Re: the Luv Guv. When are these male politicians (memo to Bill Clinton) going to realize that the European tradition exists because it has stood the test of time: the sophisticated, discreet middle-aged mistress, who doesn’t want to marry him, and won’t rat him out as part of a prostitution sting.
Or was it a prostitution sting? It now comes out that Spitzer was not caught up in the bust of a high-end call-girl ring, but rather he was specifically targeted by the Justice Department and the IRS. We know that the Bush administration has used these agencies for political hits on a scale not seen since Nixon, maybe even beyond that. I point to the firings of U.S. attorneys who wouldn’t push politically motivated prosecutions, and the vendetta against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. For more, see Scott Horton’s invaluable No Comment blog. In addition to Spitzer’s enemies on Wall Street, New York Republicans were terrified about losing the state senate to Democrats.
Spitzer’s stupidity aside, he made a tempting target, going after the endemic corruption on Wall Street that had cost so many American nest eggs and jobs. He dared to challenge the corporate power that has taken over the American government. So Spitzer paid to get screwed? Wall Street has been screwing America. His fall comes at a convenient time, as the capital-market meltdown is exposing even greater corruption and regulatory lapses, reaching into hedge funds, private equity and the ratings agencies. Also in Spitzer’s favor is that, unlike Republicans, he was never a morals
crusader, obsessing about what went on in people’s sex lives.
But the real Untouchables were called that for a reason. They were above reproach, so no one could put the "touch" on them. The stakes are too high now. No mere illegal booze or even murderous gangsters are involved. Spitzer will be lost to this fight. No wonder they cheered on Wall Street yesterday when the news about the Luv Guv came out.
Well, I don’t know who initiated the investigation of Spitzer but I know that he’s a guy who made his bed a long time ago. And it wasn’t merely his prosecution of Wall St. fat cats and his exposing of their more nefarious practices that earned him his reputation but the attitude with which he approached this task, variously described as “mean”, “vindictive” and “highly political”.
However the real irony, Jon, is that this is the same Eliot Spitzer who rode the prostitution issue so hard and pushed through what’s considered the toughest and most comprehensive anti-prostitution laws in the country. Like so many politicians, he’s a hypocrite to the core and is going to get exactly what he deserves, regardless of who pulled the levers of pursuit.
Greg Palast has this:
“…This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.
Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer…”
“…And that very same day the bail-out was decided – what a coinkydink! – the man called, ‘The Sheriff of Wall Street’ was cuffed. Spitzer was silenced.”
https://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/
Let’s just call it “socialized universal health care” for the bankers.