Spitzer's Folly: How Could He Think He'd Get Away With It?

By Chris Kelly, Huffington Post. Posted March 11, 2008.

Eliot Spitzer got a perfect score on the LSAT. I'm not making that up. It was in The New York Times. So they probably made it up. No, wait, let me start again.

Eliot Spitzer got a perfect score on the LSAT. He spent six years with the Manhattan District Attorney's office. He was the Attorney General of the State of New York. He has some experience with legal matters.

And yet, to make this last Valentine's Day extra special, he transported a woman across state lines for immoral purposes.

The Governor managed to violate the Mann Act.

It can be kind of tricky for a married elected official to hire a hooker, but it's mostly logistics. (Go to the Smoking Gun, and read more about Client #9, the wire transfer, the Amtrak reservation, the envelope, the key at the front desk, the door (ajar or just unlocked?), the question of whether he still had credit from last time. It's like John Grisham meets Feydeau.) Still, with a little luck and the right kind of can-do spirit, the average public servant can find a criminal organization to get him a woman he can treat like a thing.

It takes real work to turn a three-hour assignation into a Federal offense.

It takes a rare and precious combination of arrogance, amorality and shit for brains.

It would be nice to think that even the lawyers who advertise on the bus are smarter than that.

I'm not being judgmental about Eliot Spitzer's home life. And by "home life" I mean, "sex with prostitutes." I'm being judgmental about whether New York State deserves a governor with a rudimentary understanding of the law.

Here's what he said Monday afternoon:

"I failed to live up to the standards I set up to myself. Now I stand to regain the trust of my family."

And that statement is why he has to go.

The Mann Act is a Federal statute. It pertains to interstate commerce. Whether or not your children approve is immaterial. But thanks for bringing them into it, Gov.

While Eliot Spitzer is working things through with Silda and the kids, he might want to explain this passage from the FBI's affidavit:

"LEWIS (a/k/a "Rachelle," the defendant) continued that from what she had been told "he" (believed to be a reference to Client-9) "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe -- you know -- that... very basic things."

An STD is one thing; I just hope he didn't give her any legal advice.

****

More from the HuffingtonPost:

Emperors Club: All About Eliot Spitzer's Alleged Prostitution Ring

Eliot Spitzer has announced he is involved with an alleged prostitution ring called the Emperor's Club. For pictures of the girls (who cost for up to $31,000 a day, and are also priced in Euros and Pounds) scroll down.

Last week The Smoking Gun posted papers about the international prostitution ring being busted, as they were last Thursday. The high-priced call girls were rated in diamonds on the club's website:

An international call girl ring that solicited wealthy male clients via a web site that rated its hookers on a scale of diamonds (and charged accordingly) has been busted by federal agents. The operators of the New York-based Emperors Club were named in a felony complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The New York Times wrote about the bust.

Federal authorities arrested four people Thursday on charges of running an online prostitution ring that serviced clients in New York, Paris and other cities and took in more than $1 million in profits over four years.

See more stories tagged with: prostitution, eliot spitzer

Chris Kelly isn't the one who plays for the Ottawa Senators. But wouldn't it be cool if he were?

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