Spitzer on Marriage and Hookers

[Lovely Victoria]

Almost two of years after Spitzer went from the governor of New York to Client Number 9 clad in black socks, Spitzer answers why he didn't simply have an affair in an interviw with the Time Magazine.


Asked why he didn't simply have an affair, he said, "I know this is parsing it very thin, but the emotional component would have in some ways been a worse violation." In other words, he might still be governor, but he probably wouldn't be married.

Do you think Spitzer got it right?

[atlcomedy]

He didn't get it right. If he did he wouldn't have gotten caught.

But he does have a point.

That said, since he's a politician, I assume he's rationalizing whatever situation he is in & doubt his conviction & sincerity

[Fast Gunn]

Eliot Spitzer paid a very high price for his sexual dalliance.

I think in a distant future people will learn to separate the job a public official is doing from his private life.

By way of comparison, look at the mess that Bush left us with. He didn't have an illicit affair, but he screwed up the country royally instead and we just gritted our teeth and let him serve out his term.

Spitzer was doing a much better job for New York than Bush was for the country, but Spitzer understood the brutal rules of the political game and he stepped away gracefully and quickly.

Personally, I admire him for that.

[Katy Alexander]

The question is not why he chose an escort over an affair, but why he chose such a goofy agency to go through when he could have just as easily hired a high end independant escort.There is still no gaurantee that he would not have been eventually exposed , but his chances of keeping it discreet would have been much better.

I remeber seeing the agencys ad on eros before all of this happened, and even then I wondered do they actually get clients with such an insulting web site.

Did anyone else notice the site, and what were your thoughts on it??The ad was on the NY VIP section of erosguide.

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

Eliot Spitzer paid a very high price for his sexual dalliance.

Spitzer was doing a much better job for New York than Bush was for the country, but Spitzer understood the brutal rules of the political game and he stepped away gracefully and quickly.

Personally, I admire him for that.

Spitzer had to go because among other things as DA he made prostitution rings a cause celebre that he went after with glee. No way he could have survived in office, I can even see him being impeached by a legislature that his own party controlled.

[Fast Gunn]

Originally Posted by Becky

The question is not why he chose an escort over an affair, but why he chose such a goofy agency to go through when he could have just as easily hired a high end independant escort.There is still no gaurantee that he would not have been eventually exposed , but his chances of keeping it discreet would have been much better.

I remeber seeing the agencys ad on eros before all of this happened, and even then I wondered do they actually get clients with such an insulting web site.

Did anyone else notice the site, and what were your thoughts on it??The ad was on the NY VIP section of erosguide.

Actually, it was not the agency that tripped him up.

It is not in any agency's interest to lose customers especially such affluent ones. That only hurts their business and that's why they only referred to him as client No 9 to protect his anonymity.

The real problem was that Spitzer was because of his office, what is referred to as a "PEP".

That is an acronym for a politically exposed person and such people are more scrutinized than regular folks for any irregularities in their established patterns of behavior.

Aside from the moral aspect, Eliot's fundamental error in judment was in transferring high dollar amounts from his bank to cover the escort's fee.

That money transfer was what triggered the red flags that sent in the bloodhounds who were already straining at the leash after him!

[discreetgent]

Spitzer did a number of dumb things AND got caught in some stupid stuff the agency did. If I recall the basics correctly: Spitzer transferred larger sums of money, then tried to modify how they went out which sent up a flag but nothing triggered an investigation, yet. Completely separate from it the bank that the agency had their accounts realized that whoever set it up didn't do the needed due diligence and then saw they were dummy accounts into which money flowed. Investigators then saw that the transfers that had already been flagged by Spitzer went into those accounts and it became a full fledged investigation.

[pjorourke]

Given some of the drive by shootings he pulled as DA, it is hard to feel ANY sympathy whatsoever for that worthless SOB.

[charlestudor2005]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Given some of the drive by shootings he pulled as DA, it is hard to feel ANY sympathy whatsoever for that worthless SOB.

Why dontcha tell us what you REALLY think, PJ?

[WTF]

Originally Posted by discreetgent

Spitzer did a number of dumb things AND got caught in some stupid stuff the agency did. If I recall the basics correctly: Spitzer transferred larger sums of money, then tried to modify how they went out which sent up a flag but nothing triggered an investigation, yet. Completely separate from it the bank that the agency had their accounts realized that whoever set it up didn't do the needed due diligence and then saw they were dummy accounts into which money flowed. Investigators then saw that the transfers that had already been flagged by Spitzer went into those accounts and it became a full fledged investigation.

Spitzer got pay back for jacking with the banks. That was some powerful group to jack with. He was way ahead of the curve on the banking bubble.

He is one smart cookie that actually came from money and had a grasp as to their moral hazzard. They took him down before he took them down.

Moral to the story...he with the most money/power wins. At least in the short run.

Spitzer didn't do a freaking thing all of us haven't done. We all could have been caught with our pants down.

Ten thousand is not a large sum of money. All were under that amount. It was HIS money btw. Not the state.

[pjorourke]

Originally Posted by WTF

He is one smart cookie that actually came from money and had a grasp as to their moral hazzard. They took him down before he took them down.

Bull fucking shit! he was a headline grabbing politician who bent the law to serve his own agenda and settle scores.

As for that "grasp of moral hazard crap", there is a school of thought that he was an indirect cause of the financial meltdown -- ground zero of which was AIG and its London CDO unit. Spitzer had a hard on for the Greenberg family for supporting his opponents and fighting back against some of his more underhanded prosecution approaches. The father, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, ran AIG and built it into the most successful insurance company in the world. His two sons ran other insurance operations (Marsh Mac and Ace). Hank controlled about 20% of AIG's stock and ran the place with an iron hand -- as complicated as the place was, he knew everything that was happening. In 2005, Spitzer, as was his style, brought fraud and other charges against Greenberg relating to some reinsurance contracts that were written between AIG and Berkshire Hathaway (run by that fine Democrat Warren Buffet). BH wasn't charged, but as was his typical practice, Spitzer threatened to bring criminal charges against AIG itself (which would have killed the company) unless the Board replaced Greenberg as CEO and admitted guilt. The Board of course caved (as fiduciaries they had no choice) and replaced Greenberg with some #3 executive who was clearly underclubbed for the job. Spitzer's civil charges were never proven and Greenberg was later exonerated on the criminal charges. In the mean time, out from under Greenberg's thumb, those knuckleheads in London started throwing gasoline on the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac mess and the rest is history.

[Mokoa]

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

I think in a distant future people will learn to separate the job a public official is doing from his private life.

That will never happen. Public officials will always be held to a higher standard since they are in positions where they are supposed to be serving the public. Always have been. Always will be.

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

By way of comparison, look at the mess that Bush left us with. He didn't have an illicit affair, but he screwed up the country royally instead and we just gritted our teeth and let him serve out his term.

Frankly, I do not see how you can compare the two. The two situations have few, if any, similarities.

[WTF]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Bull fucking shit! he was a headline grabbing politician who bent the law to serve his own agenda and settle scores.

As for that "grasp of moral hazard crap", there is a school of thought that he was an indirect cause of the financial meltdown -- ground zero of which was AIG and its London CDO unit. Spitzer had a hard on for the Greenberg family for supporting his opponents and fighting back against some of his more underhanded prosecution approaches. The father, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, ran AIG and built it into the most successful insurance company in the world. His two sons ran other insurance operations (Marsh Mac and Ace). Hank controlled about 20% of AIG's stock and ran the place with an iron hand -- as complicated as the place was, he knew everything that was happening. In 2005, Spitzer, as was his style, brought fraud and other charges against Greenberg relating to some reinsurance contracts that were written between AIG and Berkshire Hathaway (run by that fine Democrat Warren Buffet). BH wasn't charged, but as was his typical practice, Spitzer threatened to bring criminal charges against AIG itself (which would have killed the company) unless the Board replaced Greenberg as CEO and admitted guilt. The Board of course caved (as fiduciaries they had no choice) and replaced Greenberg with some #3 executive who was clearly underclubbed for the job. Spitzer's civil charges were never proven and Greenberg was later exonerated on the criminal charges. In the mean time, out from under Greenberg's thumb, those knuckleheads in London started throwing gasoline on the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac mess and the rest is history.

Bull fucking shit back at ya!

A red herring. Only a person who listens to right wing propaganda would even think that Spitzer was responsible for the meltdown. Be like blaming a passenger on the Titanic that warned the captain of an iceberg ahead. Those fucs bundled shit and sold it as gold.

Go try and blow that smoke up a monkey's ass. I ain't buying.

[pjorourke]

Originally Posted by WTF

Bull fucking shit back at ya!

A red herring. Only a person who listens to right wing propaganda would even think that Spitzer was responsible for the meltdown. Be like blaming a passenger on the Titanic that warned the captain of an iceberg ahead. Those fucs bundled shit and sold it as gold.

Go try and blow that smoke up a monkey's ass. I ain't buying.

I didnt say he was responsible. I realized reading is a newly acquired skill for you WTF, but did you notice the word "indirect cause". Actions have consequences. Butterflys flap their wings and tornadoes start in South America.

Spitzer was very well known for making charges on the 6 o'clock news that he couldn't back up in court. He was a bully of the first order and got what he deserved.

[Sarcastro]

Spitzer was a moralizing hypocrite who, as attorney general, spearheaded the prosecution of two alleged prostitution rings. He also tried to export his sense of morality overseas when he indicted and harassed "Big Apple Oriental Tours", which marketed vacations for men to destinations such as Angeles City, Philippines. He has always been of the opinion that he, as attorney general, could regulate all sexual behavior wherever it occurs.

He was a sanctimonious, overly-zealous prosecutor that loved to dangle criminal charges over corporations and corporate heads for the alleged misdeeds of underlings--Hank Greenberg is just one example. He railroaded defendants on ridiculous charges, and accepted campaign donations from attorneys for firms that he was investigating. As Governor, his office used state resources to gather dirty laundry on political rivals.

From shortly after Harvard's invitation to Spitzer to speak on ethics:

“For nearly 5 years, I supplied Mr. Spitzer with high priced escorts while he was both Attorney General and Governor. For this crime, I served four months on Rikers Island, had all of my assets confiscated and am now considered a sex offender on 5 years probation. Mr. Spitzer broke both state and federal laws and walked away free.”

--- Kristin Davis