Spitzer: How Will The "New Type Of Politics" Handle This?

It's 2.25pm EDT on Monday March 10, 2008

The New York Times has broken the Spitzer prostitution story. Other media are all over it.

I wonder how long it will take for standard-issue photographs of Spitzer and Hillary Clinton attending the same events - of which there must inevitably be many - start getting posted all over the blogosphere? Even though those photos will have zero to do with the case. Even though Hillary Clinton will have nothing to do with the story.

Of course as we are now in the age of the "New Type Of Politics" - there won't be any posted.

Right?

Right!

Follow Martin Lewis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheMartinLewis

Comments

[1dogs2]

11:05 AM on 03/11/2008

Never mind the blogosphere; the MSM is all over this. By last night, there were not only photographs of Spitzer flanked by Clinton (Hillary) but also of Clinton (Bill) looking into the camera and saying, "I did not have sexual relations . . . etc." Oy.

[SamThornton]

05:38 PM on 03/10/2008

Just Googled "spitzer clinton". Produced "about" 432,000 hits. The image list was shorter, about 771, although not all of them show both together. The video list came in at 35. Don't see how these resources will not be found and used by the usual suspects.

It may not be fair, but as Finley Peter Dunne famously remarked, "Politics ain't beanbag."

[COwoman]

05:33 PM on 03/10/2008

Martin. Here is a good one.

Now whose "zealous supporters" are are we talking about?

Look at Jamie Frevele's latest on HuffPo. It speaks volumes about our supporter discussion, doesn't it?

[PulSamsara]

04:09 PM on 03/10/2008

How much does Hillary Clinton KNOW about Spitzer's Prostitution Ring ?

Answer that for the American People Clinton !

[Lon]

04:03 PM on 03/10/2008

Of course maybe now we can solve the problem of the indecisive primary contest. Perhaps Hilary would be happy as Governor of New York now that the office appears to be about to becoming available. If John Jay was willing to step down as the first chief justice of the Supreme Court to become governor of New York, it does not seem that it would be a big step down for Hilary Clinton to go from loser of the democratic primary to governor of New York.

[lynnn]

03:51 PM on 03/10/2008

Wrong, because the press (and yourself) are still in the old style of politics. Why did you even write this? You can't blast people for caring, after you write a post.

But I guess you are just old school like that, and you aren't willing to change are you Martin?

[jg82567]

03:45 PM on 03/10/2008

Who on earth are you challenging with this? There are a lot of folks out there who have issues with the Clintons, not just Obama supporters. They will be only to happy to bypass the 'new politics' to get a few digs in.

[wldnswmmr]

03:07 PM on 03/10/2008

I think it's a shame our attitudes about such things are not more European. So an adult man bought sex? He's been one of the few effective advocates against Wall Street abuses, most particularly the insider-purchase scam run by many brokerages and mutual funds. This probably marks the end of his national political ambitions, which is a loss. His downfall is probably his overzealous denunciation of the prostitution rings he's gone after; that allows everyone to say, "it's not the sex, it's the hypocrisy" when of course, in America, it's always the sex. As for the Hillary connection, I think Mr. Spitzer knew lots of powerful people in Washington as well as New York, and if Clinton is singled out it will be seen for the selective irrelevance it is, at least by the discerning. About 20 people, in other words.

[COwoman]

02:58 PM on 03/10/2008

Let's not ask if they will be there. Because they will. Let's see where they come from too?? K??
Don't blame the Obama campaign for these inevitable photos, just like you don't want the Obama campaign to blame the Hillary camp for those Somali garb photos.
This is a sad day for Dems. Period.
It is very interesting that you are the one that came up with this defensive stance so quickly. Very illustrative of who you are.

===========MARTIN RESPONDS==============

Thank you. I take that as a compliment. I was one of the very first to go on the attack against the Swift Boaters in 2004 when the story broke. I posted an attack against them on Salon on August 6, 2004 - within hours of the attack. (See: http://tinyurl.com/2j7j7y) (John Kerry and Bob Shrum rushed into attack mode a mere 21 days later.) It is what I did constantly during the impeachment on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC when the Republicans were attacking Bill Clinton. And It is indicative of how I will be vigorously defending Obama or Clinton (whoever our candidate is) in the General Election.

==================================

[COwoman]

03:12 PM on 03/10/2008

But here is the problem. No one has gone there. No One.

You are assuming that Barack Obama will attack on this. I'll bet you an apology that his CAMPAIGN will not go there at all.

You game?

=============MARTIN RESPONDS============

I don't think for a moment that the Obama campaign will touch this. I am wondering whether the memo about the New Type Of Politics has reached all the zealous supporters.

We shall see...

============================

[COwoman]

04:09 PM on 03/10/2008

Thank you.

So here is the other relevent point then, the supporters that you hear from are = to the Barack Obama campaign.

Do you equally own all of the Clinton campaign supporters as representative of the Clinton campaign?

Because this would be a mistake.

I do not judge the Clinton campaign by the vehemence of her supporters, in fact to be honest here, I think that they are generally more integrous than the candidate herself.

[COwoman]

03:45 PM on 03/10/2008

I will bet you an apology that the Obama CAMPAIGN does not release photos of the Hillary/Spitzer connection.

You game?

[JAJ2007]

02:55 PM on 03/10/2008

It all depends on who floats those pictures out there. If the Obama campaign sends pics of the Clintons with Spitzer to Drudge report - then you have a legitimate beef.

However, if Drudge (or NY Times, or the clippings bureaus of hundreds of newspapers, or the video files of the various networks) find such picture on their own - then I think not.

I don't think you will hear Obama staffers, surrogates or the candidate himself (or his wife) raise this issue as somehow disqualifying for Senator Clinton.

[Herrington]

02:52 PM on 03/10/2008

Yep, the "new politics" means never having to say you're sorry. I should think Clinton is already on board with that.