IN early 2004 Eliot Spitzer was at the height of his powers as the sheriff of
Wall Street, the highflying New York prosecutor who had set his sights on
the cosy corporate kleptocracy that was pocketing millions from insider
deals while ordinary investors went bankrupt.
His latest victim was Richard Grasso, the chief executive of the New York
Stock Exchange, who had made headlines around the world by negotiating
himself a $140m (£69m) retirement package that Spitzer alleged was illegal.
Grasso claimed he had done nothing wrong and when it became clear he was
prepared for a fight, Spitzer’s investigators went to work. What happened
next helps to explain why much of Wall Street cheered – and the rest of
America gasped – when Spitzer, who was later elected governor of New York
state, became enmeshed in a call-girl scandal that cost him his political
career last week.
Not since the Monica Lewinsky affair have Americans enjoyed so mesmerising a
spectacle of a powerful politician laid low by seemingly inexplicable lust.
The ineffably sleazy case of the “Luv Guv” and his pneumatic tart has all the
elements of tragedy as well as farce: a crushed wife standing by her man (at
least temporarily); frightened teenaged daughters hidden from public view; a
smirking brunette ready to cash in on her amorous adventures; and a parade
of psychologists, therapists and – in Spitzer’s case – former hookers lining
up to explain why men are so stupid.
Yet in one key respect, Spitzer’s self-inflicted ordeal differs from the
Monica extravaganza that stained Bill Clinton’s presidency as severely as it
did her blue velvet dress.
There are intriguing reports in New York that the man who was once dubbed
Eliot Ness – after the “untouchable” FBI crime-buster – may have owed his
fall at least in part to the bankers he once pursued with ruthless moral
zeal.
Was the governor a victim of Wall Street’s revenge? “Only one thing is certain
– it’s an Eliot mess,” declared one former prosecutor.
As the Grasso investigation unfolded in the summer of 2004, it became clear to
reporters following the case that Spitzer’s team was interested in more than
financial matters. Aides in the attorney-general’s office hinted that Grasso
was having an affair with his secretary, Soo-Jee Lee; Grasso was also
questioned about whether he had fathered an illegitimate child.
Charles Gasparino, a television reporter who wrote a book on the Grasso case,
claims he was told by a Spitzer adviser: “Everyone knows Grasso was boning
Soo-Jee.” Grasso vehemently denied both allegations, but the message was
clear to all of Wall Street: Spitzer would stop at nothing once he had taken
on a case. He even described himself as “a f****** bulldozer”.
While many outside Wall Street applauded Spitzer for tackling murky insider
trading, his readiness to delve into his targets’ private lives magnified
the hostility towards him. Last week there was no doubting the financial
world’s glee at his fall.
One of his victims, Kenneth Langone, the founder of Home Depot superstores,
bluntly condemned Spitzer as a “hypocrite”, and added: “We all have our
private hell. I hope his private hell is hotter than anyone else’s.”
The Grasso case was scarcely the first time Spitzer had focused on sexual
themes. After becoming attorney-general in 1999 he went after several
prostitution rings, promising to “clean up neighbourhoods” and “prevent the
abuse of young women”.
In 2003 he filed charges against a New York travel agency, alleging that it
organised “sex tours” to southeast Asia, where its operations led “to the
systematic exploitation and suppression of young women”.
Yet the praise he earned as “crusader of the year” (Time magazine), and “the
enforcer” (Fortune magazine) evaporated the moment he was exposed last week
as “client No 9” of the Emperors Club, a purportedly high-class escort
service that was revealed in court papers to be a seedy and mostly shambolic
front for a low-class prostitution network that stretched from Los Angeles
to London.
Far from providing “an exquisite array of carefully selected companions” who
would make clients’ lives “more peaceful, balanced, beautiful and
meaningful” – as the club’s website boasted – it often scrambled to find
prostitutes not addled by drugs.
The court papers, including extracts from wiretaps and reports from an
undercover agent who infiltrated the club, reveal endless haggling between
clients and pimps over payment and the quality of the girls provided. One
girl was described as looking “like a butcher”; another was described as
“clueless”.
One girl left an assignation early because she had to pick up her children
from school. A London-based girl did not want to provide sex because £500 an
hour was “not a price I would ever consider of doing it for [sic]”.
It has also become clear that although the club rated its girls according to
their “education, sophistication and ambiance [sic]” – with a three-diamond
girl fetching $1,000 an hour and a seven-diamond girl rating $3,100 an hour
– the prostitutes were interchangeable and adopted different names to meet a
client’s request. One girl had to be reminded that her name for a date was
Samantha.
According to the court papers, the Emperors Club nonetheless netted more than
$1m over three years, of which $400,000 was kept by about 50 prostitutes.
As comedians guffawed at the spectacle of Mr Clean caught up in such a sordid
enterprise, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton suddenly found themselves
pushed off the front pages by Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a curvaceous
22-year-old wannabe singer from New Jersey, who turned out to be the
prostitute at the heart of the story.
Using the name “Kristen”, she allegedly serviced the governor during a visit
to Washington on February 13 this year. It is not yet known whether she knew
his real identity at the time.
The money she earned from that brief encounter pales by comparison with the
sums now being offered to her. Dupré, whose real name is Ashley Youmans, was
estimated yesterday to have made $200,000 in the last four days from
internet downloads of two of her songs.
Hustler magazine has offered her $1m to pose nude; a pornographic film studio
has offered her another $1m to star in a film and a leading vodka company
has reportedly offered her a six-figure sum to promote a new brand called
“Vodka No 9”.
Yet not even a hoard of saucy Dupré photographs unearthed by the New York Post
on Friday could distract Wall Street lawyers and bankers from intriguing
anomalies in the small print of the prosecution case against Spitzer, who
announced his resignation as governor on Wednesday and will formally yield
power to his deputy, David Paterson, tomorrow. Paterson will become both the
first African-American and first partially blind governor of New York.
While there was little sympathy, there were plenty of questions about how a
handful of outwardly innocuous payments from his bank account came to
trigger a federal investigation into his sexual activities.
“The movement of the amounts of cash required to pay prostitutes, even
high-priced prostitutes over a long period of time, does not commonly
generate a full-scale investigation,” noted Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law
professor and former member of OJ Simpson’s legal team. Others on Wall
Street were wondering whether Spitzer’s financial dealings had been singled
out for scrutiny as revenge for his past prosecutions.
The beginning of Spitzer’s end can be traced to three banking transfers that
left his personal account at the North Fork Bank in New York last spring and
summer. For reasons that have not been satisfactorily explained, these
payments totalling $15,000 attracted the attention of bank employees who
monitor accounts for signs of suspicious activity.
After the terrorist attacks of 2001 on New York and Washington, laws relating
to money-laundering were significantly tightened, requiring banks to file
so-called “suspicious activity reports” whenever there is evidence that
clients might be trying to sidestep routine regulations.
Spitzer’s transfers to a company called QAT International Inc – later revealed
to be a front for the Emperors Club – were reportedly considered by the bank
to be an attempt to avoid another law that requires all transactions over
$10,000 to be reported to the US Treasury. Breaking down payments with
intent to avoid reporting is an offence known as “structuring”.
Yet Spitzer is the son of a multi-millionaire property tycoon and has
substantial assets of his own. The notion that as few as three payments from
his account of less than $10,000 might be considered suspicious “raises as
many questions as answers”, said Dershowitz.
“We are talking about a man who is a multi-millionaire with numerous
investments and purchases,” he said. “It’s simply none of the federal
government’s business that a man may have been moving his own money around
in order to keep his wife in the dark about his private sexual peccadilloes.”
Prosecution sources said last week they had no idea at first that the money
was related to prostitution. Even after a second bank, HSBC, reported
suspicious activity at QAT’s account – and a link was found to Spitzer – it
was at first assumed that the money might be related to corruption or
improper use of political campaign funds.
The case was initially turned over to the section of the Manhattan
prosecutor’s office that deals with political corruption. The ensuing
investigation duly established QAT was banking payments to a prostitution
network and that Spitzer was a client.
When the case against the one man and three women accused of running the
international network reached court earlier this month, it was the presence
of a federal prosecutor from the political corruption squad that first
alerted New York Times reporters to the possibility that a politician might
be involved.
It has since been established that both North Fork and HSBC were on the
receiving end of Spitzer investigations in his days as attorney-general. In
2003 North Fork was obliged to refund $20,000 to dozens of home-owners after
Spitzer claimed that the bank had been charging illegal fees.
No evidence has been produced that the bank reporting of Spitzer’s
transactions was maliciously intended, yet Dershowitz and other commentators
have noted that the system was designed to ferret out drug dealers, the
mafia, terrorists and major financial fraud.
“Once federal authorities concluded that the ‘suspicious financial
transactions’ attributed to Mr Spitzer did not fit any of [these
categories], they should have closed the investigation,” said Dershowitz.
Instead, they went after Spitzer with the raw, relentless enthusiasm that the
governor had so often displayed towards his own targets in the past. And
although his speedy resignation defused much of the political tension in New
York, many questions remain about how a man so familiar with the politics of
personal destruction exposed himself to inevitable ruin.
For Tracy Quan, who has written a novel about her call girl experiences in
Manhattan, Spitzer was simply nuts to have used an escort agency. “They are
constantly being investigated, infiltrated and spied upon,” she said. “That
someone like the governor would shop for sex through an internet escort
service is mind-boggling.”
Former prostitutes lined up to tell television interviewers that powerful men
needed an “escape and release” from the pressures of their high-profile
lives.
“As a professional escort, I spend most of my time with my clothes ON,”
declared Ava Xi’an to a newspaper website. “I have found that men are
usually looking for companionship and appreciation.”
Feminists were infuriated by a number of commentators who blamed it all on
wives who fail to make their husbands feel loved. One popular television
chat show held a discussion called “refresh your romance”, during which an
expert urged wives to take erotic dancing lessons to “unleash the inner
vixen”.
Spitzer was variously portrayed as an arrogant fool who considered himself
above the law; as a burnt-out powermonger who was desperate to be
discovered; and as a balder Bill Clinton, doing it simply because he could.
The soon-to-be ex-governor still faces possible financial charges, and
investigators are checking whether public money may have been used to
further his sexual activities. There are also security questions about the
whereabouts of his bodyguards while he was secretly meeting prostitutes.
The identities of nine other clients mentioned in the prosecution brief remain
a mystery. One is reported to be a New York judge; at least one prostitute,
named Astrid, operated out of London, where she entertained client No 6.
On its website, adorned with the photographs of statuesque escorts, the club
declares that “every client is an emperor”. In Spitzer’s case, both
literally and figuratively, the emperor turned out to have no clothes.
Comics sink their hooks into Spitzer
America’s comedians and tabloid headline writers have had a field day with the
prostitution scandal featuring Eliot Spitzer:
- “Hillary Clinton is now only the second-angriest wife in the state of New
York” – Jay Leno
- “The governor was only supporting New York’s No 1 industry” – David
Letterman
- “Eliot Spitzer is set to leave office on Monday – which means a hooker party
at the governor’s mansion this weekend” – Jimmy Kimmel
- “Politics is the only profession where, when a guy gets caught with a
hooker, the wife has to stand by his side. You know, if this guy was a
plumber and he got caught with a prostitute, he’d have his wife’s tyre
tracks over his head” – Leno
- “It’s sad. Spitzer said there is so much he left undone: Amber, Ashley,
Rhonda” – Letterman
- “The governor-erect” – New York Post
- “The name of this prostitute service is the Emperors Club, which sounds
better than Whore House, doesn’t it? . . . On the website they rank the
girls from one to seven diamonds. The diamonds represent how many you have
to buy for your wife after you get caught” – Leno
- “He thought Bill Clinton legalised this years ago” – Letterman
Next in line
New York’s next governor could scarcely be more different from his disgraced
predecessor. David Paterson, 53, is a partially blind African-American who
was Eliot Spitzer’s running mate in the 2006 elections. He was expected to
deliver black votes and nobody imagined that he would step into the top job.
Unlike Spitzer he is laid back, self-deprecating and displays a sharp wit.
Asked last week if he had ever used a prostitute, he said: “Only the
lobbyists.”
Yes, Peter from Dublin puts it perfectly.
David Russell, Sheffield, South Yorkshire
One guy spends some time with an escort - and gets thrown out of office and threatened with impeachment.
His successor has had an affair - is this not a worse betrayal of his marriage !
Another guy sends 4,000 US soldiers to die ( plus 500,000 iraq citizens) in some kind of personal rift between the Bush family and Saddam , Nothing happens - no impeachment and still in office.
I love America but I reckon it has lost its moral compass. It no longer knows right from wrong.It has been too busy trying to make money and has lost its sense of morality. Perhaps the coming recession will refocus its people. I hope so - the world needs a morally strong America.
Peter, Dublin, Ireland
I wouldn't be too quick to deify the new governor. Check out the article on the front page of today's New York Times.
Ellen, New York, New York,
It is good to know that karma is alive and kicking! Mr. Spitzer is now getting as good as he gave.
As for the people here worried about transactions around $15,000 being tracked by the government. 1)Most people don't move that amount of funds, repeatedly over a year, unless they are up to something illegal. 2)Someone buying a car for that much only 'moves' 15K once and they have something to show for it, a car. The govt doesn't care how many car you buy. It does care about illegal activity. The money tracing thing is how most members of the mafia are caught.
Brian, Chantilly, VA, USA
Maybe it was global warning that caused Sptizer's downfall.
Dave, Manchester, MO
"...“Once federal authorities concluded that the ‘suspicious financial transactions’ attributed to Mr Spitzer did not fit any of [these categories], they should have closed the investigation,†said Dershowitz. Instead, they went after Spitzer with the raw, relentless enthusiasm that..."
--is usually reserved for Republicans?
johnny bopp, washington, d.c.,
Get it right. Wall Street Bankers did not cause Spitzer's downfall. Spitzer's actions caused his downfall.
Paul M. Hubble, North Canton, USA / OH
the downfall of the governor of NY rests squarely 100% on his shoulders.
Don, Anytown,
Why is it when a Democrat gets caught red handed it's called a right wing conspiracy? Spitzer obviously had personal issues and self destructed in a very spectacular manner. It's best this happened when it did instead of at a point when the welfare of the state/country was at stake.
drh, warsaw,
I know Eliot. i worked as his photographer and shot all the images for his first campaign when he ran for state attorney general. The guy is a great guy. i've worked for several politicians over the years in nyc and he was the one guy i thought was the right combination of intelligence,concern and wealth. i think he was good for the state of ny and i think he was good for wall street. they didn't in fact wall street would like no rules and the fact that all those guys cheered when they heard it over the wire might clue you in on the way they felt about the sherriff.
look if he had played ball with them and just busted small potato people the guy would still be governor today. you go after the big guys your backside better be smelling like a rose. They have too much money to think you can nail them and walk out without a scratch. He payed the price. To think this wasn't payback is what they want you to think. Go ahead keep thinking that.
michael, ventura, california
Let's not be too quick, to pity the "poor wife" . It was she, who was one of the hold-outs, for her husband to stay as Governor and fight. Did her comfort with power and influence overcome any sense of propriety and decorum?
Jimbo, Chicago, IL
The gov is doing his bit to grow the economy. We do not know the tax bracket of the young lady when she was in her underground business...but now with the book deals, record sales and fees for magazine spreads this young lady should make millions of dollars....the state and fed will get their share.... Thanks Guv
robert, roanoke, virginia
I cannot immagine why wives stand behind their husbands in scenes like this....what a message that sends to their sons and daughters......Elliot you got what you deserve....john in Deland fl.
John, Deland, fl
Boo-hoo, another one bites the dust.
When will politicians (and business folks) realize that public and private integrity are one and the same?
Paul, Tampa, Fl,
I congratulate Spitzer on his hard-won freedom. Finally at the age of 48, he is free from the forced march of senseless over-achievement set by his tyrannical, parvenu father. Now, for the first time in his life, Spitzer can be his own man and not his father's boy. And, we're all the better for it. So long as the increasingly bitter and resentful Spitzer held office, we were all at risk from his flailing arms and roundhouse blows, all aimed at surrogates for the father who stole the first half of his life. With his Oedipal battle over, let the man grow a beard, sleep late (and with prostitutes if that’s his preference), reinvent himself and start measuring success on his own terms.
Rwordplay, New York, NY
William, Richard Grasso's Executive Assistant makes $240,000? Do non Profits make more? I see that Ombama wife makes $361,762 up from $121 something since he went to the SENATE? Maybe the non profits should be investigated. Not much left for CHARITY!
Roger Stright, AMESVILLE, USA/OHIO
Joe Esfandi of Pennsylvania says that, "If he beats the rap, and run again, I'll vote for him. "
For decades now, the running joke was that "The dead walk the streets of Chicago -- on election day" -- but I hadn't realized that New York had extended the franchise to living residents of neighboring states.
Is there any way that I, as a resident of Michigan, can participate too? If it helps any, I was born and raised in the Big Apple, although I haven't set foot on the east coast in fifteen years.
What a great land of inclusion we live in, where folks can not only carpetbag their way to "represent" the venues of their choice as United States Senators, but can be voted for by any and all. Why, I hear that even illegal aliens are able to vote, courtesy of the "Motor Voter" law.
Sadly, though, as a disabled person, I am unable to "motor-voterize" myself to NY, so I'm wondering if perhaps Mr. Esfandi of Pennsylvania can apprise me of the easiest methods?
Sarcastically Yours,
Howard Black, Oceana Cty., USA
Why does a wife have to stand up beside the man that not only betrayed her and broke the vows he took before GOD and family and be even more disgraced. Would it not be ever so wonderful if she had held her own press conference and stated that she would not stand by her man,that he had been kicked to the curb.That she and her daughters would seek help and move forward with their lifes. I feel so sad for the daughters.
Carolyn Smithwick, Cleburne, TX USA
Spitzer harassed crisis pregnancy agencies, pushed for homosexual "marriage", was radically pro-abortion, and was pushing for a law that would make abortion a fundamental human right. St. Thomas Aquinas says that God humbles the arrogant with sins of the flesh. I hope Spitzer learns that he is not God.
mary parks, San Antonio, TX
Can he play the racially biased card here? Yep, I'm sure it was a racial thing. That seems to work most of the time.
Come on down Jesse, throw the man a line will ya
Hadley, spokane, wa
No one is responsible for Spitzer's fall but Spitzer.
This is further documentation that Politicians have no corner on the moral or ethics markets.
A bit of research would show that a greater percentage of politicians do jail time than businessmen.
Spitzer made his name by prosecuting prostitution rings. Of course, not the ring of which he was a part.
Dave, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
The Wall Street bankers did not cause Eliot Spitzers downfall,
HE DID IT TO HIMSELF by his own conduct.
Pete, Smithville, MO
Dershowitz is so pathetic trying to portray Spitzer as a victim.
Ken, Detroit, Michigan
So, in the words of the left wing liberals' drive by media, it wasn't Spitzer himself that caused his own downfall but Wal Street bankers?
Rich, really, rich!
ricardo maxwell, orange park, FL USA
Legalize prostitution, tax it, and watch the budget shortfalls disappear.
Maximo, San Diego, CA
After seeing photo's of Silda, it's clear that she could gain employment at the Emporer's club - she's beautiful.
Dave, Miami, US
If Silda decides to up and run, there are plenty of nice men waiting to offer her the life and fidelity that she deserves.
DOug, Basel, Switzerland
William,
I believe the NYTimes broke the story on Spitzer. The real question about the McCain article is why they wrote it and then didn't print it for a few months until it was clear he would get the nomination. Meanwhile, the NYTimes endorsed McCain.
Andrew in New York, New York, NY
How could the money transfers have been bribery that needed to be investigated?
The money was going from Spitzer, not coming into his pockets.
Bribery goes to public officials, not away from them.
B.L., Lakewood, CA
If he had only gone after the true criminals, that would be honorable. Unfortunately, he also abused his power and position to go after people that turned out to have done no wrong, simply for the publicity. He ruined the lives of many innocent people only for an additional headline. His tactics were those of a bully and he deserves to be prosecuted as venomously as those whom he targeted himself.
John, San Ramon, California, USA
It is highly unusual to see the Times seem to say that a politician should be given greater lattitude than an ordinary citizen. The evidence seems to indicate that Mr. Spitzer has been using hookers for ten years. If that turns out to be true, it is well before his crusade against the call girl rings in New York. It also appears that the "luv Guv", as you call him, may have committed identity theft, using the name of a financial supporter, contributor and friend, "George Fox" to enable him to keep his meanderings "confidential. No matter how you slice it, are his activities the correct behavior for an honest politician?
David, Covington, KY USA
Banks with a revenge motive? I highly doubt it.
A much more likely scenario is that the Gambino crime organization had ties to the Emperor's Club.
Let's not forget, nearly the entire Gambino family was served with a 200-page indictment this year.
It's not difficult to imagine that someone within that organization tried to win leverage with this information, was unsuccessful, and then dropped the bomb on the Governor.
Jake Sims, San Francisco, CA, USA
www.craigslist.com has made getting sex as easy and convenient as ordering in pizza.
MARK KLEIN, M.D., OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
If he beats the rap, and run again, I'll vote for him.
Joe Esfandi, Pen City, PA
I am not defending Elliot Spitzer, but clarifying a point conveniently ignored by the writer of this article. The reason why Soo-Jee Lee was initially part of the investigation involving Richard Grasso because she was making $240,000 when on average, salaries for executive assistants were and remain significantly less than her salary, even on Wall Street.
William , Arlington, USA, Massachusetts
Key facts were omitted from this report. (1) Spitzer phoned his bank and asked, after the fact, that his name be removed from a cash transfer. This incident motivated the bank to contact the Feds. (2) Spitzer's prosecution of two prostitution rings resulted in jail sentences for at least two people. (3) Spitzer knowingly used the phone and wire transfers to negotiate with and pay money to a criminal enterprise. Those are both federal crimes. (4) Bill Clinton was not impeached because he had sex with Monica. Clinton was impeached because he committed perjury in a sexual harrassment civil lawsuit.
Steve, Seattle, USA
Blame whoever you want for blowing the whistle, but Spitzer got caught because he was cheating on his wife repeatedly and breaking the law, a law he vehemently enforced. Eliot has one person to blame for his downfall.
david mikesell, chicago, illinois
So now the government of the US can launch an in vestigation on the basis of $15,000 in seperate transactions?!
That's less than the price of a new car!
You guys used to be a free country, once, didn't you?
joe, vancouver, canada
To Mr Cooper of VA, I happen to agree with you about a person being free to move assets without government oversight.
But since you are a republican, I ask you to consider that the bank reporting regulations and required oversight were created by the republicans in order to catch terrorists (and probably gangsters).
But perhaps you now understand why liberals so strongly object to the current administration's assault on our constitutional liberties. It is not because we don't want to fight terrorists. It is because we know perfectly well the kind of misguided uses that such powers will be put to. You yourself have pointed out one of them. I hope you are happy with the work of elected officials!
Ben Hoff, New Jersey, USA
By the way Elliot Ness was ATF not FBI.
John, Virginia,
Very good analysis. Virtually none of the major media outlets over here have picked up on the possible North Fork/HSBC revenge motive, which I think is quite a possibility.
Will Cate, Nashville, TN, USA
He may be a hypocrite, but at least he went after these wall street bums who rip off the average investor every single day. The market is so manipulated by these punks it`s ridiculous. False press releases, pump and dump scams, and nobody does anything.
Ed, nyc, ny
I agree with Mr. Smith. The New York times had to have heard a rumor or two about Spitzer, but instead went on a tangent about McCain after having endorsed him. The sooner the NYT's demise comes, the better.
Ross, Moline, IL 61265,
The Times relies too much on Dershowitz. Spitzer clerked for Dershowitz after law school. There is no way Dershowitz is impartial in this matter.
The fact of the matter is when the SITTING governor of any state is making wire transfers to shell corporations, the feds have to investigate. Public servants aren't always, but should, be held to a higher standard.
Wall Street couldn't have scripted it better, but they didn't have anything to do with it, in spite of the fact that had they known, they would have.
JT, Austin, TX, USA
The numbers - Three years, takings only $1,000,000 of which 50 whores shared $400,000 ($8,000 average). Girls apparently charged at least $1,000 per assignment - you would expect the million to be made in a few months, not years. These numbers do not add up.
"Kristen" will make legally in a month twice as much as these jokers grossed over 3 years!?
Also Eliot Spitzer paid maybe $80,000, including $4,300 for one night - this should make him the best client if he did 8% of turnover.
We have certainly not heard the full story of Emperors Club VIP, and we probably never will.
Charles, Charlottesville,
Interesting that in this entire article there is no mention of the other clients of the escort service.
The authorities in the case, according to their own warrant, had recorded 5000 phone calls and 6000 emails. Were all of those to Eliot Spitzer? No.
Then the authorities clearly know who the other clients are, and it's against the law in NYC to solicit prostitution. So why aren't the authorities going after any of the other clients? Why have they focused on Spitzer?
BT
Bill Thuther, Providence, Rhode Island
Actually, the media here in the U.S. has buried the party affiliation of Spitzer -- typically, the fact that he is a democrat appears towards the end of the story or on an inside page -- certainly not in the lead.
Now, had he been a republican, you can guarantee that this fact would have been in the first line of the article. Guaranteed.
Brett, Boston, MA
Hey Bill. NYT broke the Spitzer story. Thanks for playing.
Jered, St. Louis, MO
Mr. Smith, I can answer your question for you, "One has to wonder about how the media chooses their targets." The only question the media has is, "Is he a Republican or a Democrat?"
Lemmy Caution, Chicago, IL
Wonderfully written story. It's so good to see "What goes around comes around"....
Carole, Green Brook, NJ
Carole, Green Brook, NJ USA
What's oddis that we have a Jewish Democrat here rather than a Christian Republican doing the deed. What a fine lemonade opportunity for a bi-partisan non-denominational inter-faith effort to legalize, tax and regulate prostitution along with marijuana too.
Marty Kay Zee, Pasadena, CA
I dislike the NY Times as much as anybody, but give the credit where credit is due, they broke this story. They finally acted like capitalists, they wanted to sell newsapers. Too bad for them the NY Post got the best photos and their audience was much more interested in seeing the downfall of "I'm a bull dozer," than the knee jerk leftiy Times readers who when not lip reading or skimming the NY Times are about to fall asleep listening to the equally archaic National Public Radio.
Alexander Boyle, Bronxville, NY, USA
Best wishes to the soon to be Gov Paterson--I wish him well. Frankly, I would rather see a call girl get rich from this than many of the totally amoral, corrupt politicians who arrive poor in Washington and are soon super rich. Now who are the whores? Thanks Jack
Jack, Bogalusa, USA/La
Now in comparison, when the New York times tries it hardest to link John McCain to a Lobbyist in an evening gown from 10 years ago and it back fires in their collective faces, One has to wonder about how the media chooses their targets. Would the NY Times have leaked any news about Spitzer? not in a million years.
William R. Smith, Marietta, Georgia, USA
Great story, well written, comprehensive and with a touch of humor (or humour).
John, Fairfax, Virginia USA
I am a political conservative. Always vote republican. Yet Dershowitz is right on. A person ought to be able to move assets without gov't. oversight. This is moral justice. But it is gov't. misuse of statutes.
John B. Cooper, WOODSTOCK , virginia