Posted on 03/16/2008 10:24:40 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
Ben Stein Says The Feds Driving A Governor Out Of Office Is A Scary Thing
Like every other American, I was stunned by the fall of Elliot Spitzer. Of course I feel terrible for his family and for him. He fought the law and the law won.
But something sinister is happening here and it scares me.
Governor Spitzer was elected by an immense majority in the third most populous state. He got millions of votes. Now he's out of a job and in disgrace, and a man the voters did not vote for as governor is governor.
Why? Because some nosy civil servants at the IRS started a fishing expedition against Spitzer because they suspected he might be moving around money for political bribes.
So they wiretapped him and they found he was using the money he was moving around to buy the services of prostitutes.
Now, this is illegal in most states, and clearly it is in New York and in DC. But let's be honest: Men hire prostitutes by the thousands, maybe tens of thousands, every day They also bring women across state lines for sex every day.
The punishment for the men who hire hookers is usually nil, or at most a small fine close to what you'd get for a traffic ticket.
However, in Governor Spitzer's case, he got outed, humiliated, disgraced in front of his family, and then the voters lost the guy they voted for.
It is deeply scary to me that a few employees of the federal executive branch can start a train rolling that has such immense effects on the electoral process. Basically, a few career civil servants have nullified the will of the voters of the Empire State (over something clearly wrong, I don't doubt that, but it's not a political crime, not treason, not terrorism).
Having elected officials kicked out of office by appointed officials is a very dicey proposition. Over hiring prostitutes?
I strongly suspect that if the feds followed a hundred young male elected officials around for a year, they would find some sexual hanky panky among a lot of them, and some money or gifts changing hands often. If the feds prosecuted them all, it would basically mean that federal prosecutors have a veto over the electoral process.
That is dangerous.
More will be revealed but it all scares me. Elections are a lot more important than call girls.
Why? Because some nosy civil servants at the IRS started a fishing expedition against Spitzer because they suspected ...
... that he was a common criminal. - which as it turns out, he was.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Already happening. The RINOs (who barely control the Senate) have done their best to preserve as many legislative seats as possible upstate. Once folks like Dean Skelos and Frank Padavan retire, however, their seats (Nassau and Queens, respectively) will go over to the Dem side, ensuring Dem dominance for the coming decades in both houses of the state legislature.
What will be left upstate will be a larger version of Vermont.
How prescient you are! Already happening in much of the Catskills (see Woodstock, Kingston, etc.) and even the Ithaca virus is spreading to other towns in the finger lakes.
“When you are going to destroy reputations and make enemies out of very powerful people as Spitzer had done, you’d better have a clean nose.”
That’s how I see it. He did “unto others” and now it’s his turn to bend over.
From now on it’s Spitzer’s picture appearing in Webster’s next to the word: Hypocrite
So sad/too bad ... NOT
Am surprised to see this. Looks like he been reading Fr. Joe Fletcher’s situational ethics book.
I have to agree with Ben Stein on this one. Spitzer may have had it coming and even invited it by his arrogance, but it smacks a bit of another day and age when snooping around for sexual scandal or impropriety to topple the powerful was perfected into a fine art, back when Reinhard Heydrich ran the S.D..
That is my understanding also.
They were investigating an organized crime ring and discovered the governor involved in a crime.
They acted entirely appropriately.
Not what happened. The IRS was investigating what appeared to be bribery, so much so another branch of government called the judiciary approved a wiretap. THEN they found evidence of another crime.
Men paying for sex is only illegal in SOME cases apparently.
Why is it legal for men to purchase gifts in return for sex on Valentine's Day? If a man gave a women cash instead of flowers for Valentine's Day (and they had sex), would that be prostitution?
What if a man and woman go on a blind date, he pays for dinner, movie, etc, and they have sex. Is THAT prostitution?
I don't agree. This man (Spitzer) crusaded against prostitution rings and put in jail the very people he patronized. He should be held accountable for his hypocrisy.
From what I've read, that's one of the primary reasons this investigation went anywhere...because that's always going to be a concern when you have irregularities in the lifestyles, transactions, substance abuse, and relationships of peoplein high profile/sensitive positions.
I'm as big an advocate of privacy as anyone on here, but when a person enters public service they should expect some compromise and transparency in that area...if they don't, I would suggest they entered public service for the wrong reasons.
Its illegal. A governor committed a crime. Thats why it is news. The civil servants did their job and the governor elected to resign. There is no twisted way one can say the people's will was nullified.
Even more reason to despise the senators who voted against Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
Stein and Dershowitz are just the first in what is to be an unending stream of high profile Jews that will try to redeem Spitzer’s reputation and/or have his charges eventually thrown out. It won’t stop anytime soon either. The same people have been trying to get Johnathan Pollard off since the day he was arrested for spying and treason. Remember Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? This same bunch of liberal communists are still trying to get them rehabilitated in the public eye.
Maybe Stein is cheesed by the fact that Big Brother is monitoring private transactions — looking for crimes.
My view on this is probably NSFW. I think Stein (who is no conservative) is way wrong on this. Though I have personal reservations about such behavior, it was the spitz’s choice. Nothing new about guys paying for whores if they are so trashy, perverted, deprived, depraved, or immoral to do so. They will pay more in the hereafter than what they were after. Essentially, individual, raw, mercantilistic freedom trumps someone telling someone else what to do or not do when it comes to paying for sex. However, free will acted upon is not free in the long run. God will sort it out.
In my view, it’s between the john or johnette, his or her conscience, the whore, the whore monger’s family, and each participants’ god (please note lower case).
Spitz got it (I mean caught) because he is and always will be an as#h@le. Almost self-made instant karma. Lovely. Almost as good as Obama and HRC eating each other.
I do think the feds would have looked the other way on this if spitz were not so sanctimonious and holier than thou, at least if serious infractions like money laundering, RICO and other offenses could be eliminated. Let’s face it: Spitz was covering up not to aid an illegal enterprise but to keep Silda from whipping his butt.
The aspect that concerns me is the role the Patriot Act played in forcing the Bank to reveal this info to the feds. That is not to suggest that I am against a vigorous branch of the DOJ keeping tabs on elected officials. I am just concerned about the manner in which the info was derived.
It should read "because some nosy civil servant at the NYDA started a fishing expedition"
Life is a bitch when, what goes around comes around. Well Spitz, deal with it and feel the heat, same heat you impose on the others! LG!
I recall having read somewhere that some in the US intel and national security communities had evidence that some of clintler's non-secure phone calls to Monica had been intercepted by a foreign intelligence service (possibly Israel). If true, it would seem they never used it for any leverage...possibly because it was publicly leaked before they could do anything with it. I can only imagine what kind of concessions billy boy would have made to foreign powers in order to keep his dalliances a secret....
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