I'm disappointed in the resignation of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
In conjunction with a currently serialized story, another reader posted the following comment:
THE smoking gun website has 6 pages of the federal release of how the day went, so parts could be really accurate and the rest artiste's license.As a sanctimonious prig going after the prostitutes he does not himself patronize, I have no mercy at all for the new york governor.
Rather than respond inline with it, I figured I'd better move it here instead.
I'm really sorry to see Eliot Spitzer resign. I liked the guy. I think he gave up too easily and should have fought it.
I mean, compare this scandal to any of the recent Republican scandals. It's certainly no worse. Idaho Senator Larry Craig decided not to resign, and he already pleaded guilty to the charge. Not only that, in denying the charge in public after signing the plea agreement, he's arguably in contempt of court, since he swore not to do that.
Craig is from an extremely conservative state and was caught in the act doing something anathema to his constituents, which has made him a laughing stock nationwide. Spitzer is from an arguably liberal state and was caught, ummm... what? Moving his own money to a classy escort/callgirl service for a private session, indoors, with a member of the opposite sex, somewhere nice. He wasn't actually caught in the act by a vice cop.
Compared to Craig's gay sex solicitation in an airport bathroom, why is this even considered half as bad?
Both men are married, so that cancels out as a factor. Even if you count both men as hypocrites, that cancels out. I don't count the hypocrisy as equal, however. Spitzer prosecuted two prostitution rings while he was a public prosecutor. If he wanted to be a crusader about it, there would have been dozens more. (You ever look at the sex-worker ads in the back of the Village Voice?) These were just jobs he had to do as part of his position, and couldn't very well avoid. Craig, on the other hand, did everything he could to badmouth gay and trans people, to restrict their rights and even to try to take away basic human rights already granted.
Spitzer is a rich dude. He was spending his own money on this vice of his. Compare that to some of the recent Republican scandals, where lobbyist money was used. Compare it to Rudy Giuliani's use of City property for his assignations with girlfriends, and the number of divorces, and the lobbyist favors he accepted.
Mrs. Spitzer has got to be humiliated by this whole thing, but reports have her as having urged her husband NOT to resign. I think that if he'd have followed her advice, he'd have gotten through this.
I'm disappointed. Not in Spitzer's pecadillos. Not in his expensive tastes or how free he is in spending his money. No. I'm disappointed in his resignation.
More than that, though, I'm scared. I still don't understand the whole logic for why the feds decided to wiretap him and trace his financial transactions. The supposed "trigger" for this that I've read in the paper just doesn't make sense. They supposedly picked him up on a routine money-laundering protocol, during a bank transfer to a corporate account. Wall Street and their friends in Washington desperately, desperately wanted to catch him doing something corrupt, after the grief and embarrassment he caused them when he was NY Attorney General.
Firstly, normally a wire transfer won't even trigger that protocol. It's designed to catch movements of large wads of currency.
Secondly, it's clear this was a fishing expedition. They were hoping to catch him taking money for political favors. Obviously, not only did they have no valid cause, but that was a false hope. As it turned out, all he was doing was paying his own money for favors of a different kind.
Yes, paying for sex is illegal, but not normally something the Attorney General of the United States gets personally involved in. This was a witchhunt, People, and the real scandal isn't what Eliot was doing in the Mayflower Hotel with a woman not his wife, it was the array of power used by the Administration to catch him.
And what was up with those first day headlines? "Governor Involved In Prostitution Ring!" Dan Savage, the sex advice columnist, my favorite person when it comes to sexual perspectives, astutely asked*, "What does that mean? I want to know how he was involved. As a customer, an admistrator, or a prostitute?"
In all of this, that's the only legitimate laugh line. The rest, I find scary as hell.
*[forgive the paraphrasing -- i don't have the exact quote handy.]
Comments
I'd never heard of the guy ...
... until this cropped up. Why should I? I'm English. I don't suppose many US citizens know who Ken Livingstone is for example. However I'm still not quite sure what the problem is. Is prostitution illegal in the US? Although various behaviours associated with prostitution (running a brothel; soliciting on the street) are illegal in the UK, prostitution itself is not.
If he was spending his own money I see it as a problem with his family but really of no concern to anyone else. If people involved in sexual scandals were barred from office there'd be a lot fewer people in office. I never really understood all the fuss over Clinton's dalliance with Lewinsky - in fact I always thought the most disgusting person in the whole sordid affair was the woman who pretended to be Lewinsky's friend whilst acting as a spy for the Republicans (can't remember her name off hand).
At one time homosexuality was regarded as a security risk. Why? Because anyone indulging laid themselves open to blackmail. Once homosexuality was no longer so looked down on the blackmail threat disappeared along with the the security risk. We're very lucky that Alan Turing, who did much of the work to crack the Enigma code during WW2, wasn't found to be gay until he'd done his work or he'd have been thrown out of Bletchley Park and the enemy would have retained its secret communication network and perhaps won the war. Openness is best.
Things were done differently 100 years ago. At least here. The Prince of Wales (not Charlie) had mistresses galore and IIRC we had a Prime Minister who used to 'save' fallen women.
Geoff
Prostitution In The U.S.
Prostitution is regulated on a state-by-state, and even county-by-county basis in the U.S. There is a federal statute on the books, too, to prevent human trafficking between states for the purpose of prostitution.
At present, I believe the only completely legal houses of prostitution are in certain counties of Nevada. In other localities, various aspects of the paid-sex transaction are illegal to one extent or another. Crimes are defined variously concerning prostitutes, pimps, madams, and "johns".
In general, and this is only a generalization, in most jurisdictions the police will arrest men who approach apparent prostitutes on the street and offer them money for sex acts. They'll also arrest women who approach cars and offer services for money. One or the other, or perhaps both crimes, are called "soliciting". In both cases, the police generally have to use decoys to make their case.
Escort services, which provide "escorts" by the hour, but do not specify any sex services, can generally get away with it until someone does a real lot of work to actually prove that they knowingly provide prostitutes. And, customers of escort services can usually avoid prosecution as it's hard to prove that they had arranged to purchase sex services, and they're not handing over quid pro quo for the act itself. So, little or no prosecutable evidence.
Many urban jurisdictions basically turn a blind eye to prostitution unless it's cluttering up the streets and making the city look tawdry, or unless nearby residents complain about an establishment. Otherwise, the worst effect of it is that of bribery on the police, unless departments are diligent in enforcing ethics rules.
Loophole
There's also a loophole in the law where the act of prostitution is legal in the state of Rhode Island, as long as it's done indoors.
Very true
It's true. There is nothing Rhode Islanders hate more than hookers in trees.
Weird but true.
Sarah Lynn
Prostitution In The U.S.
Prostitution is legal in every county in Nevada except Clark County(Las Vegas), and Washoe County(Reno, Carson City). There is a common misconception that it is legal in Las vegas however having lived there at one time I know for a fact it is illegal. Escorts are legal in Las Vegas but are highly regulated, and you see prostitutes in all the casino's and walking some parts of the streets but they usually get busted.
Melanie
Politics
Do you really want to start a political argument between Democrats and Republicans?
Interesting to see how long this blog lasts.
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
As long as no-one starts name-calling
Almost anything in a blog is okay.
Personally, a governor is a bit different than a senator, as far as the opportunity for harmful hypocrisy. The senator from Idaho made himself look ridiculous, the governor from New York looks pitiable and stupid but he's in an executive position. He must resign, in my view. Senators are held in check by 99 other Senators, the Vice President, the other House and the President before anything they do really affects other peoples lives--other than making noise. Governors are the CEO of a state, other than federal power, almost nothing holds them back without machinations and time consuming legislation or court cases.
As for how he was "caught," he might have a due process case; I thought the same about the senator from Idaho. One looks like entrapment and the other looks like unwarranted fishing. (Literally, there is no mention of warrants issued for looking at bank accounts. There is legislation making that possible but that legislation is probably unconstitutional or at least a case could be made.) Ironically, the governor was a fan of the very sort of law enforcement fishing in bank accounts that got him caught. It's not just that he prosecuted escort services, but he went after corporations and individuals using some tactics that have come back to bite him. This is why he looks stupid.
Personally, I feel that he made someone powerful angry and that someone had friends in the Justice Department. No need to assume politics, money is enough of a motive for this sort of thing. And this kind of action is no respecter of party, anyway. The Dems have done it when they were in control and the GOP have done it in the past. And it happens in other countries.
See my sig. :$
Hugs and everyone play nice, :)
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Facts Please
Pippa, have you bothered to find out the facts? We don't need more BDS. The Feds were after a high-end prostitution ring, for what reasons I haven't read. Love client #9 happened to get caught up in it; I'm sure there will be others outed. I have no sympathy for him, Craig, or any other pol who is this stupid. This was happening over a 10 year period to the tune of $80,000. I know he could afford it but he was the NY Attorney General prosecuting one prostitution ring while patronizing another. I guess that's one way to beat the competition.
Facts
Originally, the Feds were not after a high-end prostitution ring.
Some bank, the press now reporting North Fork Bank and/or HSBC or both, reported a series of "suspicious" transactions to the treasury, pursuant to an anti-money-laundering law, supposedly, involving a personal account of the Governor's. I'm hoping to hear some follow-up reporting on this, because the law this is pursuant to, I believe, usually involves someone removing money from an account (or paying money in) in actual bills of currency, not payments or transfers to another account in electronic form. Normally, the Treasury investigates such reports to rule out drug-running, terrorism, and tax avoidance scams.
This is where the story gets interesting. They were able to rule out drug-running, terrorism and tax avoidance in the Governor's case, so that should have been the end of it. Instead, somebody decided to see if there was any pattern of concealment going on, hoping to catch the Governor engaging in some form of public corruption involving his office. To get the wiretaps and continue the investigation, they had to get the approval of the U.S. Attorney General himself, as they were dealing with an important elected official.
They investigated for a few months, and all they came up with was a call-girl operation. Imagine their disappointment. But, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so they prosecuted it, and then leaked the "involvement" of the Governor to the press as some form of gotcha.
And that's what I believe happened.
Watch your newspapers over the next several weeks. Let's see if anyone puts this together and ties it to Wall Street or Spitzer's enemies in the federal government. He did, after all, embarrass the hell out of the Treasury Dept. when as state Attorney General he prosecuted and got convictions for securities fraud cases that they were trying to ignore. I'm also curious if anyone at whatever bank was involved in this case has ties to prominent figures either in Wall Street or in the federal Administration. Yeah, Spitzer was a dummy, but that doesn't mean someone didn't stretch a few rules to "get" him. Of the two problems, I'm more worried about the second. You know... privacy, surveillance, and all that jazz?
As for his prosecution of call-girl rings, he didn't have a lot of choice. When investigators brought him cases, he couldn't very well sweep them under the carpet. So far, I've only heard of two rings he prosecuted. In New York, this is not the sign of an anti-prostitution crusader. There are probably hundreds of rings of that sort in this state.
Spitzer
Elliott was topic "A" at the banquet I attended tonight. One of the men there was a lead attorney for a large national bank Elliott tried to drag through the mud. That attorney said his "insiders" swear it was the Wall Street people who did him in. Evidently trading was stopped today for a moment to allow everyone on the floor to celebrate a little over his resignation.
Face it -- Spitzer had a myriad of enemies, and for good reason. He ruined the lives of thousands, many of them innocent of any wrongdoing.
He was a bull in the China shop who never met a headline he didn't love. He saw conspiracies behind every door and human failing where others might have simply walked on by.
Personally the reform he caused in my industry has resulted in additional income for me. I'm sure that was unintended consequences. He used a sledghammer to pound in a tack of reform and in the process maligned everyone he could find.
Elliott ripped a page out of the Guiliani "How-to-become-a-Successful-Politician" book, but he never allowed facts to get in the way of a great crime crusade.
Pippa, you know I'm a card-carrying liberal, but you're dead wrong on this stiff. He will be lucky if he doesn't do serious time for his money-laundering schemes. The only question I have is -- how can someone so smart do so many stupid things?
On the other hand -- It's about time we get over our fascination with sex and prosecute politicians for their real crimes. I won't elaborate, but I think everyone can come up with a "criminal politician" they would like brought to justice.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
The only question I have is -- how can someone so smart do so ma
Its easy the moron let the little head lead instead of the big head!
OMG," its full of Stars
Open the pod doors Hal.
Oxymoron?
Angela's comment talks of "criminal politicians". Duh?
Joanne
heard on the radio
This morning that Wall St had a celebratory break to cheer his downfall, which sorta sounds a little petty. Then I hear he paid 5000 an hour for sex. No wonder they didn't like him, talk about fiscal irresponsibility. If he's that dumb I wouldn't want him for Governor either... seriously 5 grand an hour! At least Kristen had a good laugh for a while
Kristina