The headline: Spitzer Said to Be Weighing Resignation
Ya think?
Despite having been an excellent Attorney General, as Governor Mr Spitzer has mostly done a poor job, spending more time with useless battles against those he’s supposed to be working with.
I won’t be sad to see his back as he leaves.
Update, 3:30 p.m.: Not surprisingly, this morning’s local public radio station’s talk show, hosted by Brian Lehrer, was devoted to the Spitzer debacle:
Revelation Number NineYou can stream the whole show or download segments as MP3 files from the web site.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008Eliot Spitzer’s governorship is in turmoil. What are the implications for New York State? Hear legal and political analysis—plus listener calls. And why do first ladies stand by their men—at the podium? Also: NPR’s Scott Simon on Windy City, his novel about Chicago—where he says politics is a contact sport.
Open Phones: Where Should Spitzer Go From Here?
We begin our coverage of Eliot Spitzer with listener reactions. What do you make of the scandal? Should the Governor resign?Sin City
Paul Finkelman, professor of law and public policy at Albany Law School and blogger for the Huffingtonpost.com, talks about the legal and political implications of Governor Spitzer’s alleged misconduct.Standing “By” Your Man
Joyce Purnick, long-time New York Times political writer, talks about the wife’s role in political sex scandal press conferences.Novel Politics
As New York reels from political scandal, NPR’s Scott Simon writes about the perils of political succession in his new novel about local Chicago politics, Windy City: A Novel of Politics (Random House, 2008).Spitzer Check-In
We check in with WNYC’s Bob Hennelly, who is Albany, for the latest on Elliot Spitzer.The World’s Oldest Profession
Emily Bazelon, senior editor at Slate and Audacia Ray, former sex worker and blogger at Waking Vixen, discuss why exactly prostitution is illegal.
Update, 12 Mar, 1 p.m..: And he's resigned.
5 comments:
I believe I'm pretty open-minded, and generally don't really care what people do in their private lives. But this does seem to take the biscuit for hypocrisy, in light of his having gone after and prosecuted prostitution rings while he was NY Attorney-General.
Very sad. Even worse for his wife and children, since more explicit details have begun to emerge.
It will be very interesting to see how our new governor copes, although from what I have read about him (admittedly only in the past 24 hours), he seems to have all the right qualifications and abilities. I wish him well.
Ah, the frailties of human flesh...
I'm with Ray. He's a hypocrite. Not because he hired a prostitute (his wife may have condoned it for all we know), but because he was so holier-than-thou about prostitution as an AG. Adiós Elliot.
Yes, that's exactly it. It's that he broke the law (never mind whether the law is stupid), and that it's exactly the sort of stuff that he was prosecuting when he was AG. He's shown us that he's corrupt and untrustworthy.
At least you guys won't hold him to a higher standard, like some people I talked to. I, for one, hold pols to a lower standard. Perhaps I am a cynic. Power corrupts most people I've seen, and the rules of the game change. I don't expect the majority of them to be better than an average citizen, quite likely maybe even worse. What I don't get is the front/show they put on, with such vehemence (Spitzer, Haggard et al), as if that will help when the evidence is presented. I still think hiring a prostitute is a far weaker offense than accepting a bribe.
And a question I have heard a lot today (expounded upon in hilarious fashion on the Very Hot Jews blog)is, "Dude, you paid HOW MUCH?"
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