Letters to the Editor
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Was Spitzer Set Up?
Harper's has a disturbing analysis that makes it sound like this was a GOP operation:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002589
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I must be missing something here
Ok, so Spitzer hired a prostitute. Icky, yucky, and no doubt illegal in Washington DC. But what on earth does this have to do with his ability to govern the state of New York?
I can't help noticing that David Vitter is still the junior Senator from Louisiana, despite virtually getting frequent flier miles from the DC Madam's little whorehouse. What, no calls for him to resign? No move to impeach him?
Hypocrisy, anyone?
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Why resign?
He's freer than ever - for all intents and purposes he has no political futre. I say ride it out, and go after the job with zeal woithout having to worry about pandering to anyone.
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One prominent state Republican has said that if Spitzer does not resign within the next 48 hours, then New York Republican leaders will call for impeachment proceedings.
Wow! What a bunch of great leaders, showing significant leadership. They are willing to begin impeachment proceedings because of a sex act but not for crimes against humanity, lying to engage in a preemptive war, torture, lying to congress, A.G. firing scandals, and an assortment of decisions that have brought the dollar into free fall with energy policies developed in back rooms by oil men and their colleagues. Hmmmm. That's about right. Go get em you deeply ethical GOP'ers. Why change your tactics now? Nauseating...
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And another thing
I think about 95% of this "scandal" derives from the way it is being reported. The headlines scream "Spitzer linked to prostitution ring," implying that he was playing some nefarious role in organizing the "ring," maybe forcing unwitting young immigrants into a life of sexual slavery. It is still being reported in that way, too (I just heard the same phrase used on NPR). If the headline had instead read "Spitzer allegedly hired a hooker," would the story have attracted anywhere near as much interest? I doubt it...
The whole thing stinks of a hatchet job to me. And it is worth noting that the New York Times has had it in for Spitzer for years.
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The NY GOP is on the ropes
They are a dead party. They are supported by brain dead moronic geezers. No Republican in office in NY is under the age of 70.
They hold the Senate. That's all they have left, and they lost a key seat last month that had been Repukeliscumian since 1908.
This is the issue that will ressurect them, they think. Expect them to play it for all they have left. I still expect the Senate to go Dem this next election. But expect repulsive, scummy nauseating shit for the next 10 months.
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Lev Raphael
Oh yeah it was a setup. To get than Black Blind Liberal deputy governor into office. Uh huh.
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Renounce. Reject. Linked. Involved. Whatever.
I laugh every time I read that hiring a prostitute while governor is really only a problem because the NY Times used the word "linked" in its headline. This is ludicrous and it is embarrassing to the people who keep making this claim.
Let me tell you, I read that headline and didn't think that he was running a prostitution ring. I read the headline and thought he was hiring hookers. There is nothing inherent in the usage of "linked" which implies organizing.
Set up? Just like Marion Barry. They practically forced him to break the law and cover his illegal activities. Why can't good, well-intentioned Democrats accept that Spitzer is wrong, he threw away his career to get his rocks off and he should be put to the curb like yesterday's trash.
Is it unfair that there is a criminal in the white house who is not being impeached for much worse crimes? absolutely, but that is Congress's fault for not taking action and convincing the American people to get behind that action. Didn't your mothers tell you that two wrongs don't make a right. Fine, W. is responsible for destroying our constitution and killing 100,000s of innocents. But why does that mean that the governor of NY should be allowed to break the law and stay in office, even if it is a stupid law?
I honestly believe it is a stupid law that law abiding citizens with a license to carry a concealed weapon in the state of NY cannot bring that gun on to a state college campus, especially in light of the shootings the seem to happen every month now. But you know what, if I brought an otherwise perfectly legal gun on to campus, I would be arrested and thrown in jail. Because it is a felony, even if it is a stupid law.
No difference.
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Not a "Set Up", but "being a human being AND a Democrat"
Put 2 and 2 together; the Justice Department targeting Democrats for fairly trivial and business-as-usual minor corruption, while letting major Republican corruption go uninvestigated and unpunished.
Democrats must now be as pure as snow, while Republicans can rob a bank and skate free.
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He's probably finished
Do I care that the governor of my state hired a prostitute? No.
I don't think this should affect how he runs the state. But what he was thinking? Certainly there are must be more discreet ways to hire a high class call girl than using an online site. I hope he would use better judgment when making decisions that affect the state of New York. With the current media frenzy, however, I doubt if we will get a chance to find out. If only the media paid the same attention to the real problems of our society, like the health needs of the 40 million uninsured, it wouldn't have time to obsess on things that only titillate the public, nothing more.
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Republican "set-up"? No. Here's why.
By most accounts, the Spitzer investigation began because the bank noticed suspicious money transfers. The kind of transfers they suspected were "structuring" transfers in which a subject attempts to move more than $10,000 in cash without reporting it, and instead "sturctures" the transfer in smaller amounts to avoid detection/reporting.
In fact, it does appear that Spitezer, who would have learned about structuring in Prosecutions 101, probably knew what he was doing, and deliberately avoided all means possible by which his money transfers could be made secretly, without detection... and illegally.
The bank had good reason to report to investigative authorities. They thought that suspicious cash transfers, to a suspicious entity, might be reflective of bribery or other public corruption. That is why the Public Corruption division of the Justice Department would have gotten involved.
Prostitution is illegal in New York and even in Washington DC. Conspiracy to engage in prostitution across state lines becomes a federal-jurisdiction matter. Money-laundering is illegal. The Governor of New York was committing a crime, and doing so with some degree of elaborate preparation and conspiracy with others. He got caught. He has prosecuted these kinds of crimes himself. He would not, presumably, expect anyone in the New York state AG's office to ignore such an offense.
As for Spitzer's record of "public service", it is dubious bordering on the outrageous. This man is a public thug who should be forced out of public life.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118532553512477025-search.html?KEYWORDS=Spitzer&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519359147125705.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120518551881925271.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks