It's not about the sex

This blog is officially a No Defending Spitzer Zone.

Because it's not about the sex.

It's about headlines like this:

Headlines that were entirely predictable the first time he thought about shelling out a couple of grand to hire a pro, when he should have been asking himself the question most people about to do what he was about to do would ask themselves, What if I get caught?

In Spitzer's case the answer should have been, A lot worse things than just my wife yelling at me.

But it appears his answer to himself was along the lines of, I won't get caught.

It's not about the sex.

It's about the stupidity.

And the arrogance.

And the recklessness.

And it's about making chumps of everyone who voted for him and undermining the cause of reform here in New York.  It's about headlines like that one in the Wall Street Journal and the stories that go with them.

As Sean-Paul Kelley says:

The reason these Spitzer allegations hurt so much is he was one of the very few people in the country willing to take on the corruption of Wall Street. And I am not tlaking the kind of penny-ante corruption of the mob and their ilk. I am talking about corruption on a systemic level that we can now all see affects everyone in this country. Few had the guts to take on Wall Street and the insurance industry. But Spitzer did. Any subsequent calls for, or attempts to, reform Wall street will be that much more difficult in light of what happened today. This is not a blow for good government, but for sensible finance and regulation..

I don't care if prostitution shouldn't be a crime.

Do I think there might have been some political motivation behind the leaking of his name? Of course, but that was also as predictable as the headline.

And is it weird that the feds were targeting a local prostitution ring?  Possibly only as weird as the Onondaga County District Attorney's office targeting a prostitution ring in Syracuse.  It's their jurisdiction, folks.

This is from the US Attorney for the District of Columbia's website:

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is unique among the 94 United States Attorney Offices across the nation by virtue of its size and its varied responsibilities. It is the largest United States Attorney's Office with over 350 Assistant United States Attorneys and over 350 support personnel. The size of this Office is the result of the breadth of our responsibility for criminal law enforcement and our location in the nation's capital. We are responsible not only for the prosecution of all federal crimes, but also for the prosecution of all serious local crime committed by adults in the District of Columbia.

My italics.

You may not consider prostitution a serious local crime, but you don't think like an ambitious prosecutor on the make.  Very high priced call girls have rich and powerful clients.  That makes for headlines, kids.  If it hadn't been Spitzer it would have been somebody else just as high-profile and just as dumb.

Updated:  At any rate, it doesn't appear the Feds were targeting the prostitution ring.  They were "targeting" Spitzer, but only in the way they would target anyone moving large sums of money around like that because that's how drug dealers, money launderers, terrorists, and politicians on the take handle money, and this is how the Feds have been going after bad guys since the days of the real Eliot Ness and Al Capone, by following the money, as Spitzer well knew.  Client 9 could have been any dope who thought he could sneak one past the IRS.  That the dope turned out to be the reform-minded Democratic governor of Hillary Clinton's home state was just gravy to the Bush Leaguers.  But see the note below.

As for Jane's wondering about the timing of Michael Bloomberg's public musings about the possibility he'll run for governor---well, now that he's come to his senses and stopped daydreaming about a third party run for President, the governorship is the next obvious step for him, and considering the erratic and arrogant and self-destructive behavior Spitzer's demonstrated as governor---and this doesn't include the latest news.  The man's made people feel sorry for Joe Bruno, for crying out loud!---the possibility that he'd have been a one-termer was very real.  It's just become a lot more real.

So in addition to the stupidity, the arrogance, the recklessness, and the irresponsibility, it's also about this.

Spitzer's just made the governorship Bloomberg's for the asking.

NY Times website still running slow?  Lots of stories here from the Times Herald-Record.

____________________________________

This is below, here is the note:  Scott Horton is right.  Given the way the Bush Leaguers have corrupted the Department of Justice and the Federal Prosecutor's Office, there's a good reason to smell a whole colony of rats here.  But Eliot Spitzer is no Dan Siegelman.   Nobody had to set out to get Spitzer.  He wrapped himself up with a bow and delivered himself as a gift.

This is a way in which it is, somewhat, about the sex.  The House Judiciary Committee is finally getting serious about investigating the corruption of the US Attorneys Office.  Bringing "Client 9" and "Kristin" into the story makes it very hard to keep the focus on what Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, and Rove have done.

Another note, trying to look on the bright side:  Now I've got a reason to be glad if Hillary Clinton loses the nomination to Barack Obama.  She'll be free to run for governor against Bloomberg in 2010.

One more note, a hypocritical, self-righteous, and sanctimonious one hypocritically, self-righteously, and sanctimoniously defending myself pre-emptively against charges of hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and sanctimony:  Yeah, I remember.  Yesterday I said I wasn't going to congratulate myself on my superior virtue.  But I was talking about the sex.  This isn't about the sex.  It's not about who Spitzer was screwing down in DC.  It's about how he was screwing the rest of us back home in New York.

Comments

[velvet goldmine]

This is Elliot Ness we're talking about, so mark my words: He's in the middle of the biggest, most public sting operation in history. Only he's the cheese, not the rat.

[Ken Muldrew]

"his answer to himself was along the lines of, I won't get caught."
Reckless.

"he was one of the very few people in the country willing to take on the corruption of Wall Street."
Reckless.

And arrogant and stupid.

Good luck finding someone who is reckless enough to do the latter without also taking enormously foolish risks with his or her personal life. They don't even make movies like that anymore. Evil may be banal, but the kind of heroism that garners public adulation never is.

[actor212]

Ask yourself this, Lance:

Since when has $5G ever been considered "large sums of money"?

That would mean, the next time you buy a car and put a down payment down, the Feds ought to be allowed to look at it first.

[catherine]

Did you notice that in his statement yesterday, he never said IF I am guilty, IF I did it? There is no denial of wrong doing. A lot of the problem is that he moved a hooker across state lines and money, too. This is a felony.

While he did some good, he certainly did some bad. He should be in trouble for his crime.

[Karen]

PREACH IT, BROTHER.

I won't countenance any defense of him either.

[David]

I've read Greenwald in the past and pretty much always thought he was spot on, but that piece is just plain embarassing, as are the mental contortions some folks on the left are going through to defend Spitzer. But then again, when it comes to human nature it's pretty much a given that when your guy does something wrong, it's wrong, but when my guy doesn't something wrong, it's not really that bad, or there were mitigating circumstances, or he was the victim of a conspiracy, or it's not the same thing.

[actor212]

A lot of the problem is that he moved a hooker across state lines and money, too. This is a felony.

A felony that's never been prosecuted against a john. Ever. It's always been prosecuted against the pimp.

[actor212]

David,

I can't speak for the left, but when I've taken a Vitter or a Craig or a Foley to task, it's never been about the sex...well, maybe in Foley's case, since it was underage.

No, it's been about the hypocrisy. Now, yes, Spitzer has prosecuted escort services, to be sure. I won't minimize that.

But look, Spitzer has never strode out on a stage and denounced gay marriage. He's never picked up a megaphone and screamed at pro-choice people. He's never judged a politician for an affair (he kept his mouth shut during both the Clinton and Giuliani debacles) and you get the feeling that despite his no-nonsense public attitude about corruption, in private he could be pretty forgiving of people for their flaws (if it wasn't criminal).

Yea, this was a Federal felony, to be sure. One that's never been prosecuted from the perspective of a john.

Was it wrong? Yes. Was it as bad as Larry Craig or David Vitter or Mark Foley? No.

Spitzer's situation was not markedly different from Clinton's with two glaring exceptions: Clinton's wasn't illegal, and Spitzer took pains not to involve someone else in his affairs beyond the hurt he was causing to his own family.

That alone should be cause enough to leave him the hell alone with a reprimand.

What's unusual about this case is that the escort service was never the center of attention.

[tom]

Some perspective, tackily self-referring, on large sums of money, and maybe why some are harder to find than others.

[David]

actor212:

Whether Spitzer was as bad as Craig, Vitter, or Foley isn't the issue. The fact that other politicians - particularly, politicians on the right - duck responsibility and do bad things doesn't make it ok for all politicians to duck responsibility and do bad things. The fact that what they did may have been worse doesn't make what Spitzer did ok. The fact that what Spitzer did has never been prosecuted doesn't make it ok. And no, it's not about the sex - it's about the hypocrisy, and it's about breaking the law. It's also about the fact that Spitzer compromised his office by putting himself in a position where he could have been blackmailed (particularly since prostitution rings are often connected to organized crime).

Also, other than the fact that I don't have a problem with prostitution, but I do have a problem with gay-bashing, I don't see much of a difference between Craig and Spitzer when it comes to hypocrisy: Craig bashed gays, then got arrested trying to arrange a gay tryst. Spitzer shut down high-end prostitution rings, then got caught using the services of a high-end prostitution ring. It seems to me that you're giving Spitzer a pass based on the fact that he isn't a mean-spirited, right-wing homophobe. AFAIC, that isn't relevant. I try to hold everyone to the same standards. To do otherwise would make me a hypocrite, and undercut my credibility - which is exactly what I see happening when I see left-wing bloggers and commenters making excuses for Spitzer.

Personally, I think prostitution should be legal. However, I think all of those people you mentioned - except Clinton - should've resigned. I think the glaring exception you mentioned in Clinton's case - specifically, the first one - is indeed glaring enough that I have a different opinion of Clinton.

[actor212]

David,

A bad law shouldn't be obeyed.

Ask Gandhi.

[David]

actor212

Ghandi: Fought against unjust British colonial rule in India. Spitzer: paid for a high-class hooker. How could I miss the obvious parallel?

At least Spitzer himself gets it. "Over the course of my public life I have insisted -- I believe correctly -- that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself."