New York Governor resignation effective Monday, March 17

[Brent]

I think there is a case for his removal from office, whether it will happen is a different question.

I think he's going to resign very soon(as in probably this week). The national media is already eating him alive, and the New York media is even more brutal. The tabloids, ouch.

and as it turns out he's very unpopular in New York State. He won like 70% of the vote in 2006 during the national Democratic wave but has apparently been a huge disaster.

[CajunMama]

Who are we to judge him? Who are we to know the intimate details of his marriage? Was it perfect? Was there conflict? Every single one of us has made a mistake or will make one in our lives. We are human. I know of couples this has happened to and believe it or not, it helped make their marriage stronger. There are those who will say he's in the public eye and shouldn't have done this but aren't we all in the public eye except not on as grand of a scale?

Those women who have stood by their husband whether it is the everyday wife, hillary clinton or senator david vitters wife (from La.) evidently believe that their marriage was worth saving and evidently believed that their marriage was salvagable. Until it happens to you

[HURAKAN]

[gtalum]

Who are we to judge him? Who are we to know the intimate details of his marriage?

IMHO, that's irrelevant. He was the attorney general of New York, and personally prosecuted, amongst other criminals, prostitution rings just like the one he was using. This creates at least the illusion of a massive conflict of interest, and thus taints his entire career. It's not the fact that he used a prostitute that's so disturbing. That alone would be just a big "oops I really screwed up, please forgive me" moment. But considering his previous career, this should bring him down.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Amid Charges of Spitzer Tryst, Embattled Prostitute "Kristen" Expected to Resign

[Ptarmigan]

IMHO, that's irrelevant. He was the attorney general of New York, and personally prosecuted, amongst other criminals, prostitution rings just like the one he was using. This creates at least the illusion of a massive conflict of interest, and thus taints his entire career. It's not the fact that he used a prostitute that's so disturbing. That alone would be just a big "oops I really screwed up, please forgive me" moment. But considering his previous career, this should bring him down.

What got the attention was the way he was making frequent transfer of money from multiple accounts, not prostitution. From what I remember it was initially thought he was trying to hide bribes. Since he prosecuted banks and a prostitution ring, he has made many enemies. You would think he would not do this.

[x-y-no]

Just incredibly dumb.

How many criminals did he catch and convict using exactly the same methods that snared him? With all his experience prosecuting money laundering, you'd think he'd know how not to get caught.

[Brent]

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer had at least seven or eight liaisons over the last several years with prostitutes supplied by an international call girl ring based in New Jersey, according to sources familiar with the investigation into Spitzer's relationship with the ring.

The liaisons between Spitzer and a number of different prostitutes occurred around the country, including in Washington, D.C., and Florida, the sources said. For each encounter, Spitzer paid several thousand dollars, the sources said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state ... 5009.story

According to a conversation in the documents, an Emperors Club employee told Kristen she had heard that Client-9 "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe." Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that. ... I'd be, like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"

[Ed Mahmoud]

I read the Lt. Gov is legally blind, so if Spitzer does resign, or is impeached, I think NY will have the first ever blind governor.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Just incredibly dumb.

How many criminals did he catch and convict using exactly the same methods that snared him? With all his experience prosecuting money laundering, you'd think he'd know how not to get caught.

From what I've been reading, Spitzer didn't get caught up in a prostitution ring investigation, rather, the prostitution ring got caught up in a money laundering investigation triggered by bank reporting of money Spitzer was moving around to pay for the prostitutes.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer ended up as the subject of an investigation into a prostitution ring because his bank branch in Manhattan turned him in to the Internal Revenue Service as someone who might be engaged in suspicious currency transactions, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

After the governor transferred $10,000 by breaking it into smaller amounts, he then called the bank asking that his name be removed from the transactions, the sources said.

Agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division initially started a probe fearing that the governor was the victim of some sort of blackmail scheme or because he was being victimized by an impostor, the sources said.

Link

[RL3AO]

I read the Lt. Gov is legally blind, so if Spitzer does resign, or is impeached, I think NY will have the first ever blind governor.

He would be the first black governor of New York and the first blind governor in American history.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I'm sickened personally that the death of eight soldiers in Iraq was for the most part trumped in the news by the actions of this pervert! What a sad commentary on your times.

[Ptarmigan]

I'm sickened personally that the death of eight soldiers in Iraq was for the most part trumped in the news by the actions of this pervert! What a sad commentary on your times.

I know what you mean. Eight soldiers getting bombed is horrible. If Spitzer steps down this would put an end to it.

[HURAKAN]

If the allegations are true, he must not only step down, but be prosecuted as any other felon.

[Category 5]

Who are we to judge him? Who are we to know the intimate details of his marriage?

Prostitution is illegal no matter what the state of his marriage.

He should resign or be removed, and should serve whatever time that crime warrants.

[CajunMama]

Who are we to judge him? Who are we to know the intimate details of his marriage?

Prostitution is illegal no matter what the state of his marriage.

He should resign or be removed, and should serve whatever time that crime warrants.

There are worse crimes than prostitution that get slaps on the wrist. Isn't it supposedly the oldest profession in the world?

[HURAKAN]

There are worse crimes than prostitution that get slaps on the wrist. Isn't it supposedly the oldest profession in the world?

If it's a criminal act for commoners, it must be a criminal act for politicians also.

[MGC]

What a dunce. Leaving a paper trail that went straight to his front door. Typical of most men, thinking with the wrong head....MGC

[Ptarmigan]

There are worse crimes than prostitution that get slaps on the wrist. Isn't it supposedly the oldest profession in the world?

The issue is not even prostitution. It's about money laundering, the very laws he enforced.

Spitzer Got Tripped Up Laws He Enforced

And yes, it is the oldest profession. It is even documented in the Bible.

[HURAKAN]

Spitzer could resign as early as Wednesday
By Tom Precious --News Albany Bureau
Updated: 03/11/08 10:53 PM

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer spent Tuesday hunkered down in his posh Manhattan apartment trying to lay the groundwork for a deal with federal prosecutors that would include his resigning from office -- perhaps as early as Wednesday. Two top aides to the governor said late Tuesday night that Spitzer had decided to step down today but they cautioned that the besieged governor, confronted with the likely end to his political life, still could change his mind at the last minute.

As Tuesday came and went without the governor leaving office following revelations of his role in a prostitution ring, in Albany there was a growing sense among Democrats and Republicans that it is only a matter of time before Spitzer resigns, paving the way for Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat popular with many lawmakers, to become the state's 55th governor.

Spitzer spent the day at his Fifth Avenue apartment working with his wife, lawyer and a couple of his chief advisers on ways to blunt possible federal charges. At the same time, political advisers and government staffers with Paterson's office met in Room 246 of the Capitol throughout the day on the many issues involving a looming transition to a new administration.

Meanwhile, a top Republican, Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, called for Spitzer's impeachment if he does not quit in 48 hours. And the first signs of Democrats fleeing their governor popped up -- including resignation calls by Assemblyman Mark Schroeder, D-Buffalo, and Darrell Aubertine, a North Country senator who won a special election just two weeks ago with Spitzer's help.

After earlier dismissing GOP threats for impeachment as grandstanding, the Legislature's top Democrat, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Tuesday evening was not ruling it out, though he called it "a bit premature" for such a maneuver.

"Clearly, the governor should be entitled to time to reflect … and repair the damage done to his family," Silver said.

While a number of top Spitzer advisers said they were left in the dark Tuesday about the governor's future, others sought to portray the former prosecutor as defiant about calls for him to resign. One person close to the governor said he could hold on for weeks as he negotiates with federal prosecutors on a deal that could, in the end, result in his trading his job for no charges brought.

Michelle Hirshman, Spitzer's lawyer, did not return calls for comment.

But many Democrats and Republicans see resignation as inevitable, with one official saying Spitzer he had lost the "moral imperative" to be governor; they portrayed talk of Spitzer's hanging on as fodder for legal maneuvering with federal prosecutors. Lawmakers say calls for him to resign will grow louder as the state's March 31 deadline for a new state budget approaches.

Spitzer remained in seclusion all day. One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Spitzer and his wife as barely talking to each other and said they spent much of the day in separate rooms. Silda Wall Spitzer and the couple's three teenage children were seen leaving the apartment at one point during the afternoon without the governor, reports said.

Spitzer surfaced in FBI wiretaps in a case, various media outlets have reported, that originally began as an Internal Revenue Service investigation into large transfers of money from a bank account controlled by the governor. At first, IRS agents thought they had come across a public corruption or money laundering case involving the governor, who rode to office in 2006 on the reputation as a tough, two-term state attorney general who prosecuted Wall Street executives and at least two prostitution rings. See complete story in Wednesday's Buffalo News.