Free Republic

Is Mark Sanford's behavior contemptible enough to make him King of Heels, or does that (dis)honor belong to John Ensign, Eliot Spitzer or John Edwards? ... Let's compare [them] low-blow by low-blow ...

THERE'S a huge difference between what South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford did, and what ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer did. "I didn't fall in love with any of them," Spitzer was overheard telling LMDC executive director Avi Schick the other day at Solo in the Sony Building on Madi son, where they had the $24 prix-fixe lunch. And Spitzer didn't use any taxpayer money on his trysts, while Sanford is reimbursing the state about $12,000 for travel expenses to Buenos Aires. Schick had Vietnamese beef spring rolls and a grilled chicken salad.

(CNN) — OK — this one's really got to hurt. A new poll suggests that a majority of New Yorkers would prefer to have disgraced former governor Eliot Spitzer in office right now instead of the current governor, David Paterson. And the Marist College poll, released Monday, indicates that less than 1 in 5 New Yorkers approve of the job Paterson's doing as governor. Paterson's a Democrat, but even among his own party, only 22 percent think he's doing a good or excellent job in office. This new Marist poll continues a trend seen in other recent surveys of New...

SO maybe Eliot Spitzer did kill AIG, after all. Nobody doubts the in surance giant is basically kaput, or that the promix ate cause is billions in losses in obscure instruments known as credit-default swaps, or CDSs. But American International Group didn't go deadly deep into CDSs until after New York Attorney General Spitzer had forced out Maurice "Hank" Greenberg out as CEO. GO back to March 2005, just days after Spitzer scored his biggest scalp during his eight-year tenure as the Sheriff of Wall Street by compelling Greenberg's departure. The new CEO, long-time AIG executive Martin Sullivan, held an...

Slouching Toward Columbine: Darwin's Tree of Death April 20, 2009 David Klinghoffer I've long been fascinated by the image of the Tree of Death, parallel to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden and cryptically referred to in mystical texts explaining the Hebrew Bible: And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). Come and behold: as soon as night falls, the...

So now the Democrats want to tax benefits. Did they ever meet a tx that they did not like?

Eliot Spitzer choked her during sex, claims high-end call girl claims high-end call girl Updated Sunday, March 8th 2009, 3:08 PM Eliot Spitzer Altaffer/AP Eliot Spitzer Related News Articles * One year later: The Spitzer call girl scandal His political rivals used to accuse Eliot Spitzer of going for the jugular. Now a new call girl is claiming the former governor literally went for hers — claiming he wrapped his fingers around her neck during some kinky role-playing. As the first anniversary of his resignation as governor approaches, Spitzers Emperors Club VIP plaything Ashley Dupre is still holding back on...

Michael Moore is in the middle of shooting a movie about Wall Street and the financial industry. So who is he now turning to for help? The Daily Kos. I kid you not. Yesterday Moore posted a thread on the Daily Kos titled, "Will You Help Me With My Next Film? ...a request from Michael Moore." Here is the text of his request asking for Kossack "expertise" about high finance: Friends,I am in the middle of shooting my next movie and I am looking for a few brave people who work on Wall Street or in the financial industry to...

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned due to his involvement in a prostitution ring, is slowly attempting to edge himself back into the public eye with his new column in Slate. The problem from the POV of The New Republic is that Spitzer is trying to make himself relevant again much too quickly without showing the proper remorse. As a result, The New Republic gives Spitzer some atonement advice written by Jacob Gershman which does the former governor no real service since anything he does now will come off as a cynical attempt to return to the public...

When I was young, jobs grown-ups had were doctors, plumbers, lawyers, dentists, stock brokers and so on. I had never heard of "Community Organizer" until this Presidential season. What is this job and how does it connect with important current issues? Today, the Department of the Treasury exerted a conservatorship over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the cost of billions to taxpayers. The role of community organizers like ACORN and Barak Obama played in our present financial dislocations may be more direct and pervasive than what first meets the eye. The present subprime financial strains have as its genesis...

Three senior aides to a former governor, Eliot Spitzer, and a former state police superintendent violated state ethics laws by plotting against a former Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, the state's top ethics body has concluded. More than a year after the Spitzer administration was hit with allegations that it improperly used the state police to dig up travel records that could prove damaging to the former Senate leader, the State Commission on Public Integrity handed down the first formal charges related to the scandal. It did not find evidence linking Mr. Spitzer to the scandal. The...

Spitzer "actually enjoyed destroying people," said a former NYSE managing director, Richard Riker. "Spitzer's legacy is tarnished and trashed because of [the prostitution scandal that led to his resignation] and the Richard Grasso lawsuit suit." "[The Court of Appeals decision upholding Grasso's pay package] becomes part of the realization that Spitzer was no more than a legal lightweight who bullied and slashed his way through Wall Street using the power of his office," Riker said. Spitzer's personal reputation was already in tatters. Revelations that Spitzer had a years-long addiction to high-priced prostitutes - and that he might be indicted himself...

Mayor Bloomberg is a nasty, untrustworthy, tan trum-prone liar who "has little use" for average New Yorkers - like the 1,500 workers who would have lost their jobs had OTB closed, a furious Gov. Paterson has said privately. "He appears to be self-destructing," the governor said. According to a source with firsthand knowledge of Paterson's comments, the governor said that during talks last week on OTB's future, Bloomberg threw the same kind of bizarre tantrums that disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer had been known for. "He has the same kind of anger that reminds you of Spitzer," The governor charged...

The cooperation agreement reached between prosecutors and an employee of the call-girl ring known as Emperors Club VIP will come in handy should the Manhattan U.S. attorney, Michael Garcia, decide to charge Governor Spitzer with a crime. The woman, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, who entered a guilty plea to money laundering and prostitution-related charges yesterday, would be a key witness against Mr. Spitzer if the former governor is charged in connection with patronizing an Emperors Club prostitute... Lewis, who booked clients for the call-girl service, had several phone conversations with Mr. Spitzer to hammer out the logistics of payment and...

Just when the party needs them most, the Dems super-delegates are dropping like flies. First there was William Jefferson, followed by Eliot Spitzer, then Kwame Kilpatrick, and today, Anibal Acevedo-Vila. This morning’s announcement of the indictment of Puerto Rico’s governor along with twelve others, including prominent Philadelphia democratic fundraiser Robert Feldman, worries party faithful for more reasons than one. Governor Acevedo-Vila , “a Harvard educated attorney and politician,” who according to AP, “was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform,” just last month endorsed Senator Obama for president.But as WaPo’s the Trail points out: " The reach...

BY HAROLD EMERT in Rio de Janeiro and BILL HUTCHINSON in New York DAILY NEWS WRITERS Manhattan madam Andreia Schwartz bitterly compared America with Nazi Germany Sunday while in the streets, Brazilians turned on her, cursing her at an Easter parade. An effigy of Schwartz was paraded through the streets of her seaside hometown behind one of Judas, Jesus' betrayer, as newspapers branded her a "Simple Prostitute." The 33-year-old beauty, who was deported Saturday after serving 18 months for running a midtown brothel, threatened to dish dirt on former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's favorite prostitution ring, the Emperors Club VIP. "I...

I'm sure you've all heard of the recent scandal in New York where the Governor (Eliot Spitzer, Democrat) was caught up in a call girl ring, but there was another scandal before that in which the Governor's political rival, State Senate majority leader Joe Bruno (Republican) found out that Governor Spitzer was using the State Police to spy on him: "I've been in government 31 years and I've never experienced anything like this," said Bruno. "I was stunned to learn Governor Spitzer is using the fine men and women of the New York State Police to conduct surveillance on me,"...

Flip-flopping Albany DA David Soares was blasted for "a second cover-up".....Soares' Sept. 21 first report falsely found then-Gov Eliot Spitzer wasn't part of the plot to use the State Police against Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and that Soares may have sought Spitzer's removal from office if the disgraced ex-governor hadn't resigned March 12 in the wake of a high-priced-hooker scandal. One of the most glaring omissions in Soares' latest report is an explanation of why his first report - which came in the wake of The Post's exposé and a confirming report from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -...

SCHEMER: Darren Dopp, one of the governor's men who orchestrated the plot against Joe Bruno. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer would have faced a grand-jury probe and may have warranted impeachment for repeatedly lying about his involvement in the Dirty Tricks Scandal, an explosive report from the Albany County district attorney concluded yesterday. In a startling revelation, District Attorney David Soares said that had Spitzer not resigned in the call-girl scandal, the DA would have asked a grand jury to consider urging impeachment or other disciplinary action because the then-governor repeatedly claimed in testimony to Soares that he was not...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A prosecutor says former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer angrily ordered an aide to smear a political rival _ something Spitzer denies. Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares says Spitzer cursed at former aide Darren Dopp and told him to release records that could embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno. But Soares says it doesn't appear Spitzer broke any laws. This is the second time the prosecutor has reviewed the case. Spitzer resigned earlier this month amid allegations

ALBANY — Last fall, Eliot Spitzer’s administration asked a state ethics commission to determine whether officials, including the governor, who fly on state aircraft should be required to reimburse the state if part of a trip was not for official business. What the commission said, in an advisory opinion issued in September, could pose a problem for the former governor. When Mr. Spitzer flew to Washington on Feb. 13 — the day he is reported to have had a rendezvous with a prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel — he traveled on a Beechcraft B300 that belonged to the state. The...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department used some of its most intrusive tactics against Eliot Spitzer, examining his financial records, eavesdropping on his phone calls and tailing him during its criminal investigation of the Emperor’s Club prostitution ring. The scale and intensity of the investigation of Mr. Spitzer, then the governor of New York, seemed on its face to be a departure for the Justice Department, which aggressively investigates allegations of wrongdoing by public officials, but almost never investigates people who pay prostitutes for sex. A review of recent federal cases shows that federal prosecutors go sparingly after owners and operators...

Of all the wisecracks heard in the marble halls of New York's Capitol after Gov. Eliot Spitzer's downfall in a call-girl scandal, one jest enlightened as much as it stung: Spitzer's got to be the only guy in Albany who PAYS for sex. It is an open secret that there is a lot of fooling around going on at the statehouse. And at other statehouses, too. In fact, Gov. David Paterson, in an extraordinary news conference on Tuesday, his first full day on the job after taking over from Spitzer, acknowledged he had had extramarital affairs with a number of...

Dr. Laura is taking an enormous amount of heat from feminists over her comments concerning the Eliot Spitzer/Silda Spitzer situation. For example, in the Salon Broadsheet blog post Dr. Laura to Silda: It's all your fault!, feminist blogger Kate Harding writes: "Conservative radio host Laura Schlessinger has offered us a new theory on Silda Wall Spitzer: She drove her husband to cheat in the first place. "In the last week, she has been on Hannity & Colmes, Larry King Live and the Today show, offering opinions like this: "'And when the wife does not focus in on the needs and...

Far be it from NB to suggest there's any correlation between a liberal political orientation and a propensity for prostitution. But in the wake of the Spitzer scandal, the New York Times has run an article profiling three call girls, and we couldn't help but look for telltale signs of their politics. There were no particular hints regarding one of the ladies. But as for the other two . . . well, let's say it's unlikely they'll be turning up anytime soon as contributing editors at NewsBusters. Ava Xi’an was the apparently apolitical pro. She claims to have gotten into...

The federal criminal investigation that has led to Eliot Spitzer's resignation as governor of New York illustrates the great dangers all Americans face from vague and open-ended sex and money-transaction statutes. Federal law, if read broadly, criminalizes virtually all sexual encounters for which something of value has been given. Federal money-laundering statutes criminalize many entirely legitimate and conventional banking transactions. Congress enacted these laws to give federal prosecutors wide discretion in deciding which "bad guys" to go after. Generally, wise and intelligent prosecutors use their discretion properly -- to target organized crime, terrorism, financial predation, exploitation of children and the...

As the political eulogies for Eliot Spitzer are written, a lot will be said about the alleged contradiction between his "righteous," "crusading" public persona and his tawdry personal life. For example, in a remarkably insipid column today, Gail Collins of the New York Times professes utter amazement at the revelation about Spitzer, as if it came out of nowhere, like space_aliens_landing in the middle of Central Park. "You never know," sighs this middle-aged naïf. The New York Post's man in Albany, Fredric Dicker, is having none of it. "I Knew He Was a Fraud & a Hypocrite from the Day...

NEW YORK - The offers are already coming for the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer call-girl scandal. She’s wanted on the pages of Penthouse. The magazine has been trying to reach out to 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupre, but has not succeeded. Penthouse Magazine Group president and publisher Diane Silberstein says Penthouse would "love to have her in the magazine" and would consider offering her a cover shot. Dupre has been identified in news reports as the prostitute whose hotel-room tryst with the New York governor led to his resignation Wednesday. Silberstein says the aspiring musician sounds like...

As her instant celebrity status continues to climb in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, Ashley Alexandra Dupre has now received a $1 million offer to bare it all.

"If you are in a relationship, and it is 'doing absolutly [sic] nothing' for you, makes you feel bad about yourself of situations, just causing unessesary [sic] drama, and ruining things that you may actually care about . . . why would you want that in your life?" She wrote, "Surround yourself around people that [sic] are making moves, and doing what 'they want and love' with their lives, positive energy . . . that's what life all about . . . living." I feel a tear coming on. Two alternate pictures are emerging of Ashley. In one, she's a...

A highly unauthorized "Real Men of Genius" parody clip just appeared on YouTube, sarcastically saluting Spitzer's "moral crusade against our so-called corrupted industry (radio)" and wondering what he did with the more than $40 million in settlements he exacted from radio. That one's off the air, but some stations continue to salute the Spitzer folly with promotions like Keymarket's in Pittsburgh. Its country "Froggy" uses the sounder from the old "Dragnet" TV show to give away copies of Sara Evans' greatest hits, which includes the tune "Cheatin'." Grand prize is two nights at the Super 8 near Cheat Lake, WV....

** EXCERPT ** ALBANY — Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Gov. Eliot Spitzer used campaign funds in connection with his meetings with prostitutes, including payments for hotels or ground transportation, three people with knowledge of the investigation said. Prosecutors have asked the governor’s lawyers about the travel arrangements for three trips, including his Feb. 13 rendezvous with a prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan has also asked about the governor’s use of car services during trips to Washington. The governor’s lawyers have begun consulting with a campaign finance expert who has long...

Those of us who have been participating in the Eliot Spitzer Media Waiting Game -- halting our respitory activity in anticipation of the Jurassic Press actually ascribing Party affiliation to the recently resigned Big Apple Governor -- can finally breathe easy. The Agence-France Presse and Yahoo! have teamed up to finally do what's right. Only they do it so VERY wrong. Eliot Spitzer (R) holds a news conference in New York City with his wife Silda by his side

The political future of Eliot Spitzer is decided. But the legal fate of the man who made his reputation as a crime fighter is not. Shortly after Mr. Spitzer's late-morning resignation announcement, Michael Garcia, U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, issued a statement saying "there is no agreement between this Office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter." "He is a far less likely target out of office," ... Mr. Spitzer may be vulnerable to charges that he sought to evade federal banking laws in extracting cash from his bank accounts to pay the Emperors Club... Mr....

Okay, I vowed to do a DUFU today on a subject other than Eliot Spitzer. However, I found this Jackie & Dunlap Red State Update VIDEO about Eliot Spitzer and his hooker to be so absolutely HILARIOUS that I had to break my vow. Please be warned that the language in this video is VERY STRONG. However, this is the way real guys talk to each other when the women aren't around. Some of the very FUnnie highlights are Jackie wondering why Spitzer would be so naive as to give a big cash deposit to a hooker as well...

Remember back during the Bill Clinton years all those stories about how being a serial philandering president might not necessarily be a bad thing? NBC's Bob Faw captured that zeitgeist, saying in 1998 that actually, Clinton was in very good company. "It might put Mr. Clinton’s conduct with a certain intern in a different light," he said, referring to allegations by liberal historians that Jefferson had sexual relations with his slave Sally Hemings. "After all, if Bill Clinton’s favorite President could end up on Mount Rushmore and the $2 dollar bill despite being sexually active with a subordinate [...] it...

There now seems to be a new element in the drive for Governor Eliot Spitzer's resignation. It is that his resignation would mean the loss of ONE superdelegate for Hillary Clinton at the Democrat convention as you can see in this KOmmie THREAD titled, "Spitzer’s Resignation Would, In the End, Mean a Superdelegate Loss for Hillary." Yes, just ONE less superdelegate. The Obama wing of the Democrat party are so desperate to defeat Hillary they are actually savoring that ONE superdelegate loss despite the fact that the loss of ONE superdelegate won't affect the outcome since Barack Obama (especially...

While Jim Cramer is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" normally lets his emotions show over matters financial. In August, for example, he went ballistic at Ben Bernanke, pleading with the Fed chairman to lower interest rates in the face of widespread home foreclosures. But this morning, Cramer got verklempt not over the discount rate but at the falling fortunes of his friend Eliot Spitzer. Cramer went to Harvard Law with the embattled governor and his wife Silda, and has been a Spitzer defender in the face of criticism by many of...

Tanya Hollander, the woman charged with arranging prostitutes for the Emperor's Club VIP, appears to have been leading a secret double life as both a hippie-ish holistic healer and a power broker's madam. Tanya, as the media has been spelling her name, is alleged to have booked girls for New York Governor-for-the-moment Eliot Spitzer. Meanwhile, Tania, an alias listed in charges unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's office on March 6, appears to have maintained an extensive "health counseling" website (now taken down but cached here) and a MySpace page (last login February 8), where she describes herself as "a grounded,...

Disgraced Gov. Spitzer ... a millionaire, was hopping into bed with harlots for as long as 10 years and traveled as far as Florida for call-girl trysts... The prostitute-patronizing former prosecutor spent today huddled with top aides and lawyers in his Fifth Avenue apartment - trying to arrange a plea deal under which he’d resign his office but avoid prison time - as he desperately clung to power despite growing cries for his departure, even among fellow Democrats.

Just how in the hell would a high-profile, ho-bustin' politician like Eliot Spitzer ever expect to get away with his pay-for-play D.C. side piece? "It's so easy not to not get caught," reformed Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss tells Radar, adding that she provided service to many a well known politician her day. "I saw many famous people—more famous than Eliot Spitzer—and you know what, you pay people right, you treat them right, you don't have a problem." The devil, she says, was in Spitzer's particular freak, which left the gals who are alleged to have serviced him describing the governor...

Last April, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by me titled "Mr. Spitzer Has Gone Too Far." In it I expressed my belief that in America, everyone--including Hank Greenberg--is innocent until proven guilty. "Something has gone seriously awry," I wrote, "when a state attorney general can go on television and charge one of America's best CEOs and most generous philanthropists with fraud before any charges have been brought, before the possible defendant has even had a chance to know what he personally is alleged to have done, and while the investigation is still under way." Since there have...

In a revealing moment of MSM elitism, WaPo editorialist Ruth Marcus, discussing the decision of Silda Wall Spitzer to appear with her husband Eliot yesterday, wanted people to know Mrs. Spitzer is a Harvard law grad and a "serious" person, not a Tammy Wynette type. Marcus was interviewed by Contessa Brewer on MSNBC this afternoon, and the pair turned to the question of why political wives tend to appear with their husbands who have been caught up in sex scandals. RUTH MARCUS: I just don't think that we should lump all these women together. And to use a line that...

Video at link. "Bringing Some Passion Back to Albany" http://www.observer.com/2008/eliot-spitzer-bringing-passion-back-albany

Perhaps New York Governor Eliot Spitzer believes he can weather the firestorm over his scandal about his involvement with a high-class prostituion ring. However, he is battling an element that will keep his scandal alive in the public more than the usual political scandal---humor. Spitzer's breaking scandal is less than a day old and already the media and the blogosphere is filled with many jokes and parody songs about his situation. Even may liberals are laughing at Spitzer since the humor generated by a self-righteous politician involved in a sleazy scandal involving a prostitution ring is just too hard to ignore....

It is ironic that New York Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer has had his undeserved reputation for high moral standards tarnished by his sexual escapades which, while perhaps sleazy, did not harm any of us. In fact he deserved our moral scorn for his assault on productive individuals and flaunting of the rule of law when he was New York attorney general, done arrogantly in the name of "morality." In an article entitled "Eliot Spitzer: Ayatollah General," in the April/May 2005 issue of The New Individualist, Roger Donway exposed the details of that envy-based assault as Spitzer prepared to run for...

Was there any real possibility that this DUFU edition would be about anything other than the Eliot Spitzer scandal? Of course not. But before we get into the juicy and very FUnnie details of the KOmmie reaction to this scandal, we must lead off with this incredible song parody by our own Charles Henrickson called PROSTITUTIN' SPITZ to the tune of Puttin' on the Ritz: If you're guvAnd wish you knewWhere to get loveWhy don't you doLike hypocritesProstitutin' Spitz Girls with namesYou find out afterPlay their gamesAnd soon you haftaCall it quitsProstitutin' Spitz Hooked up with a thousand-dollar hookerNow...

The Eliot Spitzer prostitution ring scandal is the PERFECT situation for jokes. I am sure there will be a plethora of such jokes. Therefore please post on this thread all Eliot Spitzer jokes that you hear. Let this be the Eliot Spitzer Joke Resource Center. Oh, and don't forget to post any such jokes made by comedians.

NEW YORK -- More details about Eliot Spitzer's alleged meeting with a prostitute emerged Monday after the New York governor and father of three apologized to his family and the public. According to a law enforcement source close to the investigation, the Democratic governor used the alias "George Fox" when meeting with a prostitute. His alleged conversations with the prostitution ring are detailed in court papers in which Spitzer is identified as "Client 9," according to a source. On Monday afternoon, the Democratic governor delivered an apology standing next to his wife, Silda, who looked down at the ground as...

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Eliot Spitzer is doing as Governor? All Approve 36% Disapprove 56% Not Sure 8%