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New York Times reports Gov. Eliot Spitzer admits involvement in a prostitution ring.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Josh Marshall: "Fox saying Spitzer will resign; me saying, no kidding."

UPDATE 2: Here's his statement. No resignation yet, just an apology, and a statement that "I will report back to you in short order." Whatever that means.

More details from the Times on what happened:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

The Smoking Gun has more on Emperors Club VIP, "which charged up to $5500 an hour for one of its 50 prostitutes, who operated in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, and Paris." And TPM Muckraker has more on "Client 9."

Anyway, back to the Times article...

The governor learned that he had been implicated in the prostitution probe when a federal official contacted his staff last Friday, according to the person briefed on the case.

The governor informed his top aides Sunday night and this morning of his involvement. He canceled his public events today and scheduled an announcement for this afternoon after inquiries from the Times.

The governor’s aides appeared shaken, and one of them began to weep as they waited for him to make his statement at his Manhattan office. Mr. Spitzer was seen leaving his Fifth Avenue apartment just before 3 p.m. with his wife of 21 years, Silda, heading to the news conference.

The Times was apparently working this story all night yesterday, and they're expecting another long night tonight. A memo has been sent out to the staff: "Obviously, we're going to have much late news, thanks to the governor. So we really need you to file all nonrelated stories as early as possible. It's going to be a long night...."

Comments

[CORNHUSKERS 94 95 & 97]

You can't clean up Wall st. when your paying for sex dude. wife and three kids. damn. and he ran on a platform of ethics and cleaning up Albany from its seedy past.

[4-7]

as Sir Rush humorously opined, "How is it that this is relevant to his ability to govern ?!?! Leave him alone ! It's not like he tapped his foot on the floor of a restroom."

Let's see how the double standard deals with this ethics-hunting democrat snafu.

[4-7]

How long til the "I sought counseling/ I was an alcoholic / My wife forgave me / It's behind us /" moment ?

The real surprise would be if he actually resigned immediately. The evidence would have to be overwhelming. Otherwise he will make himself look stupid by denying any present relevance and then be upstaged by text messages and photogs.

[yea]

there goes the biased ny times picking on republicans again... oh wait...

[Joe Mama]

Good lord, the NYTimes running this scandalicious story about a pol in its own backyard is hardly proof of the paper's objective bona fides.

[4-7]

Yeah, let's make sure this story didn't appear in the Living section first.

[4-7]

A plea bargain that he resign, you think ?

[Marty West]

$5500 an hour?!! Pros!

[B. Minich]

Wow, this is going to suck all the air out of the presidential coverage for a few days, at least.

Not to worry! Clinton and Obama will be there waiting for us when we return to normal life. ;)

[Joe Mama]

Spitzer was indeed indicted and will resign tomorrow.

[Angrier and Angrier]

Let's see how this "double standard" you speak about works. My guess is Spitzer will resign. Will Larry Craig and David Vitter do likewise? I doubt it.

[4-7]

I am starting to pity the guy now. Another fall to hubris and excess.

[yea]

$5500/hour. at least the man knows quality. if you are going to ruin your career, and perhaps your family, you better at least be going top knotch.

[4-7]

Haha. It's one thing A & A to suggest the double standard won't be applied, but to suggest it doesn't exist (your quotation marks), laughable.

Spitzer will resign because he has no choice. Like I said, if the evidence was not so overwhelming, he could just chalk it up to the past, a right wing conspiracy, or outright lies. Did Clinton resign ? Kennedy Jr. ? Like Rush said - Larry Craig's life was ruined by a zealous newspaper committed to ruining him and a foot tapping on the floor. It takes an indictment to kill a democrat, plus a jury verdict or a plea, and sometimes even that doesn't work - read Don Siegelman.

[yea]

larry craig's life was ruined because he solicited gay sex in a public bathroom.

[4-7]

You can tell early whether the double standard won't be applied (because there is just too much damning evidence or what not) based on how quickly Democrats flee the sinking ship and cut ties with their ally.

Democrats are well aware of what even the tiniest guilt by association from Abramoff did to the 2006 election. They certainly don't want an Abramaoff. So they will probably sacrifice Spitzer up. That doesn't mean the double standard doesn't exist - it just means that sometimes your shield is too heavy to carry and becomes a liability.

[4-7]

Will Obama use this potential Clinton weakness as he grows ever more envious to deliver a straw-camel type death blow ? Or would such a strike have a pendulum effect ? The scene must be quite still on the Western front.

[4-7]

ok. Now that we've had two hours to let this set in, I hope all conservatives don't get too envious for the blood in the water and try to capitalize (as democrats would). We need to let the story do its own work like any good morality play. He's a human being and his faults should serve as far as their lessons may reach, but we don't need to pile on. It will only make us all the more vulnerable once one of our own number falls to sin (albeit less serious and hardly proved - Tom DeLay, CIP).

[Angrier and Angrier]

So 4-7 wants it both ways. If Democrats don't call on Spitzer to resign, it is a double-standard. If Democrats do call for his resignation, it's rats leaving the sinking ship.

There is no double-standard. Democrats will insist Spitzer resigns and I believe he will? Larry Craig is still in office. David Vitter is still in office. What they did - as far as we know - is just as bad as what Spitzer did.

Personally, I think Spitzer, Craig and Vitter should all be out of office.

[yea]

There really isn't as much to this at 4-7 is making it out to be. Spitzer, who was already proving to not be a good governor, disgraced himself and his office and should resign immediately. He's an embarassment not just to democrats, but new yorker's as well. This isn't just about democrats/republicans, its about a man who let a lot of people down and is getting his just deserts.

[4-7]

fair enough. But understand why conservatives initially bristle at the open possibility that Republicans are not the only ones subject to vice, as Democrats would love for the world to think.

Anyway. I suggest a prayer for Spitzer. Such a fall - one worries about suicide.

[Brendan Loy]

Or Hillary might have him killed. Right, 4-7?

[Client 9]

I have $5500 and I'm coming to DC, can anyone arrange for some "services"?

[4-7]

Awww - Rough ! I was being sincere ! Trying to help the other side with some Love !

I think I've said enough about the HRC Machiavellian masterstroke to preserve race consciousness and liberal-elite power for the next 3 generations.

[Angrier and Angrier]

I hate it...hate it...when these assholes drag their wives onto the stage with them. You know, you f-d up buddy. Don't compound your wife's misery by dragging her into the spotlight and acting like nothing is wrong.

I think a stand-up thing...possibly the only stand-up thing...Spitzer could have done was to come out to the podium and said, "I've made my mistakes, but I'm not going to make another by dragging my family onto a stage and under the lights at a moment like this."

But then, that would require class.

[CORNHUSKERS 94 95 & 97]

5500.00, I have not met a woman with "anything" worth that kind of money. I dont care what your tax bracket reads

[Client 9's Driver 8]

Way to shield the hated heat.
Way to put myself to sleep.
Way to shield the hated heat.
Way to put myself, my children to sleep.

[4-7]

A&A - you're right. She looks miserable. poor, poor woman. I hope she finds some healing.

[Angrier and Angrier]

So how does one say, "Gee hon. I'm sorry, but I had sex with a prostitute. Oh yea, and I had sex with you with the same dick. Just think of all the crap that was on it. Kinda makes you sick, don't it?"

How do you do that properly?

[JD]

$5500 an hour?

That must be the other America that John Edwards was talking about.

[Angrier and Angrier]

"$5500 an hour?

That must be the other America that John Edwards was talking about."

Does that include a haircut?

[Buckethead]

Dem gawddam new york times and there libral bias dun and took out one of there own [pewtewie].

[Marty West]

I would love to know what $5500.00 gets you. I wonder how much blow they did too.

[Angrier and Angrier]

For $5,500 an hour, the chick better know how to make the orgasm last an hour. I would speculate immediate buyer's remorse.

[Marty West]

This just shows how stupid guys really are.

[Kristy]

Maybe I should change careers...

[I R A Darth Aggie]

Let's see how this "double standard" you speak about works. My guess is Spitzer will resign. Will Larry Craig and David Vitter do likewise? I doubt it.

Why should Larry Craig resign, exactly? so far as I know, he's only accused for asking for some sexual healing, not solicitation of prostitution.

As for Vitter, so far as I know, he hasn't prosecuted anyone for running a prostitution ring. Spitzer has, and they where convicted. Besides, Vitter is from Lousianna, who elected Edwin Edwards twice, once after he got out of jail. And I doubt Vitter campaigned for his current seat by promising to clean up the corruption goin' on up there.

[I R A Darth Aggie]

Or Hillary might have him killed. Right, 4-7?

She'd probably like strangle him herself. But having been in a similar situation as the Gov's wife, she'll probably counsel the poor woman to go on Good Morning America or some such and blame the vast right-wing conspiracy for her husband's woes.

I'm sure Karl Rove is behind this smearing of an upstanding citizen!

[4-7]

Buckethead shows us how easily liberals think a NYT critic can be lampooned and charicatured. If only.

[I R A Darth Aggie]

Maybe I should change careers...

Probably a bad idea. Surely you've heard this?

Man (to a woman): Would you sleep with me for $1 million?
Woman: Yes!
Man: How about $10?
Woman: What sort of woman do you think I am??
Man: We've already established that. Now we're just haggling over the price.

[Scientizzle]

$5500 an hour?
For one person?

That's 940 hours of (federal) minimum wage work.

[B. Minich]

So Clinton may not lose a superdelegate after all.

If Spitzer resigns, and Patterson resigns his DNC position, the DNC will appoint a new member - and prominent New York Democrats are pretty much pro Clinton (plus, the party probably doesn't want to get involved in the fight over who gets the new superdelegate). The only way she loses a delegate is if Patterson, the new governor, doesn't resign from the DNC. Then, it will drop by one, since he can't vote twice.

[Joe Mama]

So how does one say, "Gee hon. I'm sorry, but I had sex with a prostitute. Oh yea, and I had sex with you with the same dick. Just think of all the crap that was on it. Kinda makes you sick, don't it?" How do you do that properly?

By offering to support her in her presidential run, of course ;-)

[Joe Mama]

. . . except I doubt Bill's been vacuuming with Hill's back since Chelsea, but whatever . . .

[Brendan Loy]

Is there some particular reason to believe Patterson would resign? Do governors generally not serve on the DNC or something?

[Alasdair]

"Or Hillary might have him killed. Right, 4-7?" - Brendan - why would Senator Clinton want *anything * to happen to Spitzer that might take him off the front page ?

The longer his front-page exposure goes on (and on (and on)), the less people see of Senator Clinton - and that has been shown to correlate strongly with her doing better ...

[Sandy Underpants]

Spitzer is running the prostitution ring? Larry Craig doesn't need to resign and nobody needs to resign that's why they don't. That dumbass in New Jersey never resigned either after he got busted with the male prostitute or whatever. I don't think anyone actually cares about this crap. The most shocking thing around this story is the amount of money hookers can get. But really, it's just a misdemeanor like Larry Craig and Vitter. The guy that should be most upset here is Mark Foley. He's the only guy to resign and he didn't even commit a crime.

[Janet Reno]

Obama’s efforts to connect to the Republican Party, specifically Bush, and Dick Chaney, of the Halliburton Company, dates back to the Presidents Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and indeed Chaney was once an executive officer of Halliburton.

The American military pounds Iraq with Artillary, bombs, and the like, destroying large sections of cities, and infra-structures, then Halliburton comes in to rebuild. Halliburton and Halliburton associated companies have raked in ten’s of billions.

Obama is just like the BIG HALIBURTAN. Haliburton has contracted to build detention centers in the U.S. similiar to the one in Quantanammo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton does nothing to earn the Two Dollars for each meal an American Serviceman in Iraq eats.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

Halliburton was scheduled to take control of the Dubai Ports in The United Arab Emiirate. The deal was canceled when Bush was unable to affect the transfer of the American Ports.

Now we see what some might suspect as similiar financial escapading from the Democrats.

Two years ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company - Companion- owned by now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO) Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley, to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. An Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo. Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract.
Involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, and former cop Daniel T. Frawley, is Aiham Alsammarae. Alsammarae was accused of financial corruption by Iraqi authorities and jailed in Iraq last year before escaping and returning here.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON --
Recently, Obama's campaign staff have been vetted by the IRS to disclose his connection to the criminal money generating underworld. Besides, his connections to the REZCO MAFIA types, his up-coming tax fraud charges — Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and disclose Obama's MUSLIM Farrakhan mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church are trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Obama should stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke "GLORK" Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He is MAD!!! --

OBAM YOU'RE NO JFK --

"GLORK" Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman: "Tales Calculated To Drive You." He is a MUSLIM "Glork" He's MAD!!! Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of Mad. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it on the bulletin board in the office of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff, later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.
Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek.

Michelle Obama should be ashamed.

"GLORK" Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. If Michelle Obama new what her husband -- the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster -- Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. He is a MUSLIM "Glork" It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He's MAD!!!

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

[Brendan]

Re: the "5,500 an hour" thing, ValleyWag says:

There's no such thing as a "$5,500/hour escort." Agency-based prostitutes who command these rates don't turn hourly tricks. These are evening, overnight, and weekend appointments. Spitzer wasn't just "paying her to leave" after a blowjob, he was time-sharing a mistress.

[Scientizzle]

What's up with the unintelligible off-topic Obama = Halliburton screed? We're talkin' about expensive-ass hookers here!

[David K.]

Sci, Janet's a bit bored these days I guess ;-)