A few more thoughts on the Eliot Spitzer story (for legal reasons, assume the word "allegedly" appears throughout this post)...
- How did Spitzer convince his wife to stand beside him at his 90-second mea culpa yesterday? If he spent thousands on hookers, how much will he have to spend on her now? Perhaps Kobe Bryant can recommend an appropriate piece of jewelry.
- The Spitzers must have had separate checking accounts. In my house, if my wife noticed an entry in Quicken showing that I'd paid someone $4,300, she'd have a few questions for me. For instance, "where did we get a spare $4,300?"
- To his credit, he didn't use a high-priced DC call girl. Instead, Gov. Spitzer imported a prostitute from New York. So don't go accusing him of taking jobs away from the people of his home state.
- The booker for the hooker warned her that Spitzer liked to do things that she might not consider safe. Like what, being a public official who thinks he can get away with hiring $4,300/night call girls? Or something really kinky, like promoting the idea of drivers licenses for illegal immigrants?
- Since when is a pimp called a booker?
- The conventional wisdom today is that Spitzer hasn't resigned because he wants to use that as leverage to make a deal with prosecutors. But he has no position to bargain from. If they say, "no deal," what's Spitzer going to do, refuse to come out of the Governor's mansion?
- As hypocritical and ironic as this whole mess is, it's still not the best northeastern gubernatorial sex scandal in recent years. That title still belongs to ex-NJ Governor Jim McGreevey. The only thing that would have put Spitzer over the top is if, when he found out his name had arisen in the federal investigation of the prostitution ring, he had tried the old "You're investigating me? I'm investigating you!" defense.
3 comments:
Why did she stand there with him...I think shock more then anything.
I figure it will take a bit for the facts (spending over $80K since 2002) to really sink in.
Once it does...humiliating her is one thing, but that is $80K (not to mention how much he'll spend on defense, for example) that won't be there for his daughters....
The guy had almost $2,000,000.00 in income last year- they don't pay the Gov. that much- he is from a wealthy family money is not an issue. The wife and daughters did not miss $80,000 over 5-6 years. I bet a $4,300 withdrawal to a guy pulling in 2 mill is like a $200.00 withdrawal for you and me.
What will sink in is that he wanted to hahave unsafe (i.e. condomless sex). Assuming he had sex with his wife during this period she will be wondering what she shared with these other ladies. Of course an affair would raise the same concern and maybe more as these high priced ladies do not have to turn a large numner of tricks to make a living and appear by the news accounts to requiree condoms. An anonymous
hook up at a bar may have higher risk than this. But that is little comfort if you are in the wife's shoes.
As to the bargaining position, first no charges have been filed as of yet. The charges filed relate to the ring not the clients. If they are charging #9 you will need to see a whole bunch of charges filed. I would aruge selective prosecution if the only charges filed were against Number 9 and no other client. The FBI has phone records, computer records and on and on. They can get other men as well. If it is only Number 9 then the question is why- so Spitzer can say now look- I'll go quietly away hit me with a state misdeameanor and that is that. The government won't have to prove their case or go after the other clients and it is over.
Also the government will have to prove the case sex for money- I don't know if they have Spitzer on tape asking for sex. If not they need to have evidnece that this occurred. The assumption is that is what this was, but maybe his unsafe request was asking her to juggle knives-These ladies could all testify that they never offer sex for money and they never had sex with him. Hey, I just noticed scarlett Johanson is selling a chang eto meet her on ebay. THe high price is $40,000.00-just to meet. Maybe a guy would pay $4,000 to have dinner and chat with a supermodel type woman. Moreover, nobody could talk 5th amendment and all- they could grant immunity, but to all the ladies? to the escort club owners? They want these guys on money laundering and tax evasion-why goof that up just to nail Spritzer- The Government gets someting with a plea agreement.
I get a kick out of how the media have conveniently failed to mention his party affiliation.
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