NY Times Ignores Possible Political Motivation In Questioning Pursuit Of Spitzer

This is a follow up to my March 16th post asking what the real breaking news story involving Eliot Spitzer was.

Responding to those who say the pursuit of former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer was unnecessary and, perhaps, inappropriate - because prosecuting people who use prostitutes is so rare - The New York Times has just published a lengthy article - "U.S. Defends Tough Tactics With Spitzer" - in which The Justice Department details and justifies the reasoning and elaborate methods used to catch former Governor Spitzer.

While I applaud the length the Times went to to get the government to explain itself along traditional themes - (In a world where John's are pretty much never prosecuted, why go after someone for using a prostitute?) - the article never gets into the possible political motivation for getting Spitzer: that he needed to be silenced after having led the effort to protect consumers from the banking industry's predatory lending practices, an effort which was stopped several years ago by the Bush administration's people in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

So, after breaking the story of Spitzer's use of prostitutes with a headline that practically made it sound as if he might be running a prostitution ring on the side, the Times does this follow up story about the pursuit of Spitzer that completely ignores the fact that - since he was a Democratic seeking to prosecute the Bush administration (at least in the court of public opinion) - there might be a political dimension to what The Justice Department did here.

Nice job of digging deep on this story, New York Times!

Comments

[hapkidokid]

It's too bad someone like Spitzer who actually helped keep corporations accountable, had to be so doggone stupid with his peccadilloes. He has to have a self-destruct gene somewhere in him.

[jhNY]

You may very well be right, in which case, Spitzer's unwillingness to obey the laws he prosecuted others for breaking is all the more unfortunate.

Speaking of predatory lending, did you notice reaction to VISA's IPO offering the other day? Broke records for first-day earnings. Guess Wall Street knows ain't nobody going to correct the usurious practices of the credit card companies anytime soon...

[SamThornton]

Steven, while I'm not unsympathetic to your theory, I'm guessing that it'll require something more than speculation to flesh this story out. Hopefully, you'll be able to discover a smoking gun somewhere along the line.