HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Nothing I love better than Preachers or Politicians that run on the "Morality" position getting busted.

Quote: Originally Posted by AP NEW YORK - Gov. Eliot Spitzer, accused in news reports of being involved in a prostitution ring, apologized to his family and the public on Monday at a hastily called news conference. He did not elaborate on the story. With his wife at his side, Spitzer told reporters that he "acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family." "I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he said. "I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family." The New York Times reported earlier in the day that Spitzer told senior administration officials that he was linked to a prostitiution ring. The report cited an anonymous administration official. The Times reported that a person with knowledge of the governor's role believes the governor is identified in court papers as a client of a prostitution ring. Four people allegedly connected to a high-end ring called the Emperors Club VIP were arrested last week. The Web site of the Emperors Club VIP displays photographs of scantily clad women with their faces hidden. It also shows hourly rates depending on whether the prostitutes were rated with one diamond, the lowest ranking, or seven diamonds, the highest. The most highly ranked prostitutes cost $5,500 an hour, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the defendants arranged connections between wealthy men and more than 50 prostitutes in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris. The Times reported that the governor's travel records show he was in Washington in mid-February, and that one of the clients arranged to meet with a prostitute on the night of Feb. 13. The case is being handled by prosecutors in the Public Corruption unit of U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia's office. Garcia spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said the office had no comment. Around a stunned state Capitol in Albany, lawmakers and staff huddled around televisions to see the news conference. A media mob gathered outside the office of Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who would become governor if Spitzer was to resign. Spitzer, 48, built his political reputation on rooting out corruption, including several headline-making battles with Wall Street while serving as attorney general. He stormed into the governor's office in 2006 with a historic share of the vote, vowing to continue his no-nonsense approach to fixing one of the nation's worst governments. Time Magazine had named him "Crusader of the Year" when he was attorney general and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." But his stint as governor has been marred by several problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear Spitzer's main Republican nemesis. Spitzer had been expected to testify to the state Public Integrity Commission he had created to answer for his role in the scandal, in which his aides were accused of misusing state police to compile travel records to embarrass Senate Republican Leader Joseph Bruno. Spitzer had served two terms as attorney general where he pursued criminal and civil cases and cracked down on misconduct and conflicts of interests on Wall Street and in corporate America. He had previously been a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, handling organized crime and white-collar crime cases. His cases as state attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and into tourism involving prostitutes. In 2004, he was part of an investigation of an escort service in New York City that resulted in the arrest of 18 people on charges of promoting prostitution and related charges.

That's some expensive tail...

LOL for $5K he is getting *'d. And a lot more before its all over I'm sure.

Find me an honest politician, that is truly in it for the masses and not for his own means. Find me anybody in government that cares more for the people than the fat stack in their wallet.

Sorry, can't be done. If they say they are, it's a simple test. Ask them to refuse a paycheck.



If anybody bothered to look I am sure over half of our elected officials can be prosecuted for some sort of crime. I'm sorry if it's a bad outlook on our government but it doesn't take much effort to find dozens of stories of our elected officials committing criminal acts. Why should New Yorks govna be any different. The fool just got noticed and is gonna go down for it.

Edit: Just in case you don't believe me. Here is a short list of elected officials that have been investigated for sex scandals. It only dates back to 2001 since the full list is rather long and there is no way I could post the entire list of corrupt officials just from this one page. List is from Political scandals of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote: # Gary Condit (D-CA) - affair with intern Chandra Levy (2001) # Paul Patton (D-KY) Kentucky Governor - affair; became public after former mistress alleged retaliation against her business (2002) # Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH) - affair with staffer (2003) # Bob Wise (D-WV) West Virginia Governor - affair with state employee (2003) # The Washingtonienne scandal (2004) # Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) California Governor - admitted groping women early in career # Jack Ryan (R) Illinois U.S. Senate candidate - sex scandal with ex-wife (2004) # Ed Schrock (R-VA) - alleged to have ran a personal column for men wanting to meet other men (2004) # Don Sherwood (R-PA) - Extramarital affair with accusations of abuse (2004) # Jim McGreevey (D-NJ) New Jersey Governor - ; closeted homosexual extramarital affair (2004) # Kevin Shelley (D-CA) California Secretary of State - a number of former staffers and other associates accused Shelley of abusive behavior, including sexually explicit gestures and remarks (2004) # Jim West (R) Mayor of Spokane, WA - faced charges of child molestation and misuse of his office for sexual favors with young men (2005) # Jeff Gannon (AKA Jim Guckert) was a fake White House correspondent who also turned out to be a special kind of "military escort", with records showing he visited the White House about 200 times and was also a gay prostitute. (2005) # Mark Foley (R-FL) - accusations of sending sexually explicit instant messages to an underage congressional page (2006) # D.C. Madam Scandal; Prostitution ring centering around Deborah Jeane Palfrey (2007) * David Vitter (R-LA) and Randall Tobias were linked in the Palfrey affair (2007) # Gavin Newsom (D-CA) San Francisco Mayor - accused of extramarital affair with wife of campaign manager and former deputy chief-of-staff Alex Tourk (2007) # Bob Allen (R-FL) - busted for solicitation of a police officer in public men's room, claimed he did it out of a racist panic (2007) # Antonio Villaraigosa (D-CA) Los Angeles Mayor - extramarital affair (2004), affair with Spanish-language television reporter Mirthala Salinas (2007) # Glenn Murphy Jr. (R) - 33 year-old president of the Young Republican National Federation, under investigation for sexual assault of a sleeping 22 year-old man (2007) # Richard Curtis (R-WA) - blackmailed and outed by a male prostitute after he didn't reveal his gay lifestyle (2007) # Larry Craig (R-ID) - pled guilty to disorderly conduct in a Minneapolis airport men's room in June, after having been arrested on a charge of lewd conduct (2007) # John Burton (D-CA) former California Senate Pro Tempore - accused of sexual harassment by a female employee at his charity organization (2008) # Kwame Kilpatrick (D-MI) Detroit Mayor - extramarital affair with his Chief-of-Staff, Christine Beatty (resigned January 28, 2008). Uncovered racy text messages between them by the press contradicted their sworn denials of an affair. Kilpatrick was also alleged to have stayed at the Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC with a woman named Carmen Slowsky, whom was not his wife (2008) # Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) New York Governor - went through a prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP where he allegedly met with a prostitute in a Washington, DC hotel. He was linked to the prostitution ring by a wiretap of his cell phone (2008)

Quote: Originally Posted by vf1000ride Find me an honest politician, that is truly in it for the masses and not for his own means. Find me anybody in government that cares more for the people than the fat stack in their wallet. Sorry, can't be done. If they say they are, it's a simple test. Ask them to refuse a paycheck. If anybody bothered to look I am sure over half of our elected officials can be prosecuted for some sort of crime. I'm sorry if it's a bad outlook on our government but it doesn't take much effort to find dozens of stories of our elected officials committing criminal acts. Why should New Yorks govna be any different. The fool just got noticed and is gonna go down for it. Edit: Just in case you don't believe me. Here is a short list of elected officials that have been investigated for sex scandals. It only dates back to 2001 since the full list is rather long and there is no way I could post the entire list of corrupt officials just from this one page. List is from Political scandals of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to burst your bubble but Mayor Michael Bloomberg (of New York City) only gets paid $1 a year. He also takes public transportation to and from City Hall the majority of th time. THe number 6 train if I recall. But he is the exception.

To be honest, unless he used state resources along the way, I couldn't care less if he was banging every prostitute in the country. That is between him and his wife. Spitzer's downfall here is the whole "I'm right, you're wrong" attitude he has always had. What is sad is that he actually did a very good job as AG and is doing okay as gov.

Quote: Originally Posted by DickNervous Spitzer's downfall here is the whole "I'm right, you're wrong" attitude he has always had.

That's where the enjoyement of their comeuppance is derived.

The wife and I were talking about this last night. She told me that there is not enough money in the universe to get her to stand by me at a press conference where I announce I have a wide stance/visit prostitutes/am a gay american.

So what would you do? Would you be at your spouse's side during the mea culpa?

Quote: Originally Posted by Im_gumby That's where the enjoyement of their comeuppance is derived. The wife and I were talking about this last night. She told me that there is not enough money in the universe to get her to stand by me at a press conference where I announce I have a wide stance/visit prostitutes/am a gay american. So what would you do? Would you be at your spouse's side during the mea culpa?

Yeah, since it started a few months ago, by now my lawyer has EVERYTHING in my name and all his income in the future. So yeah, I'ld stand there looking like a fool for the right amount of money.

mom

Quote: Originally Posted by lokies_mom Yeah, since it started a few months ago, by now my lawyer has EVERYTHING in my name and all his income in the future. So yeah, I'ld stand there looking like a fool for the right amount of money. mom

That all depends ...

Hillary stood by her husband, but then she became NY Senator and is now running for the Democratic Candidacy ... personally, that support's Mom's theory.

However, lacking that kind of funding ... I sure as heck wouldn't stand by my wife if she cheated on me and say, "She had a moral test, and now needs my religious strength to fight through this" or some BS like that. She cheats, it's over. Done deal. I expect the same treatment from her.

-j

Quote: Originally Posted by Im_gumby That's where the enjoyement of their comeuppance is derived. The wife and I were talking about this last night. She told me that there is not enough money in the universe to get her to stand by me at a press conference where I announce I have a wide stance/visit prostitutes/am a gay american. So what would you do? Would you be at your spouse's side during the mea culpa?

That depends, are their videos for me to watch?

The second the world religion, or anything relating to do with it in politics, I'm out.

I seriously don't think it belongs.

I remain conflicted on this one.

I'll assume he's doing a reasonable job as govenor. I only get my New York state political updates at Christmas when my buddy from Ithaca visits his mom down here in Georgia.

So if a govenor is doing a reasonable job and gets caught doing 61 mph in a 50 mph zone, do you still call for his resignation? Some of you would, some wouldn't.

Now if he's murdering babies with a shotgun at random I think I can safely assume that all of us would call for resignation as well as a speedy execution.

So where does solicitation fall on this spectrum? Personally I don't think it's much of a crime. If that's where a man wants to spend THOUSANDS of dollars I kinda feel like that's ok capitalism. The feminist and religious arguments against have never swayed me.

Now his wife? *I* think she should take her daughters, all his worldly goods, divorce him and leave him to wander the streets of Manhattan homeless during the winter months. But that remains her call not mine.

So is paying for it a big deal? Suppose he had a mistress - ya know the free kind? Is that a problem for New Yawkers? Wasn't when Guiliani was mayor.

And yeah adultery is currently not against the law - but it used to be. Heck it may still be on the New York books and not enforced.

By his admission yesterday, Spitzer isn't going to fight the alligations. He could have chosen to. "She never made it to my room". "Do you have pictures?" "Photoshopped!" and so on. So at first blush the stragedy appears to:
1] Admit mistake and take responsibility
2] Accept punishment [which will no doubt be a fine or something minor]
3] Go on with governing

But will New Yorkers let him? THAT remains to be seen.

-MF

He has been doing a reasonably good job, and I would let him to continue to do just that. I agree with everything you said MF.

Quote: Originally Posted by Monsignor Funkibut So where does solicitation fall on this spectrum? Personally I don't think it's much of a crime. If that's where a man wants to spend THOUSANDS of dollars I kinda feel like that's ok capitalism. The feminist and religious arguments against have never swayed me.

I don't think solicitation is that big of a deal either... I have never and will never, but for me it's like homosexuality: to each their own.

BUT

That isn't the reason for the level of ire this has raised. It is because he ran a campaign on the "I'll clean up the sleaze in Albany" platform and it turns out he's as sleazy or sleazier than those he replaced.

It's the hypocracy, man!

Yeah - no doubt he didn't just step in the hypocrisy but went to the deep end of that pool and jumped in with his clothes off.

But then, aren't all politicians hypocrites?

Or to state it more academically - isn't the job politician by its very nature hypocritical?

When we studied the Myers-Briggs test in I/O psychology, the professor warned that two groups of people were very hard to measure: actors and politicians. Their scores - from one taking of the test to another - weren't consistent. These two groups are - by their very nature - mental chameleons. They become what others want them to be without a strong internal compass about their own likes and dislikes.

Force them to choose vanilla ice cream and they'll happily do so. Force them to change to chocolate and they're just as happy. No anchors aboard their ships.

That's why you'll find diehard conservative Senators from farm states arguing that agricultural subsidies aren't "big government". You'll find Democrats all for the public schools until they are asked to send their child to one. And you'll find most Congresspersons accepting a pay raise year after year after year while complaining about the deficit.

We've gotten ourselves into a mess.

I just paid H&R Block $500 to fill about a dozen different tax forms. 1040, Schedule A, Schedule C, state and on and on. I'm an average American and I did 30 PAGES of forms.

Our drinking water [according to the AP] is so full of prescription drugs that I'm apparently going to have to get a prescription to have a drink soon.

And I have yet to see a politician who I thought could get us the hell out of this mess. Ever.

I despair.

And I've gone on a rant so I'll end here.

-MF

Quote: Originally Posted by DickNervous Not to burst your bubble but Mayor Michael Bloomberg (of New York City) only gets paid $1 a year. He also takes public transportation to and from City Hall the majority of th time. THe number 6 train if I recall. But he is the exception. To be honest, unless he used state resources along the way, I couldn't care less if he was banging every prostitute in the country. That is between him and his wife. Spitzer's downfall here is the whole "I'm right, you're wrong" attitude he has always had. What is sad is that he actually did a very good job as AG and is doing okay as gov.

Well so he is a rare example of someone in public office that supposedly doesn't receive a paycheck. Not withstanding the fact the guy is already worth over $10billion dollars.

The problem being is the guy still plays the game dirty. He paid private investigators to knowing break federal law and make illegal gun purchases in 5 surrounding states just so that he could then go back and have New York sue those states to shut down the gun shops. The ATF stepped in and found his practices illegal and shut him down, yet nothing came of it because of his position in power.
ATF Probing Mayor Bloomberg's 'Rogue Gun Sting' -- 02/07/2007

Wait a sec, Spitzer said he would clean up the sleaze in Albany. He got the hooker in DC, see, no sleaze in Albany.

As for the Mayor Bloomberg thing with the guns, I don't know the laws involved. But I don't see what is wrong with sending someone to try to buy a gun to determine if the dealer is following the rules. I can't see what is illegal there. The using of the results of that to sue them may be crossing the line however. And if he dropped the suit (the article you linked did not state the results of the suits) it would explain why nothing happened to Bloomberg.

Well basically comes down to this. If you pay somebody else to buy a gun for you it is considered a straw purchase. This practice is illegal under federal law.

Now I understand illegal gun trade/gun crime is an issue that Bloomberg wants to put a stop to but he went about it the wrong way and committed a crime himself in the process. He sent private investigators across state lines knowing they would be committing a criminal act. He paid for them to commit a criminal act for him. If he wanted to do this he should have had ATF backing and used either Fed's or undercover police from the affected states to do these investigations, not PI's. Why wasn't he performing this investigation in NEW YORK. Why did he see fit to investigate gun shops in 5 states other than his own without the help of the authorities who's job it is to do this work. Doesn't NY have shady gun stores he could work on shutting down. He knew if he tried to pull this stunt in NY he would be ousted as Mayor and probably sent to jail. He is the Mayor of a city, not the governor of the state. He certainly doesn't have the power or authority to send thugs across state lines to commit federal crimes for him.

Quote from the ATF website;

Quote: Purchasing a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing one, or for someone who does not want his or her name associated with the transaction, is a ?straw purchase,? a Federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

A friend of mine and I were chatting about this earlier today. He made the point that if Spitzer was paying $5,000 for some hooker's time, it was likely because he was into some very kinky stuff. Apparently they charge big bucks for what they call "specials." First off, I don't want to know the details. Second, don't want to know how my friend knows this.

As a woman, I've never been tempted to become a "working girl." Never had a drug habit that needed financing or in a situation so dire there was no other way to make money. Thank goodness.

vf1000ride: Thanks for clearing that up, now I understand where he went wrong, even if his intentions were good.

Now, back to the topic, I've been reading most of what is in the paper about this whole thing and here are the facts, as reported by Newsday:

- Spitzer allegedly used the call-girl service 7-8 times
- He paid nearly $80k in total
- Much of that was transportation. The call girls were all from the NY Metro area and he would fly them to wherever he was, pay for a high end hotel room for them, and then their fee. The travel costs could very well end up being more than the fees.
- The investigation was started when his bank filed a "Suspicious Activity Report" because he had wire transfered $10k (broken into smaller amounts) to another bank.
- The IRS started investigating and got the FBI involved because they thought he might be being blackmailed or something.

Here in NY it seems people are split on the topic of him resigning. Some say he should, some say only if he is charged with a crime. One thing is sure, all the people he has pissed off over the years with his "holier than thou" attitude are dancing in the streets. My two cents is that he should probably resign no matter what primarily because this will make him ineffective as a Governor.

What I really want to know is how you hide $80k in cash transactions from your spouse?