You're not arguing that sex partners are best chosen for their mutually-compatible levels of extortion, are you? That's the thing that was so aggravating ten years ago when people thought they were being sophisticated about sex by forgiving Bill Clinton. He didn't lie about sex, he lied about women. And he never did it to protect their dignity or their interests, but only his own.

He couldn't have the State Police bring him girls like every other governor? Or find a nice plump lobbyist?

But what I want to know is, what does $3,100 an hour get you?

i dont disagree with your opinion about prostitution. I think all un-coerced sex, for profit or non-profit should be legal. Aint nobodies business if you do.

The problem with Superspitz getting nailed for this was his zealousness regarding wall street. I firmly think and feel that wall st needs to be brought back to heel (Reinstate Glass-Stegal!!!!) and he was doing that, but he used personal info like this against his targets, including text messagein and email.

When he went after Grasso, he didnt just rail about his immense paycheck, he brought in sex with the secretary and a possible love child. He was an aggresive prick, who is now proven to be a fucking hypocrite. THAT is what so many are in total orgasmic glee over, karma coming around to run you over.

Men are more likely than women to use paid sex, powerful rich men pay even more.

It is being reported (witha straight face, mostly) that the woman involved pulled in almost 5k for one hour. I wonder if she will also get nailed for not declaring income on her taxes? ouch.

I mentioned on another blog that one talking face commenting about the situation ended with "for spitzer, it will be a tough row to hoe" without busting out in giggles. I would hate to play poker with him.

Oh, yeah. Forgot.

It wasnt one of the women who squealed, he was caught during a fed investigation of the ring.
He was on one of the wiretaps setting up a date/payment.

He was 'client 9'. Snicker hahahaha heeeeeehheee.

I apologize in advance because I find this whole story sooo funny. The whole fiasco just tickles my sense of silly, so if my dumb jokes get old, just bellow and I will stop.

Does anyone else think of Plan 9 when they hear client 9?hehehehe

I'm wondering, "What else is going on, that this guy needs to distract the public from it?" Mr. Clinton has a lot of people sure that all he did wrong was cheat on Hillary (nope). Sex is a surefire way of making people look at it rather than something else.

You're not arguing that sex partners are best chosen for their mutually-compatible levels of extortion, are you?

I'm suggesting a free-market exchange works for some people choosing partners, and who are we to get between two consenting adults trading services for financial remuneration?

I don't choose to visit prostitutes -- don't need to, as I'm a girl and I don't have two heads -- but if you do, wear a condom and pay cash.

And sorry, if you're seeing hookers and you're Spitzer, you need a multiple surgeon operation to extract your head from your ass.

Radwaste

Spitzer was one of the driving forces with the monoline insurers ambac and MBIA. Those two are big elephants in the room. They are involved in muni reinsurance and cdo's. They fall, banks fall, municipalities are rocked.....he and insurance commisioner dinallo were major players in geting them to sit down and try to hammer out some sort of rescue/bailout. Personally I dont see that happening, but hope springs eternal. He wanted to crack down on their recklessness. This is probably making your eyes cross, and I barely remotely skimmed it, and I only understand a teeny tiny portion about it, but it is a huuuuuge deal in the financial world.
.
So i htink that is what is being deflected/redirected. Ok, mr spitzer is going to play hardball with us, the masters of theuniverse? take him down, danno.

This wiretap was judicially approved from what I have read. Wonder what kind of info they're getting with the warrantless wiretaps? Enough to keep the Dems quiet?

"I wonder if she will also get nailed for not declaring income on her taxes? ouch."

Actually, she probably does declare her income. Most sophisticated sex workers do.

As for Spitzer, I can only aplaud when an arrogant hypocrity gets his come-uppance.

Prostitution should be legalized.

Spitzer should do as he wants. If he wasn't being satisfied at home, or if he wasn't attracted to his wife. who cares? it has nothing to do with his job.

There's some discussion about his engaging cases that involve prostitution rings, but the thing is, facts are facts, evidence is evidence, and whatever Spitzer has done with his wee-wee doesn't make a damn bit of difference at trial.

If there is anything that he's done that's illegal, it's use of state funds to travel to dc to get his rocks off. Nothing more, nothing less.

> she probably does declare
> her income.

Nonetheless, I'll always regard "sophisticated sex worker" as a contradiction in terms.

Is there evidence he used state funds? Been on deadline all day, so I didn't see the report that said so -- if there is such a report.

Bloomberg sent him an e-mail asking if she was saturated fat or unsaturated fat.

"it has nothing to do with his job."

Unless you run for the highest state office as a law and order guy.

"If there is anything that he's done that's illegal, it's use of state funds to travel to dc to get his rocks off. Nothing more, nothing less"

Actually, its a federal charge due to the interstate travel angle.

There's something gratifying about seeing these fuckers at a podium apologizing with a loyal (and gorgeous) wife at the side.

My inner child cries out: "Crawl, muthafucka..."

That's got to be one of the wife's most fun days on record.

a loyal and gorgeous wife who put aside her career for his:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/nyregion/10silda.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

i think it sucks to be her. maybe that's what's coming when you ask hillary for advice about your marriage?

I, too, believe that prostitution should not be illegal, nor should drugs -- nor should a lot of things that currently are. But I have a big problem with a self-righteous "crusader" like Elliot Spitzer visiting a call girl.

He's not exactly a live and let live kind of guy. Rather, he's a self-aggrandizing former prosecutor. How many people has he prosecuted for victimless crimes or for violating unjust laws, all the while mouthing something along the lines of "respect for the law"?

Throw the book at him! He gets no free pass.

I've always gotten the feeling that Hilary really didn't give a shit that Bill screwed around on her. It's not like Monica was the first, she was just the one that caused the most shit to hit the fan. Bill was always a charming womanizer, but charismatic enough to get into the White House, and I'm sure that's what Hilary saw in him.

Can anyone tell me if there was any truth to the rumour that Hilary is gay? That one was floating around New York for the longest time.

Gay, maybe, but no one would call her cheerful

Spitzer went out of his way to take down people by going after their private lives just to add to charges thereby embarassing them to cop a plea. He was an aggressive moralist with a prosecutors license. I don't feel one damn bit sorry for him. If I was his wife, I'd be spending the week out of the house shopping for diamonds and flirting with bellboys. Spitzer is a dick. I don't care if he want's to get his jollies off, but he deliberately went after other peoples personal lives and this is true poetic justice.

I haven't seen anything on whether or not pubic funds were used, oops, convienient typo, think I'll leave it there. But if he did use state money in any way, that's a violation of the law. Also, what I'm hearing is that the wire tap didn't follow the hooker ring to him, it was the other way around. Hmmm, wonder what that means. Was he the target of an investigation?

Chrissy, read "Unlimited Access" by Gary Aldrich. It's an eye opening account from an eye witness. You can draw you own conclusions. Personally, the outright communism bothers me a lot more than her sexual preferences. That being said, I don't think that I would ever consider voting for someone who is known to be gay, purely for the reason that they seem to view all of their politics through the tunnelvision prism of their sexual preference. I think that blinds you to reality and lowers tolerance for other points of view.

rsj wrote:

>Does anyone else think of Plan 9
>when they hear client 9?hehehehe

No. And if you have to LOL your own loke, you're not funny. The only joke available here is asking if Spitzer was hooking up with prostitute 6.

That's comedy gold, my friend.

"Actually, its a federal charge due to the interstate travel angle."

Are you referring to the "Mann act"? (what a funny name for it)
I believe that would only count if it were the woman crossing state lines.

My Bad. It looks as though he paid for her train ticket to meet him. That's enough.

Simply put, mif you're a public official, especially hogh profile like Spitzer, you don't screw around. And, if you can't resist, you take Spitzer's own advice as a former prosecutor: never email, never speak when you can nod, etc.
Having said that regarding public life in America, I completely support prostitution, legal or not. It ought to be legal, as it is in many countries. Let's face it. Women are prostitutes, whether through marriage in which she snags the man who will support her or whether she lands the wealthy gentleman night after night for similar compensation. Not a whole lot of difference, except that the prostitute is free.

Simply put, if you're a public official, especially high profile like Spitzer, you don't screw around. And, if you can't resist, you take Spitzer's own advice as a former prosecutor: never email, never speak when you can nod, etc.
Having said that regarding public life in America, I completely support prostitution, legal or not. It ought to be legal, as it is in many countries. Let's face it. Women are prostitutes, whether through marriage in which she snags the man who will support her or whether she lands the wealthy gentleman night after night for similar compensation. Not a whole lot of difference, except that the prostitute is free.

Even more to the point, he has prosecuted people for what he engaged in, he is the chief executive of a government that locks people up for what he did. So he has a lot of chutzpah to try to dismiss this as a "private matter."

http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?hubtype=FeaturedContent&id=1205146050859

Mr. Spitzer did not take questions about what he referred to as a "private matter" and did not indicate if he would step down. He promised to "dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."

I'm sorry, but Mr. Spitzer made it a public matter. And even the preexisting anti-prostitution laws weren't harsh enough:

As a part of legislation signed by Mr. Spitzer in June creating stiff new criminal penalties for those who force others to engage in sex or other labor, Mr. Spitzer approved an increase in the penalty under New York's law against patronizing a prostitute in New York to one year in prison from 90 days (Penal Law §230.04).

In 2007, 1,672 people in New York were arrested on charges of patronizing a prostitute and 149 were convicted, according to John Caher, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.

That said, maybe he's undergone a sincere conversion and now really believes that prostitution is a "private matter." I'm eager to see the new Eliot Spitzer, advocate for the legalization of prostitution.

Q: How is Spitzer any less of a hypocrite than David Vitter?

A: George Bush!

I just wonder what Spitzer could possibly say to his three daughters (ages 17, 15, 13).

Call me naive or jaded, but what shocked me about this story was not the hypocrisy or bad morals of a politician, but rather the stated prices. I'll admit that while I don't feel prostitution should be illegal, I've never hired one and don't have a sense of prices.

But I just can't imagine a "session" being worth $5K. No matter how ridiculously smoking hot the girl is, no matter how good at technique, no matter how odd the requested service is. Are those prices realistic? Who pays that much, and why? Can an orgasm ever be worth that much money, especially when there are many free or near-free ways to experience the same? My mind boggles.

I like brian's joke...

Because Hillary's a power-mad communist lesbian.

Quint -

One does not pay a prostitute for her "services".

One pays for her silence, her discretion, and her departure.

if he's been seeing hookers for 6 years, can you imagine how piss-poor his sex life has been? how long ago do you think the attraction was lost?

Men start looking when the attraction is not kept. Often, the false-pretense of Heaven will insist a wavering conscience to stay the course for a fruit of a better after-life. However, this is not always the case. (See generally, Haggard).

I think this is a situation not of morals, but of relationship and social psychology.

Brian makes a good point as to why you pay that money. Also, i think the proof of 'cleanliness' is also a factor.

Consider that you could get a 50 dollar fvck down by the docks. An orgasm is an orgasm. The experience plus the confidence knowing that the hooker yo just laid didn't give you a disease is probably going to inflate prices. and justifiably so.

5k is still a lot. but I could see a gymnast asking for approximate amounts. But, however, it is a seller's market.

(Btw..anyone catch Laura Schlessinger this morning on TV? well i didn't, but i heard what she said....pretty on point imho)

j.d.

Have you seen the pictures of his wife? She's hot. I'd wager that if she's stopped putting out it's because he's an asshole. Or she's getting it somewhere else too.

Your point about cleanliness is well taken.

And the final thing is that for the higher prices, you can be reasonably assured that she's in it voluntarily.

Spitzer, what a lightweight!

Tehran, 10 March (AKI) - Tehran's police chief, Reza Zarei, has been arrested after he was found nude in a local brothel with six naked prostitutes, according to report on the Iranian Farda News.

Farda News is a website said to be close to the mayor of Tehran and former chief of the police forces, Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf.

Following the raid, Zarei stepped down from his post as police chief. The news of his arrest however was not reported by any official Iranian news agency.

According to a popular Iranian website Gooya, the order to raid the brothel was given directly by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, chief of the judicial authorities.

Before he was arrested, Zarei was in charge of the programme for the 'moralisation of the city'.

It is alleged that in the past six months, hundreds of young people have been arrested in Iran for not respecting the Islamic code of behaviour.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1962300820

What did Dr. Laura say?

Uh Brian, it is not uncommon for married men to sleep with their wives and to cheat on them with other women. This has nothing to do with Mrs Sptizer's attractiveness, I've known men who cheated on their smoking hot wives with women her weren't anywhere near as attractive.
Exactly how is going to explain to his wife and daughters that he didn't want to use a condom.
For a man who has made his name going after wall street types it seems he didn't ever learn lesson number one: pigs get fat hogs get slaughtered.

What Dr. Laura said:

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/03/11/its-all-silda-spitzers-fault/

I agree with Dr. Laura on many things, but on this one, she's way off base. Shirley Glass, who was an expert on infidelity, realized late in her career that people cheat for a variety of reasons, and not always because something's wrong in their marriage or their sex life. People have a need for adventure, a desire for variety, or in Spitzer's case, because he was just so fucking dumb, I think it could've been a desire to walk on the wild side combined with mountainous arrogance.

Well said, Amy (and belledeville).

Also, winston - that was a brilliant aside!

I agree, she's a very attractive person. Too bad Look are only half the battle for anyone.

Perhaps, Amy, that it can be explained in this short saying: "Show me the most attractive womanin the world, and I'll show you a guy tired of fvcking her'.

I guess none of us can presume the intentions or the rationale of his actions, though I'd be uniquely interested. (a point: i heard on the radio that he was doing stuff with the hookers that was really, REALLY freaky. Like INCREDIBLY freaky to the point that the hookers were like, 'yeah right, do you want sex or not?' Perhaps he couldn't be open with his wife about his sexual interests?)

The problem i'm seeing here is that there is a HUGE stress on the fact that he's sleeping with hookers, and NOT on the legal argument.

The problem i'm seeing here is that there is a HUGE stress on the fact that he's sleeping with hookers, and NOT on the legal argument.

That may be so, but he's resigning anyway. Guess the pressure was a little too much for him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080312/ap_on_re_us/spitzer_prostitution_139

j.d. - when you make your living prosecuting hookers, you ought not be seen with them. The legal argument makes itself. What's interesting is the moral argument.

One of the obvious questions that will be answered in short order (I presume) is this: were his prosecutions of other escort services than the one he was using related in any way to the families who were running said escort services?