Spitzer's Loss is Wall Street's Gain
Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex? Will it bring back to life the eight U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq that same day in a war that makes no sense and has cost this nation trillions in future debt? Will it save those millions of homes that hardworking folks all over the country are losing because of financial industry shenanigans that Eliot Spitzer, as much as anyone, attempted to halt? Perhaps it provides some insight into why oil has risen to $108 a barrel, benefiting most of all the oil sheiks whom our taxpayer-supported military has kept in power?
Sure, the guy, by his own admission, is quite pathetic in all those small, squirrelly ways that have messed up the lives of other grand public figures before him, but why is an all-too-human sin, amply predicted in early Scripture, getting all this incredible media play as some sort of shocking event? The answer is that, while having precious little to do with serious corruption in public life, it does have a great deal to do with stoking flagging newspaper sales and television ratings.
The sad truth is that reporting on major corruption, say, the rationalizations of a president who has authorized torture, doesn't cut it as a marketing bonanza. Just days before this grand exposé, the president vetoed a bill banning torture, and instead of being greeted with horrified disgust, the president's deep denigration of this nation's presumed ideals was met with a vast public yawn. Torture, unlike paid sex, doesn't have legs as a news story.
Sex sells, and frankly it would seem far more exploitative for the news media to pimp this tale to the public than anything that VIP escort service did with the pitiable governor. His behavior was not really any more wretched than messing around with a young and vulnerable White House intern who didn't even get paid for her efforts, yet Bill Clinton survived that one, whereas Spitzer was presumed dead on the arrival of this "news." The New York Times, which editorially has supported the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, whose vast White House experience clearly did not include corralling her husband, now editorializes contemptuously about Spitzer's betrayal of the public trust as well as about his exploitation of his "ashen-faced" wife, who, like Hillary, stood by her man.
The media consensus from the opening salvo was that Spitzer must resign and he will be thrown to the dogs, which is unfortunate because, like Clinton, he has done much valuable work in the public interest, and the outrage over this personal dereliction, tawdry in the extreme, is excessive. I certainly never wanted Clinton to resign, let alone be impeached, but why is Spitzer's paying for sex more disgraceful than ripping it off? Yes, Spitzer allegedly broke a law that shouldn't be on the books, and his resignation in disgrace is inevitable, but it bothers me that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney remain in office despite having violated enormously more serious laws.
Frankly, I don't care what any of these politicians do in their personal lives as long as the practice is consensual, and the thousands of dollars that exchanged hands in this case would provide a presumption that the lady in question was indeed a willing partner in this commercial transaction. True, Spitzer is an outrageous hypocrite for having prosecuted others caught in what should not be considered criminal behavior, but since when is hypocrisy on the part of a politician, particularly as to sex, so shocking?
I wouldn't have written this column had I not read the Wall Street Journal's Page 1 news story headlined "Wall Street Cheers as Its Nemesis Plunges Into Crisis." The article begins with the crowing statement "It's Schadenfreude time on Wall Street" and goes on to quote those whom Spitzer went after over what should be considered the criminal greed that has predominated on Wall Street. It was Spitzer, as much as anyone, who sounded the alarm on the subprime mortgage crisis, the obscene payouts to CEOs who defrauded their shareholders and the other financial scandals that have brought the U.S. economy to its knees.
The best rule of thumb these days is that ordinary Americans should be mightily depressed over any news that Wall Street hustlers cheer, for they have been exposed as a dangerous pack of scoundrels quite willing to rob decent, hardworking people of their homes. And of course no one on Wall Street ever paid for sex.
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Agreed.
It's time people started saying this. The guy was an effective prosecutor, which means he is probably an SOB. But he was willing to go after anybody.,including malefactors of great wealth. This may have caused them, to some extent, to restrain their behavior for fear of prosecution {though what they did with him there was bad enough}. The rest of us gained from this.
In the traditional language of foreign policy types, he may be an SOB, but he's our SOB.
Mr. Scheer, yours is the only blog I read about the Spitzer situation, and I couldn't agree with you more, great post as usual.
Well said. Now can you say it on TV for us over and over again?
Oh well.
Mr. Scheer,
Spot on sir, as always. Isn't it interesting that the morning after the Schadenfreude cheers, the Fraudsters got a $200 billion prezzie from the taxpayers. They're going to be allowed to trade $220 billion of the worthless "Alt-A" mortgages they got stuck with by not being able sell them onward to schlubs like us for good-as-gold (well, maybe not $1,000 per o-zay gold) Treasuries. This will deplete the Fed's ammo for future interventions by nearly 1/3. And at least some of it is our money.
Yes, the Baselmen are taking a "haircut" of 10% -- is Zardari the middle man on this deal? -- but it's a big reprieve compared to the Great God "Market's" assessment of a 95% hit, no?
With Benudi Giussolani and Billionaire Bloomer champing at the bit to be the east coast Gubernator, the wing-nuts in Albany will be gunning for David Paterson tomorrow. Spitzer was an idiot to do these stupid things -- some people have pointed out the Mafia's involvement in high-end prostitution and if ANYone should have known about that it's the former NY attorney general -- but the benefits to the exploiters in our midst will be manifold. This is the gift that keeps on giving for them.
I am sure these heavyweights used their influence in this admin and ultimately the justice department who went after him. I understand there is a division in the Justice Dept set up just to monitor Spitzer's goings and comings. This is what happens when you politicize our Justice Department.
Spitzer paid "Kristen" $4000 for a lay.
The hand-picked New York Stock Exchange compensation committee paid Sptizer's arch nemisis, former NYSE Chaiman Richard Grasso, over $140 million. (These were the same companies that Grasso was tasked to regulate.)
From all accounts, Spitzer spent his own money. Grasso was paid from NYSE funds.
Now Grass is laughing... all the way to the bank...with $140 million!
And you just know the same 'call girls' are probably doing big bizness on Wall Street (not to mention probably widespread cocaine use), interesting that they are crowing about it seems like they'd be quiet about it because you just KNOW they are into the same thing.
How ironic ... establish a reputation as a principled person and be subjected to an auto-de-fe when something seamy comes to light; but be a corrupt, unprincipled, lying SOB and hold onto your political seat when the same thing (or worse) comes to light.
The final irony is hearing GOP pols calling for impeachment.
What a fine joke our society has become.
Yeah the GOP impeachment is a joke. They haven't gone after their guy in the U.S. Senate (Vitter) for doing the exact same thing. Partisian politics has gotten patheticly hypocritical.
As I wrote yesterday, with the news just breaking, and got dissed by counter-commenters of the blog, I find myself in agreement with Mr Scheer as is often the case. Well said Bill. I've been following you since the corporate bottom liners canned you at the LA Times.
I've only seen a few blips on the radar, but it’s beginning to light up like a Christmas tree. The market is up 250 points. The dogs down at Wall Street are howling with delight. This will only last a few days, but there's a correlation here somewhere. Spitzer's, the white-collar crime fighter is down. The market is up. An archenemy is undone. He should resign immediately. Less pain that way. David Paterson will make an excellent governor. I've heard the man talk. He's extraordinary. He's gotten where he' s gotten being almost blind.
Spitzer's been popping the prostitutes. Bad form, especially when so many people have been counting on him for so much. I hear of wiretaps and IRS and FBI coordinating investigation of odd money movement. Not Russian oligarchs, but New York pol. Remember Don Siegelman? Remember how our government operates. Big Brother? The Telco’s dumping mega-streams (T3s galore) into the caw of the NSA beast – did you know that “National Security Agency” would be “Staatssicherheits Agentur” in German, “SS” for short. Wiretap du jour. Want to tap someone Dick, right on, what’s the number. Roger, Wilco.
When Billery is in power, do you think things will change. You’ll be trading Big Brother for Big Sister. Same signing statements, same secrecy, same ol’ boys down at the Justice Department, same CIA, same wars. What’s wrong with us gringos? How do we get ourselves into this crap?
Yeah kind of funny. On this day the fed opens the door for billions more to flow to the fuckhead mortgage and finance people much to wall street's glee and the only guy looking out for John Q. Public is ensared in what is obviously a scheme to "get him". Lets see who really cares what Eliot does with his money? I don't. This is a setup to get him for his taking on of the power elite. You can bet on that. More fleecing of the public to come stay tuned
Spitzer has to go. That's indeed the price you pay for behaving the way he did. I agree with Mr. Scheer's complaint about how much media coverage this gets compared with the veto of the bill that would ban waterboarding. What's the bigger outrage? Certainly in my view it's the veto.
Spitzer's real crime is his Hubris. Had he not been such a self-rigtheous a-hole, this might have blown over like the Vitter deal has. But, given his holier than thou demeanor while prosecuting prostituion, it's hard to give him a pass.
David Vitter is also a self-righteous a-hole. His entire schtick is being the "family values" candidate (that's "family values" by the right wing conservative christian definition of the term).
The difference between Spitzer and Vitter is that Spitzer has actually did some good for us, whereas Vitter's just out to make sure your grand-daughter doesn't get an abortion fifty years from now.
Why did the Vitter scandal blow over? It really beats me. But the reason Vitter stayed was because Louisiana's Governor at the time was a Democrat, and she would have appointed a Democrat to replace him. Now that our Governor is a Republican, there's no longer that excuse...but still, no one seems to care.
Same goes for that a-hole Craig, why is he still holding office? The hypocrisy of the Rethug party just sickens me. The 'family values' and 'morals' party is more concerned about the Congressional seats that they hold above all else. I don't think it is a stretch to say that if Sptizer was a Rethug he wouldn't have resigned.
I've said it on more than one occasion on HuffPost, there's just way too many morons living in this country who are so easily lead around and duped by the MSM, the present mis-administration, all of the Rethug party, and most of the whole of Congress.
I'm an optimist by nature, but I have a sickening feeling inside that we're screwed.
The media sre absolute cowards when it comes to George Bush and his rape of the Constitution.
We get to watch that cowardice and hypocrisy in overdrive until Spitzer is hounded out of office,and then it will be back to the Clinton directed racial attack on Barack Obama.
Call this a wild guess, but I think people are pissed off at Spitzer for being the most self-righteous, sanctimonious bastard ever who prosecuted everyone he could for things he's been doing for a lifetime. And, by the way, there's no connection between this guy and the war in Iraq. But go ahead and demagogue the shit out of this story.
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