How effing stupid are YOU? Ever read the Bible? No wonder this country is going right down the toilet with the rest of the world.

Is this a warning shot across the bow of the Democratic Party by the republicans?

Showing how low and deep they are willing to further pervert the laws of this country to get their puppet installed as president. (As if Hillary's recent performance has made things harder for them)

This whole thing stinks to high heaven but you just have to wonder, and just like 9/11/2001, there are so many coincidences and 'strange actions' for it just to be a spur of the moment incident.

They have been planning to take Spitzer down for years.

To watch MSNBC's Wall Street siren talking to some 'Wall Street people' you could see their glee and gloating in this nasty prosecution. Many people, many cruel, nasty, evil, rich and politically connected people are very ecstatically happy over this 'convenient' prosecution... And the message seems clear. Since Cheney now has full access to the 'Justice' Dept inner workings, I wonder if his fingerprints aren't all over this thing.

Once again, Lady Liberty is prostituted for the pleasure of the GOP.

Any of the 'journalists' making the connection between the stock market rally and Spitzer being 'prosecuted'? Wait for it...

The gods know we've had our differences, but I endorse virtually everything you've so well said and documented in this thread!

I'm a female, and I endorse LWM's comments, and he is no effing misogynist. Women have moral agency, and if they choose to sell sex as a service -- with the owner of the business getting the larger share -- that is not unusual in any number of businesses.

If Elliot Spitzer wanted some sort of unsafe sex the sex worker did not wish to perform, she should have either say "no," or quit the agency she worked for. High-end sex agencies don't send apes after her to beat her up. If they did, women who can command those prices would not work for such an agency.

The one sex-for-hire agency I was well-familiar with (because it was a gay one, and the owner my friend), allowed the young men to say "no" to whatever, and they simply were not assigned to clients who insisted on that whatever. The "boys" made loads of money, and so did my friend. (And my friend was rigorous in his demand for proof that would-be workers had reached the age of majority.)

But then, this was NYC, where law enforcement typically looks the other way vis-a-vis the "escort agencies." Everyone felt safe, clients were vetted, and customers were happy. Few in that metropolitan give a sh*t about what everyone knows goes on every day. (And I knew, but will NEVER reveal, some of his customer list -- some names would shock.)

Oh, but gee, there were no females in the equation to be "exploited." Some here want to ignore the whole male sex-worker industry, since it undercuts their "it heinously exploits women in the most sexist way!" hysteria. pfffft

Now that everyone has shown how upset they can get about sex, can we harness the same moral outrage to make sure we vote out a party that lies to start an unjustified war and gets half a million people killed?

As the NYT and others pointed out today, the wire tap was begun because of the odd activity in Spitzer's accounts. Whether or not this had anything to do with a purposeful targetting of Spitzer is anyone's guess and beside the point. The only relevant item here is that Spitzer, the governor of the state of NY, was occulting his finances for the purchase of illegal services. These services could have just as well have ended up being drugs, or little boys. So that's relevant. The fact that it he was funneling these funds to an escort service instead of a drug dealer, a mistress, or a third world revolution seems the irrelevant part.

You are absolutely correct as to the root of Mr. Spitzer's problems. Based on what has been reported he appears to have been structuring either or both cash deposit(s) and withdrawal(s) and the purchase of cashiers check(s) payable to the service. His seemingly obvious attempt to mask the source of the $10,000 fee seems to have brought about his undoing.

I can't understand how someone who was the attorney general of New York could have made such an obvious mistake. The $10,000 cash figure alone mandated reporting of the transaction.

This sort of thing would have been picked up not only by the bank's financial reporting systems, but likely by the facility or facilities he used to structure the transactions.

Where does this number come from? I haven't read any account of how much money was involved.

I don't want to be rude, but your tone makes you sound like someone trying to plant info, so I don't want to enable that and just in case...there was a figure of 10,000 dollars attached to another issue with Spitzer concering campaign donations. I don't think there was any wrong-doing found there, but I could be mistaken. I haven't seen a figure attached to the account transfers...my understanding is that they're in the few thousands. There were no cashiers checks, as far as I can see. From what I read in the NYT today, the Emperor's Club asks for wire transfers into an account,...my point was only that Spitzer did breach the public trust by operating in such a secretive manner. Legally, everything he did SHOULD have aroused suspicion. But I also believe its quite possible he's being crucified.

Too hot on the submit button. You are right about the ten thousand

you know Glen/Thomas/Rick, I really wouldn't care if Elliot was hiring hookers. I wouldn't care if Larry Craig takes it up the pooper in every rest stop the entire lenghth of I-90, or if Vitter was flying in Thai trannies, if they (the politicians, not the trannies) weren't in a position to be corrupted.

And, Elliot almost certainly WAS corrupted. It has come out that he has used hookers for 6+ years - during which time he was out busting escort services. Did he bust some of those folks as a favor to his prefered pimp? Did he ever bust any of the crime family that supplies his hookers? Did he ever get hookers comped to him? Was he, in fact, corrupted?

Elliot WAS NOT enforcing the law equally. He therefore was violating the trust of his office. THAT is why this is a big deal, not the fact that he was violating his wedding vows. The people in our judicial system have to be seen as honest, if imperfect, brokers, or else the system has no credibility with the populace.