Letters to the Editor
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Ozziebear does have a legitimate point in there
Americans and their hangups with sex are just silly. WMDs and torture barely get a nod, but one married governor turns out to be banging a hooker and all hell breaks loose.
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Who cares about the Spitzer marriage?
Lawbreaking is, although since I don't live in New York I care very little. Too bad we lose a Wall Street crusader we certainly need more of those, not less.
However almost all of these "offenders" trot out their wives in these weird displays of marital unity which drag their marriages into the public arenas. Visiting a prostitute is about Elliot Spitzer, not his wife, yet he throws his wife out there as some sort of buffer against...what exactly? Their marriage is not anybody's business and frankly, does anyone really care about the state of their marriage?
Do we really need to be reminded that Mr. Spitzer can get it at home too? Do we really care what Mrs. Spitzer thinks? Is everyone supposed to forgive Mr. Spitzer because Mrs. Spitzer is so tolerant? Yuck.
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"Tragic" my ruddy ass
It may be tragic for Upstate NY, though. I've heard randy Elly, when not getting his needs attended to, was actually seeing to it that Upstate NY would get a little something of the money being funneled to the NYC trough.
Oh, and as always, I must state the obvious: I feel. so. bad. for his wife. The wife, standing by her man with that glazed smile, always looks like such a fool, your heart can just break for her being even in the same room with her errant spouse.
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@ Nancydrew
Whether or not Ozziebear has a point is, to me, immaterial; he also has an attitude and is dismissive of Americans in particular. That is unacceptable.
He may state and re-state his opposition to Governor Spitzer's treatment till he turns blue and/or ad nauseum; he is free to express his opinion on that issue. However, what I will call him on his disrespect and flippancy for America and Americans.
Besides, if his Australia was so damned great, they'd drive on the correct side of the street. >>snark<<
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whoops, revision...
The marriage is not important, lawbreaking is, although since I don't live in New York I care very little. Too bad we lose a Wall Street crusader we certainly need more of those, not less.
sorry folks, I need more coffee here.
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Lilies that Fester...
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
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@ECLamb65
Spitzer's from an extremely wealthy family. His $179k salary as governor doesn't even make a blip on his financial statements.
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Have Craig and Vitter resigned yet?
Then Spitzer shouldn't.
By the way, Frederick Bernanke brings up a key point:
2. Why did Spitzer's bank apparently contact the IRS of its own volition, in secret? What law is lurking out there that gives banks this kind of authority to rat-out its own depositors, with no notice to the depositor required? If Jane Doe writes some checks that some bank clerk thinks present a "suspicious pattern," can Jane find herself the target of a Justice Department investigation, of wiretaps and other surveillance?
The banks did this because Spitzer's been going after Wall Street and the financial industry. As Jane Hamsher says over at FDL, isn't it odd that the bank, when it saw something odd that looked like somebody may have got unauthorized access to Spitzer's account, didn't notify Spitzer but went to the (Bush-controlled and heavily-politicized) IRS instead?
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How he got caught
It appears (from the NYT's coverage) that a series of wire transfers triggered a bank SAR (Suspicious Activity Report, something banks have to file when customer transactions could be indicative of money laundering), and the transfers got referred to the IRS. When the IRS realized they were Spitzer's, they thought they looked like payoffs (hiding cash, moving $ to shell companies, etc.), and brought in the FBI. The prostitution ring was caught because of Spitzer, not the other way around.
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The usual double standard
I see no tragedy here. Just another dirtbag politician getting his cumuppance. I'm curious if Salon ran any articles on the TRAGIC circumstances of Republican, Larry Craig? Or wasn't that a tragedy? I wonder if Salon called for Mr. Craigs' resignation? What about Bill Clintons'? Surely Salon called for the resignation of the Mysogenous in Chief? Pathetic.
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Spitzered
Spitzer is not a tragic figure and the scandal is not tragic. It is comic. Here is a spoiled child of the Jewish bourgeoisie given to Pharisaical pronouncements brought low by his own uncontrolled drives and his sense of superiority and entitlement. No Greek playwright would see an Oedipus here -- only a character out of Juvenal, and a junvenile one at that.
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@ Alecsmom
People have the politicians they deserve. After all, we vote for them.
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The tackiness of it all
Enough with the hand-wringing about prostitution and hypocrisy. Has anyone considered the tackiness of the governor of New York doing business with an outfit calling itself "The Emperor's Club"? Spitzer should be laughed out of office.
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Ahh for the days of Senator Al Damato
When he claimed that he was marrying his new coochie mama because his wife was dead and the news uncovered her living in the NYC whereby she chased the reporters down the street in her bent cigarette, housecoat and hair curlers.
Classic.
Anywhere where does a public servant get 10's of thousands of dollars to blow on professional poontang? I bet there's some theft from the public coffers going on there. Or money laundering.
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Learning from the Bonobos
Too bad Spitzer couldn't just go to his wife and say, "Honey, I sure would like to play around with another female." Who knows, maybe his wife wants to play with another male. The fact is we humans are more than a little reluctant to acknowledge that we sometimes like to alter our consciousness and alter our sex routines. Fortunately, those who are open about these issues can often find safe and legal ways to satisfy their needs. Those who can't end up like Clinton, Spitzer, and about a billion and a half others who cheat, deceive, and sometimes, get caught.
Check out this link and ask yourself (as many sociologists already have) if we couldn't possibly learn something from our primate bretheren: http://www.primates.com/bonobos/bonobosexsoc.html