The bank was gunning for him and he gave them what they wanted. Maybe it wasn't exactly the flavor of illegal activity they were looking for - I mean, Larry Craig and David Vitters still have their jobs - but it may be enough.

Sad. I really admired Spitzer.

I thought one day Spitzer would run for president. I was so pleased with the way he took on giants in Wall Street and the insurance industry. Now I am reminded that it is the laws and ideas that remain, not the man. These are the things of a just society that endure, the individuals come and go. I hope he and his family find peace, he worked hard for us in his short time on stage.

Why would Spitzer pay over ten times the going rate for a service that is available quite legally in nearby Toronto for around $300. No man who uses prostitutes would be so stupid.

Money laundering is the obvious answer, but maybe he can come up with something better.

But I imagine that even if Spitzer ran on a platform of legalizing prostitution, this case would still have made the news.

We must put our trust in ideas and laws, not individuals.

I thought one day Spitzer would run for president. I was so pleased with the way he took on giants in Wall Street and the insurance industry. Now I am reminded that it is the laws and ideas that remain, not the man. These are the things of a just society that endure, the individuals come and go. I hope he and his family find peace, he worked hard for us in his short time on stage.

-- GregoryG

Having suffered through the depredations of Eliot Spitzer's hateful turn as Attorney General of New York and then Governor, it is deeply satisfying to pile on at this point. I imagine that Dick Grasso and Hank Greenberg are happily enjoying a martini and some fine jokes together at Spitzer's expense, as they should. With good fortune and the fair application of law, the positions and good names of Grasso and Greenberg will be secured, and Spitzer's will be forever tainted by illegality. I hope Spitzer and his family are forced to endure precisely the same kind of discomfort that Spitzer inflicted on Grasso and Greenberg, and that he finds no peace until he faces justice.

This newest chunk of information confirms that not only did Spitzer break the law, but he knowingly did so and made considerable effort to avoid detection. This suggests strongly multiple criminal acts. He's out and probably going to prison also.

Wow, talk about a meteoric rise and fall. It was clear long before he ran for office that Spitzer was working it big-time, earning press ink at regular intervals. Who knew he'd blunder his way out of future contention so quickly and clumsily? Amazing.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Hillary Clinton finance commitee member Geraldine Ferarro.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifeandculture/ci_8489268

Now imagine an Obama surrogate made the claim that Clinton is only in the position she is in because she is a white woman. The Clinton campaign would be demanding that Obama create a time machine in order to send the person making the comment to a time before they made the comment, all without disrupting the space time continium.

Once again Hillary gets to try to win by drawing attention to her gender, while Barack only gets to win by never playing the race card.

So let me get this right...DOJ didn't uncover Spitzer while investigating a hooker ring; they uncovered a hooker ring while investigating Spitzer!

Why were they investigating Spitzer? If ABC and Ross are correct, investigating Spitzer found the high cash withdrawals which led to the Empire Club. But I see no explanation why they were investigating Spitzer in the first place. Now, being a cynic, especially about this DOJ, I have to wonder if perhaps someone thought they could pull a duplicate of the Siegelman conviction? Instead of investigating and prosecuting the crime, was someone investigating and hoping to prosecute the man? Scott Horton at Harpers Online has done a great job documenting how the Bush DOJ have made the Department a functioning element of the Republican Party, using it to bring down Democratic politicians...

...there's a job opening up in New York, but she better act fast!

I saw him speaking on a show, maybe the Colbert Report? (It was one of those pre-interview interviews, where the person speaks right at Colbert's desk.) Spitzer was very gregarious and smiley, and talked up Clinton's campaign, etc. I wonder if he'll still be attending the Democratic convention...

By the way, Zoomie, from the accounts I read, it sounds like somebody low-level tipped off the IRS or FBI to some strange transactions (called "structuring") that Spitzer was making.

Why were they investigating Spitzer? If ABC and Ross are correct, investigating Spitzer found the high cash withdrawals which led to the Empire Club. But I see no explanation why they were investigating Spitzer in the first place.

Any time someone withdraws large amounts of cash from a bank this triggers a potential investigation of money laundering or whatever. This could be a withdrawal of over $10,000 cash, or multiple withdrawals in a short period of time adding up to more than $10,000. If you don't believe me, try it yourself, you will probably be investigated or asked to account for it.

Personally, I think that someone hearing about Spitzer and prostitutes was the starting point of the investigation instead of someone at the bank becoming suspicious on his own.

Presumably, the story is that over ten thousand dollars was withdrawn, enough so that someone at the bank reported Spitzer, the Governor, for possible money laundering. Spitzer must have been using those services quite a bit bedore 2008 if he withdrew that much money quickly enough to make someone suspicious. My guess is that the person who reported this activity was asked to do so.

The complaint's surveillance begins in January 2008 and ends in February 2008 shortly after Spitzer was caught. Unless the surveillance missed him Spitzer hadn't been paying for "services" all that often.

So far I've seen only a single instance of Spitzer / "client 9" paying for a night with someone, with a balance put "on account" in the complaint so presumably he'd been doing it for a long time to withdraw larger sums of money. If I withdrew 2600.00 or so, like the instance documented in the complaint, I wouldn't get reported. Spitzer must have been much more active with prostitutes before 2008 for anyone at the bank to be suspicious as is alleged.

So, yes I think Spitzer's political enemies are behind the investigation. However, whether or not someone in the DOJ made an effort to "get" Spitzer the bottom line is that he was stupid enough to regularly use prostitutes when he knows how many powerful enemies he has.