Monday, March 10, 2008
Right guy, wrong bullet
The mind reels: Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring . Well, the harder they come...
Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.
In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.
“This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. “It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”
We're all hypocrites, but one might say that Spitzer came across as a high-minded reformer, but was nothing more than a John.
Personally, I was more offended by the hypocrisy Jim Cramer seemed to describe in his book. Spitzer, as an investor in Cramer's fund, was apparently willing to make money off of the same patently silly Wall Street stock rating system that he prosecuted later.
I was also more offended at his seeming willingness to pressure MBIA and AMBAC exactly the same way even though MBIA had already screwed its shareholders by raising $2.5 billion of new money to retain its franchise while AMBAC just talked about it (since partially remedied).
Prostitution - his business. Just a bad idea for prosecutors and state executives to break the law, no matter how stupid the law is.
UPDATE: Here's a possible defense - "He went there as half Governor, half prosecutor?
2nd Update: Check out the pricce list! Now I question his desperation.
17 Comments:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Mon Mar 10, 04:13:00 PM:
It's too bad the 'Villain is in Asia. He'd have a gas writing about this. Let's see if we hear from CardinalPark.
By Christopher Chambers, at
Mon Mar 10, 04:18:00 PM:
Yeah. I'm a little sad the news has overshadowed this bullcrap re: gas prices. The days of suburban dad driving a pick up and the soccer mom with an SUV or van are over. Our parents used cars and we seemed to turn out OK.
Spitzer was always a weirdo. He's also a pal of the Clintons. What bothers me is that his weirdness and self-aggrandizing (again, Clintonesque) now taints the genuine old fashioned muckraking/trustbusting/progressive era flavor he'd reinjected into an state's attorney general's job description. This at a time when the federal government was splooging over consumer protection and pander/bend/hit the revolving door with businesses it was supposed to be regulating. Oops--that sacrificing a good mission for one's own needs--Clintonish again!
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Mar 10, 04:23:00 PM:
Not sure I follow the gas prices point, but I think your second paragraph is spot on. True, I could not be more delighted -- further abuse of the Martin Act we did not need -- but your point is very well-taken.
By 
, at
Mon Mar 10, 04:32:00 PM:
A scumbag at Princeton in 1981, a scumbag today. Twenty seven years hasn't changed a thing. My roomie is probably thrilled.
Perhaps the "good mission" was cover for his own excesses.
By , at
Mon Mar 10, 05:54:00 PM:
RE: Wrong Bullet
Well, they got Capone on tax evasion, didn't they?
JLW III '67
By , at
Mon Mar 10, 06:04:00 PM:
I am not familiar with big city ways, but if this was a federal wiretap one could assume that they were looking at things other than a simple 'escort service'. I understand that prostitution is often associated with organized crime and I was wondering if it would be considered dangerous, corruption wise, to have an attorney general being 'escorted'.
But I am sure that this is only about sex.
By Christopher Chambers, at
Mon Mar 10, 06:48:00 PM:
Indespensible-
I recall him being a tool, but what set him apart (at Princeton) from all of the others. It's something and I can't quite put my finger on it. He was a senior when we were juniors or sophomores right? There was some that rose foreskin above the other clowns. Did he sue the university? Was there some weird scandal like that...I'm having a senility moment so help me.
Tell Ilves to have beer on me.
By Georg Felis, at
Mon Mar 10, 07:16:00 PM:
Something I noticed from the price list.
Gift Certificates Available on Request.
This is a prime opportunity for the Talented Bloggers to break out the Photoshop. Not me, I can't even draw a stick figure.
By , at
Mon Mar 10, 07:40:00 PM:
As a former public company general counsel, I am reveling in "Spitzerfreude."
By , at
Mon Mar 10, 09:16:00 PM:
Hey Chris:
Here's a link from our own Virginia Postrell:
http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/000083.html
Another from some Warren Meyer '84:
http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/000083.html
I will not go into why my roomie should be thrilled.
By , at
Mon Mar 10, 09:21:00 PM:
Opps, I munged the last link. It should be:
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2004/12/eliot_spitzer_a.html
My wife thinks it's incredibly funny that we went to school with this guy.
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Mar 10, 10:11:00 PM:
ID: I've been trying to remember Warren Meyer, by the way. He is an excellent blogger.
By Escort81, at
Tue Mar 11, 12:04:00 AM:
CC & ID -
In response to Virginia Postrell's pretty accurate post, her comment regarding the New Yorker article and its fact checking is not quite right. I have a former PU roommate who is a staff writer for the New Yorker who gave all of that information to the author of that article (about the fun things the ALF did and what a joke the USG was), but for whatever reasons, it was not it the final cut.
Also, another nit to pick with Virginia, there was in fact moderate political activity on the Princeton campus in the late 70s (maybe not so much after Reagan was in office in 1981) -- rallying for divestment from companies with holdings in South Africa ("Bowen, Bowen, you can't hide, we know you're on Apartheid's side," since he was a director of NCR) including a sit-in in Nassau Hall, U.S. out of El Salvador, boycotting Nestle because of the problems with the infant formula it then sold in African countries and other Third World areas. It wasn't Columbia in the 60s, but it wasn't Wharton in the 90s either. What do you guys remember?
My favorite recollection about the ALF was the quote in the Prince regarding another non-ALF candidate -- "I'm pretty sure that wasn't a duck-billed platypus [or some such obscure mammal] I saw leaving his room" -- making a joke about bestiality that hadn't happened.
CC, the only guy I can remember who sued the University around that time was the guy who climbed on top of the Dinky while drunk, was electrocuted and badly burned and lost limbs, and then sued PU and NJ Transit for not sufficiently cordoning off such a dangerous temptation. He essentially need money to pay for his care and was looking around for deep pockets.
By Gary Rosen, at
Tue Mar 11, 12:27:00 AM:
"some that rose foreskin above the other clowns"
You just can't resist the little antisemitic dig, can ya, Chrissy, ya old douchebag you?
By Andrew Hofer, at
Tue Mar 11, 04:53:00 AM:
That Dinky incident was in the '90s. (I was living here at the time) Spitzer is '81 or so?
By Christopher Chambers, at
Tue Mar 11, 05:11:00 PM:
Now, the new gov. will be a blind black man. Must be quite an ambivalence factory for you all. hahaha
PS, I wrote a song commemorating this stuff. Posted it eslewhere on the blog...
By Andrew Hofer, at
Wed Mar 12, 05:47:00 AM:
Yes, since we are well known for being racist and anti-visual impairment. Hahahaha.
F You and your idiot stereotypes.
