Resign, Client 9

Eliot Spitzer (Client 9) should resign as governor of New York.

If he doesn't have the decency to do it, than his Democrat colleagues should pressure him to step aside and soon.

He is not fit to be the chief executive of the state. He's brought disgrace to the office. He has shamed his family and himself.

I can't imagine the pain that this ruthless arrogant man has caused his wife and daughters.

NEW YORK -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career teetered on the brink of collapse Monday after the corruption-fighting politician once known as "Mr. Clean" was accused of paying for a romp with a high-priced call girl.

The Democrat faced immediate calls to step down after a news conference in which a glassy-eyed Spitzer, his shellshocked wife at his side, apologized to his family and the people of New York.

It's good he apologized. Now he should resign.

...He did not discuss his political future and ignored shouted questions about whether he would resign. And he gave no details of what he was apologizing for.

But Spitzer was clearly examining his legal options; a spokesman said the governor had retained the Manhattan law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, one of the nation's biggest.

Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet in a Washington hotel room the night before Valentine's Day with a prostitute from a call-girl business known as the Emperors Club VIP, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still going on.

The governor has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case.

But an affidavit based on the wiretap told of a man identified as "Client 9" — Spitzer, according to the law enforcement official — paying $4,300 in cash, some of it credit for future trysts, some of it for sex with a "petite, pretty brunette, 5-feet-5 inches, and 105 pounds," named Kristen.

The scandal came 16 months after Spitzer stormed into the governor's office with a historic margin of victory, vowing to root out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives with a vengeance while state attorney general.

I hope pretty little Kristen the prostitute doesn't do an interview with Diane Sawyer. I hope she doesn't write a book. I hope she doesn't start a business, selling handbags.

..."He has to step down. No one will stand with him," said Rep. Peter King, a Republican congressman from Long Island. "I never try to take advantage or gloat over a personal tragedy. However, this is different. This is a guy who is so self-righteous, and so unforgiving."

Democratic Assemblyman John McEneny said: "I don't think anyone remembers anything like this — the fact that the governor has a reputation as a reformer and there is a certain assumption as attorney general that you're Caesar's wife. It's a different element than if you were an accountant."

Democratic Lt. Gov. David Paterson would become New York's first black governor if Spitzer were to resign.

Spitzer shouldn't drag this thing out. If he doesn't resign quickly, he'll be damaging the Democrats.

Members of the Democrat Party can't stage another rally around such a high profile hypocrite without paying a signficant price.

How can Barack Obama talk about ushering in change, a new brand of politics, when this supposed reformer is allowed to remain as governor?

This is Bill Clinton redux. It's the same "private matter" stuff being trotted out as an excuse. That reflects poorly on Democrats in general. The Spitzer scandal is a reminder of how the Dems excused Clinton's repeated lies while under oath.

American voters flocked to Republican candidates in 2000. If Spitzer hangs on to his job, in spite of his illegal activities, the Dems run the risk of a big time backlash. They'll energize their opponents and I think Americans will respond with support. This is bigger than New York.

Spitzer is representative of politics as usual. He can't stay. He can't.

Here's an accomplishment from his days as attorney general that reveals him to be a world-class hypocrite:

18 Arrested in Lucrative Prostitution Ring Out of Staten Island
April 8, 2004

Eighteen men and women were arrested yesterday on charges that they helped run a sophisticated prostitution ring that masked its operation behind a series of corporate fronts and escort services with names like Gentlemen's Delight, Day Dreams and Personal Touch, officials said.

Records that were seized in a search at the home of one of the ring leaders indicated that the operation brought in $1.6 million in nine months, a law enforcement official said.

Prosecutors from the State Organized Crime Task Force, working with the New York Police Department and the F.B.I., charged 16 people with enterprise corruption and two others with falsifying business records and promoting prostitution and money laundering.

...''This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,'' the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, who oversees the task force, said in a statement. ''It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring, and now its owners and operators will be held accountable.''

Investigators with the task force came across the ring while looking into the activities of a Gambino crime family gambling operation, the law enforcement official said. They had wiretapped a Gambino-linked social club on Fingerboard Road in Staten Island as part of that inquiry and saw the prostitution ring's leader, Frank Farella, 44, of Staten Island, visiting at the club, the official said.

Spitzer busted a prostitution ring. He got the bad guys.

Now he's on the wrong side of the law.

It's not a private matter.

Are the Dems willing to let the positively unforgiving Spitzer drag down the party? Will they protect him? Will we be treated to a return of all those rationalizations that were applied to Bill Clinton's behavior?

Not again.

According to the New York Times, when things began to unravel yesterday, Spitzer began cancelling meetings, an indication that something was amiss. He had to cancel a scheduled private meeting with Cardinal Edward M. Egan. That's a bit of odd karma.

The governor learned that he had been implicated in the prostitution inquiry when a federal official contacted his office on Friday, according to the person briefed on the case. On Saturday night, he attended the Gridiron Club annual dinner, a political roast put on by Washington journalists, and appeared ebullient, according to people in attendance.

The governor informed his top aides on Sunday night and Monday morning of his involvement.

Mr. Spitzer’s family and his top assistants debated Monday morning at Mr. Spitzer’s apartment about whether he should step down, a person who spoke to the governor said. Silda Wall Spitzer, who was among them, told her husband that he should not resign in haste; as did Lloyd Constantine, a senior adviser and a longtime friend of the governor. But most of his others saw no way for him to survive.

Silda Wall Spitzer advised her husband not to resign in haste?

What is with the spouses of these politicians?

How can she be advising him on his next political move?

Maybe it's easier to focus on the politics of the situation than to dwell on the incredible personal betrayal. It can't be easy for a wife to learn that her husband has been hiring prostitutes at between $1,000 and $5,500 an hour.

From the Associated Press:

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, noted that prostitution customers are often not charged, and said charges against Spitzer might be unlikely.

"Especially if he resigns, he may just be left alone. It may be that the public is satisfied by his resignation as governor," Tobias said.

The question is: Will egomaniac Spitzer resign?

The sooner the better for the Dems.
________________

In an editorial, the New York Times takes issue with Spitzer's assertion that his other life as Client 9 is a private matter.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer could not have been more wrong in his brief public appearance after the world learned that he was suspected of patronizing a prostitution ring. He did not just betray his family in a private matter. He betrayed the public, and it is hard to see how he will recover from this mess and go on to lead the reformist agenda on which he was elected to office.

...It is likely that every aspect of Mr. Spitzer’s other life as Client 9 for the Emperor’s Club V.I.P. — as he has been identified by law enforcement officials — every text message and other secretive communication will be made public. Any politician would have a full-time job just dealing with such revelations. There have been elected officials, over the years, who have survived scandals of this sort. But for Mr. Spitzer, who runs a large and complex state, the burden is especially heavy to show that he has not lost the credibility to push for change, a sound budget and good government, as he promised so confidently a year ago.

...A further tragedy here, beyond the personal one of the Spitzer family and the damage he has done to the reform cause, is that Mr. Spitzer’s targets are now relishing their tormentor’s torment. Those on Wall Street who fumed at having to make their world fairer for ordinary shareholders can now chortle with satisfaction in their private enclaves. For New York Republicans, who have blocked some of the most important reforms in Albany, it is hard to imagine the private glee — especially at a moment when they are fighting desperately to hold their majority in the State Senate.

...Mr. Spitzer did not seem to understand on Monday what he owed the public — a strong argument for why he should be trusted again. The longer he hesitates, it becomes a harder case to make.

I think it's very odd that a rather lengthy paragraph is devoted to the presumed glee of Spitzer's past targets, "relishing their tormentor's torment."

That's called a tragedy.

Rather than go down that path, the Times should stick to the issue at hand -- Spitzer's wrongdoing. What point is there in imagining the glee of Spitzer's opponents?

Generally, the editorial is tough, but it stops short.

The case is made that Spitzer betrayed the public and he didn't provide a convincing argument that he should be trusted again.

Nevertheless, there is no call for Spitzer's resignation. There also is no explanation as to why he shouldn't resign.

Is this supposed to be an obligatory firm slap on Spitzer's wrist? A "now let's move on" sort of thing?