he said to justify ordering the invasion of Iraq:

Host, if this was a Republican who had committed a crime (and I agree that it was a crime, I just think it was a victimless one), you would have a completely different set of posts.

Mine would be pretty much the same, although I might express some glee for the right official.

At least I'm consistent. You? Not so much, except with the Bush bashing.

Sorry, but I keep getting laughs from this Spitzer situation. It's so hilariously outrageous. I especially loved this one:

I guess I'm unique in thinking that whatever non-felony crimes a person commits while not in the line of duty should have no bearing on their on-the-job ability.

Then again, I think it would've been A-OK for Clinton to get a blowjob if he had done it anywhere but work. I think he would've been a scum and his wife would have a right to divorce him, but I don't think it reflected on him at all as a President.

Maybe I'm just a fan of keeping personal lives personal, unless they're grievously criminal (most felonies).

Jinn, I agree with you, except that Spitzer was quite emphatic about prosecuting prostitution rings when he was State AG, and was pretty moralistic about it in his press conferences. So this has a bit of "what goes around comes around" about it. He was very very "holier than thou," ostentatiously so.

He also was taking steps to hide the money transfers he had to make in order to pay for the women's time. That's how he got caught: banks monitor wire transfers and report suspicious movements to the feds. So it wasn't the prostitution that sunk him, it was the skulking around, which skated close to the money laundering laws. I don't know whether the technical terms of the money laundering statutes were violated, but I believe what he did is called "structuring" - doing money transfers in bits for the purpose of disguising their purpose. Structuring is a crime. We'll see what the feds do.

I find this funny that peple will lament this as some kind of witch hunt.

What some people apparently don't remember is that the very same things they are accusing the federal government of doing was done by Spitzer's office himself when he used the State Police to monitor the activities of state senate majority leader Joseph Bruno.

Stop it with this bullshit act of persecution. If he didn't want to be paraded out before the public in such an embarrasing fashion, he shouldn't have been meeting with hookers on out-of-town business trips.

This is all the more disappointing for me because I voted for him.

Spitzer is a special case; he pissed off many of the business elite. He got Hank Greenberg, who's a billionaire, fired from his own company (AIG). In the process, he did a lot of good and curtailed a lot of nasty business practices, but he stepped on a lot of toes to do it.

I think it's becoming more obvious why this came to light. Thanks for the additional info, loquitur.

If the motivations behind the federal investigation are true, then being a prosecutor himself, he should've known better than to commit acts that are embarrassing to his family and to his office.

If you're prepared to fuck a total stranger while married, I guess you should be prepared for that total stranger to fuck you (and not in the same way).

For what it's worth, here is a post at one of the legal blogs I like to follow (it's a collection of law professors). If you're a wonk like I am, you may find the comments entertaining and interesting, too. My favorite comment:

If you're a different kind of wonk, it just means one less super delegate for Hillary.

This chick better be HOT.

and flexible.

Whats the over/under for her Playboy shoot date?

I'd say June.

Shoot date of June with it being on shelves in September but the teaser pics hitting the internet in August.

And posted by Loquitur on the Titty Board on, say, 8/15/08. Place your bets.

I am surprised that the picture is not out there yet of her.

Isn't it important for the public to be informed? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Give it time. Her profile from the web will hit The Smoking Gun in 4, 3, 2...

I just finished a phone conversation with a friend who lurks here (fucking post already, dude) about this, and I thought I would recount parts of it. Note for those paying attention: most of these aren't my original thoughts.

My earlier analogy to Clinton is appropriate. They basically got caught cheating on their wives in unsavory ways (Spitzer paid a hot prostitute and Clinton got a hummer from a fatty). The difference is in the individuals.

Clinton was and is a walking party. If you've ever been in the same room with him, you get the vibe quickly. I have friends like him that, if they ever went into politics, would use their office to screw anything that moved. It's just the way they are. With Clinton, you know he wants to sleep with your wife. And if she wants to you may do it. You'll end up being cheated on, but he'll come out of the bedroom, slap you on the back and say, "C'mon man. She's hot and she wanted it. She's a great lady." All in that southern accent. Then he'd make you an ambassador. My point is that you saw it coming.

Elliot Spitzer doesn't just have a stick up his ass. He has a redwood. He's the guy that would arrest you for charging $200 in tickets to a Yankees game and didn't talk any business. Unlike Clinton, he'd more likely have you arrested and sent to prison and then make a move on your wife. It's very interesting that NO ONE came to his defense. Not one single prominent Democrat. They don't like him. There's not much to like. He's holier-than-thou, and he's in love with himself.

There have been scenarios mentioned on how this came to light. Maybe it was part of a DoJ smear campaign on all Democrats. If it wasn't Spitzer, I'd be a lot more inclined to believe that. Since it is and he has so many enemies I give credibility to two theories. The first is exactly how the government's laid it out - the banks saw questionable transactions and notified them properly. It's very plausible. The other is that one of the girls (the latest I've seen is that he used this particular service at least 6 times) had another client or friend who she mentioned this to. That client/friend was either someone in power or knew someone in power with an axe to grind. They went to the Feds and told them where to look. And there is a LOOOOONG line of those folks.

Figuring that Spitzer is a workaholic (which is apparently true), he's just thrown away about 100,000 hours of work from his years as governor and AG for a 20 second orgasm.

on a lighter side...

i used to run book for years, and having talked to a couple of good goombas today, word on the street is that the hooker ring was in fact run but the Gambino's and Genovese's... pay back is a bitch... how could he not know that if it's true... talk about stoopid...

Alan Dershobag stated "This is a uniquely American story. If this took place in Europe, it wouldn't even hit the papers," Dershowitz says. Still, "No matter how smart a man is, when he does his thinking with an organ other than his brain, it almost always comes out wrong."

uuuuuh... ya think???

i smell a book deal...