Well, I was going to write about the NSA snooping on us, but I guess it is our party’s turn to make us look like hypocritical a-holes.
ALBANY – Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.
Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He is set to make an announcement about 2:15 this afternoon at his Manhattan office.
Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.
Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.
He had a difficult first year in office, rocked by a mix of scandal and legislative setbacks. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Spitzer seemed to have rebounded, with his Democratic party poised to perhaps gain control of the state Senate for the first time in four decades.
Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.
In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.
“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. “It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”
I’ll wait to hear the details before I pass judgment.
It’s not the sex, it’s the hypocrisy, as usual.
neither party has a monopoly of the abuse of power and privilege: laws are for for thee, not for me.
one can only hope at this juncture that the escort was a woman of legal age.
pathetic. the stupid…it hurts.
Well, there goes the media coverage of Obama’s blowout tomorrow.
im trying to pass a kidney stone, or i’d weigh in here.
his problem is that he prosecuted people for doing the same thing.
I am not familiar with the previous AG cases. Did he really prosecute the customers, or just those operating the ring?
just the ring, I think.
That it was the New York Times that broke the Whitewater story? And what was the truth in that?
Let’s wait and see the evidence. Notice that the article provides no conclusive links but its own assertions.
Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake says that the information seems to be being leaked from an FBI agent or a US Attorney’s office.
Before we jump to hasty conclusions, we should remember a certain Governor of Alabama and how he got to his current prison cell.
someone BloombergTV financial news speculate wall street boys have lots of PIs and could be behind this to bring him down.
As Mr. AP said:
I knew they were gunning for him hard up in NY. Didn’t realize he’d load the gun for them…
What else can you say? He is just stupid, STUPID for doing this.
Breaking
WABC News – he’s expected to resign
*Fox News says he’s been indicted in a New York court.
if Spitzer resigns, Patterson Lt Gov, an Af-Am he’s legally blind would become Gov.
Updated wiki:
maybe HRC may set her sights on the gov’s office – you know Patterson is not experienced he’s just been close to the gov.
So when Spitzer steps down, Hillary loses a superdelegate.
Perhaps, but what a way to do it.
He’s still a Democrat and former party official. I think he gets to retain his superdelegateness.
Isn’t he a superdelegate solely by virtue of holding office?
This says that if he resigns, he loses his superdelegate status.
Well, he should do like Senator Vitter — continue in office!
I agree, just another youthful indiscretion like the Republicans like to say. At least Spitzer wasn’t leering through the cracks of doors in bathroom stalls.
So if this is a federal bust of a prostitution ring and he was a client, does anyone else suspect a little political motivation in our US DOJ to expose this particular john?
They bagged themselves a high profile Democrat. How nice for them.
No doubt the hypocrisy runs thick on all sides of this ugly little affair.
That said, as explosive as sex scandals are to our national sense of puritanism, I wish to hell the Party would get its act together about this sort of thing and weed out people with sensational skeletons in their closets. I would guess that this does not come as a surprise to people close to Spitzer, and that someone could have used it to leverage Spitzer out of the public eye long before he became governor.
The Party needs to make it clear that it will neither support nor defend party members with major liabilities like sexual impropriety or current drug use no matter how popular they are. We might get away with it nine times out of ten, but that tenth occasion gives us a disaster like Bill Clinton or Elliot Spitzer that far outweighs the benefit of the other nine.
I say the Party because it is up to us to police ourselves or the Republicans will do it for us at the polls. We must hold our elected representatives to a higher standard than theirs or we risk — especially as we return to power — becoming bogged down in the same endless corruption that has toppled the GOP.
I disagree. This is not corruption. It’s a guy who got horny and went to a prostitute. Yeah, he cheated on his wife in doing so and people can judge him as a bad person for doing that. They can even choose not to vote for him in the future. But as far as we know, he didn’t abuse the power of his office in any way, so it’s really a “personal matter” for him to work out with his family, friends and constituents.
It’s a personal matter until it hits the front page. At that point, you have an elected official who willfully engaged in pointless risk-taking behavior and as a result has disrupted the functioning of the government for which he is responsible and handed a cartload of ammunition to the opposition. In short, he did a Bill Clinton and damaged his party and the cause of the people it represents, namely us.
I’m not saying that Spitzer should be hauled off and tried for anything. I am saying that this is probably not an isolated incident, and it’s the party’s failure not to have quietly terminated his political career before he became Governor.
Moreover, while I am personally of the opinion that prostitution ought to be decriminalized, it is still against the law at the moment, and lawbreaking by elected officials, particularly in the executive branch, whose primary responsibility is executing the laws, ought to receive zero tolerance. That he is guilty of something he once prosecuted with gusto puts him down there with folks like Larry Craig.
Spitzer as played by BloombergTV apologized to the people of NY and he disappointed his family – took no questions, he did not deny the story.
– needs to meet with his family regain their trust.
apparently via Bloomberg News Spitzer was caught in a fed wire tap arranging to meet with a VIP prostitute in Washington last month.
Jeez, in all of his prosecutions he never heard of a disposable tracphone?
I have really liked Spitzer, I have to assume it was the arrogance of power…..
I have to assume he was horny.
horny – and wrong-headed thinking.
little head has a pattern of tripping.
but Vitter is still standing (sorry the pun) and Bill survived impeachment.
Spitzer should not resign.
..but for Dems there’s this double standard.
I can’t imagine why the sex trade remains be illegal.
Thank you. Aren’t we mature enough as a nation to consider making the “oldest profession” legal and taxed? All of these morality-crimes really should be revisited.
Who am I kidding? This is a country that imprisons people for possession of marijuana. And in some states it’s even a crime to own a dildo. Uh boy…
Oh, this “He was prolly horny” shit. He is married. He should have exercised some damned self control. Beat it in the shower or something, damn.
How does he get to be fucking arrogant to think that the Wall St. set would not go after him??? People may not know nor care about policy complexities that extend past two sentences, but people do care about sex. THAT is something people understand.
All his work, his achievements, his take-no-prisoners attitude…flushed down the drain for a not-so-cheap lay?
Damned idiot.
…or of using a trusted third-party who’s not involved in politics to set up his “meetings” with prostitutes.
Who do you trust that much?
Anyway, whether he used a disposable phone or had a cut-out make the appointment is irrelevant. The agency had to be informed who the client was before they’d send one of their $2,500/hour hookers to DC from NYC. Sure, his voice on the tape seals it, but so would the hooker saying his name and room number while talking to the agency, when combined with travel records.
That’s an excellent point. People tend to forget that the high end escort services are run like ordinary businesses — just more discreetly. They’re a world away from the anonymous, cash-only world of street prostitution. Regular businessmen have little to worry about as such, but politicians? It’s very risky behavior.
Yeah. Any high-profile pol who wants some side action should get a mistress. There are lots of star-fuckers out there who’d oblige the governor, even if he had some kind of weird kink. If it came out it would be embarrassing, but not illegal.
well, could this be part of the NSA’s business of spying on us all…..just asking….
It was a federal investigation of a mob-tied prostitution ring. Our wonderful Patriot Act made it easy to legally monitor people’s communications if they’re involved in terrorism* like this.
*The law talked of terrorism, but conveniently appended phrases like “or other federal crimes” so this counts as a serious threat to our nation.
O just thought that this was just one of those silly things that republicans get involved with since they are all men…[[snark]]
I heard that on msnbc that a man was saying that old thing that he could not think with his brain but like all men thought with another appendage of his body….also a [[snark]]
anyhow, just to say he should step down. It is his destiny to to this. He might even give some thought as to why vitter and the likes of this to stop down from their public seat due tot he very same embarrassment that this does…oh yea, he is a republican and he is to be overlooked, right?? this is just toooooo funny to even come to a cute remark.
O am very sure that vitter has a lot more to loose than spitzer cause he really is in the place to have terrorism to sit on his bed with him….meant to really be a snark verbiage…
Actually this is all hypocricy no matter who does it, no matter their political background. what a shame of good breeding….meant as a snark too.
seriously if this is a fed crime and he got busted for terrorism snag, then more men and some women in our society should all be in fed prison….”wink wink”
And if those damn eager-to-go-on vacation House Dems hadn’t let the PAA expire we would have gotten so many more hookers…
FBI – protecting us from horndog islamofascist surrendermonkey dems!!!!! I’ll bet al-Qaida is crestfallen over this….
I was kind of hoping it wasn’t true. He doesn’t strike me as the sort who’d do this, so I was stunned to see this story. Just sort of assumed the media got ahead of itself and is prosecuting the guy on the TV…you know, like they always do.
Is it safe to assume that with the passel of adulterers backing the Clinton’s, Spitzer will also be able to keep his superdelegate status? Do you think the DNC will give him a standing ovation at the convention like the Senate GOPs did with Vitter?
How much did he charge?
So will The Clintons “Denounce and Reject” awful Eliot Spitzer for his morally reprehensible behavior? Pot, meet kettle.
OK, according to CNN he has apologized to his family but has not resigned.
What is interesting is the press framing:
It is not “Spitzer bought the services of a prostitute.” but “Spitzer tied to involvement in a prostitution ring.”
The second makes it sound like he was operating the “ring”.
There goes the Spitzer presidency in 2012 and possibly a cabinet position in 2009, but if he can make the governor’s office work this will pass over.
People are so quick to write his political obituary. He can get past this “personal issue” if he handles things right politically. Compare to Rudy Giulliani, for example. Or Bill Clinton. Or David Vitter.
Conspiracy to violate the Mann Act is a federal crime. He’s got bigger problems than whether he can just hang onto his job.
If they were to prosecute for anything more than misdemeanor prostitution charge, this could really backfire on the prosecutor. Any thinking judge would have to question why the Republican prosecutor is being so selective and only going after one Democratic Governor.
He’s been under sealed indictment since February 9. A judge has already signed off on it. Anyway, the underlying state prostitution charge is not the issue: The Mann Act prohibits transporting a prostitute across state lines.
I know what the Mann Act is all about. But they’d be fools to prosecute that. Fools.
Okay, I’m wrong: He’s not under indictment. He’s just mentioned in the indictment of the agency people.
Right. It’s not an indictment. It’s a politically-motivated LEAK from a politically-motivated prosecutor. That, in itself, could be a bigger crime than seeing a prostitute.
The complaint was unsealed on Thursday. I don’t see the crime.
The identity of “Client number 9” was not an “unsealed” detail.
The NYT piece said the source was someone “briefed” on the case, which I assume means someone not in the US Attorney’s office.
The WSJ says the source was a lawyer. Could be in the US Attorney’s office, could be in NY AG Andy Cuomo’s office, or could be one of the defendants’ lawyers.
Please, will you explain this to me. Thanks ahead of time.
If he did do the Mann Act thingee why is not vitter or anyone else involved in this sort of thing is not looked at in the same rearview mirror….again thanks.
Mann Act prohibits bringing a woman across state lines. Vitter traveled to see his hooker.
I was stuck in court all afternoon. Oh. My. God
Please write about it instead. Spitzer’s wrongdoing affects no one specifically except him and his family — as well as the hopes of those who liked him as the AG.
The NSA’s dangerous activities affect every single one of us. Yes that means you reading this comment through your Internet provider’s pipes who shares that info with the NSA 24/7.
Does having a prostitute crossing a state line give the feds the hook, the old “white slavery” charge? Otherwise, why would they care about a prostitution ring?
Look, exposing and otherwise discrediting politicians is a long-practiced game with the oligarchy. Gary Hart was a fool, but I strongly suspect he was set up by right-wing dirty tricks folks. More and more of this kind of politics of destruction came into play when people began getting suspicious of all the lone nuts shooting progressive politicians during the sixties. Easier to assassinate someone’s character.
It doesn’t help that a lot of guys leave themselves open to get snared in these things.
Of course, what the FBI investigates or doesn’t is political too. Nobody at the Bureau was trying to figure out Jeff Gannon’s schedule at the White House, for ex.
The crimes alleged are against 4 agency people, not Spitzer. The charges are 18 USC 371 (conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States), 18 USC 1952 (interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises), 18 USC 2421 (transporting a prostitute in interstate or foreign commerce), 18 USC 2422 (coercing or enticing someone to violate 18 USC 2421) and 18 USC 1956 (money laundering). A rumor reported on MSNBC said that this is part of a larger investigation into the Gambino crime family.