SurveyUSA has just released a new poll, taken on March 25th, with a national sample on the issue of favorability.  The quick take-away: Obama is the most popular major national political figure surveyed.

SurveyUSA Favorability Poll

The Spitzer story is one that most democrats want to put behind them.  "He was in the wrong and got what was coming to him," they may say.  Lingering questions have remained for the politically astute, however....  

Why was the federal government wasting such a enormous amount of resources on investigating a harmless, and very rarely prosecuted, prostitution service?  

What started this investigation?  And if it really was bank transfers, why did investigators still obsess over the case when the money was found not to be involved in any political influence peddling or to be corruption related?  

What allowed the government to tap and trail Spitzer when he was only a buyer of sex services, which is about as serious a crime as jaywalking?

Why did the report go so in detailed about Spitzer's exploits?  No other client got even close to the amount of personal informations released.

 

The recent scandal regarding NY Governor Eliot Spitzer's patronization of prostitutes while married and in office has created an onslaught of media coverage, starting first with Governor Spitzer's apology and continuing with coverage of the life of Ashley Dupre, the girl turned prostitute who played in the Governor's demise.  

As a voting public we cannot forgive former governor Eliot Spitzer for wrecking his personal life; but we can forgive a president for wrecking his nation. Is there something wrong with this picture?

I can’t think of a more appropriate winner of this year’s "Ides of March Laurel & Dagger Award" than "The Spritz", New York Governor Elliot Spitzer, the "Sheriff of Wall Street", Time Magazine’s "Crusader of the Year "for 2002, the man the New York Times described as the very definition of "...ambition and relentlessness...a prosecutorial avenger", whom the Wall Street Journal condemned as "The Lord High Executioner". He was elected in November of 2006 with a 69% plurality (Hint, hint) and then retreated to a 25% approval rating by December of 2007: and then in four more short days in March he went from "Elliot Ness" to "Elliot Mess", and inspired my favorite headline from the past 12 months; the New York Post’s plaintive, "Ho, No!"

The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson finds the Spitzer scandal right in his banal wheelhouse.  He thunders:

I believe we can confidently imagine what was on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's mind as he allegedly booked "dates" with $1,000-an-hour prostitutes: I'm entitled. I'm above the law. I'm so smart that I'll never be caught. Nobody gets hurt if nobody ever finds out.

We can practically see Spitzer twirling his waxed mustache, but is this at all a likely subjective characterization?  It makes a monster of the man, leaping to the conclusion that all his motives were wicked or stupid.  This is almost never a safe, accurate or fair assumption.  Still, it is a very popular one in this case. I’m astounded by how little imagination nearly everyone, from the pundits to the people around me, has brought to bear on this matter.

A Child’s Garden of Cheap Shots, because if you can’t enjoy yourself at the expense of a guy with $100-million who gets laid better in one hour than you will in your entire sorry life, well who can you kid?

Left: NY Gov. Eliot "John" Spitzer disguises himself as jack o' lantern for D.C. tryst.   Right: Turning that frown upside down to put on a game face for consituents, from whom much has been taken away. (AP photos)

Full size comic below the fold.

Picture this: Bill Clinton walks alongside Hillary, she’s a bit sheepish, naughty girl, but keeps her head up nonetheless, and their dog and their daughter dutifully tag along. Hillary has just announced to the world that she did, in fact, have sexual relations with that young intern. Is that Bill taking her hand?

Or Elliot Spitzer, the cuckolded sex crusader, looking stoically into his wife’s face, giving a nod and slight smile to someone in the audience, as Silda announces her regret for having slept with men much younger and much hotter than her husband, and spending enough money to have sent one of their daughters through college, or help a bunch of the rich kids in her husband's charity find their compassion. Silda would let the world know that they have work to do and that they need to heal, and Elliot would let the world know that he is standing by his woman.

Or John McCain’s first wife saying he was just too used up after he returned from Nam, and her wandering eye just happened to land on a young (superduperrich) hottie to further her career – and then she still had a career to further!

The cable news shows last night focused primarily on two stories: (1) the Spitzer scandal and resignation; and (2) the Ferraro statements.  The juxtaposition of these two stories led me onto an interesting train of thought.

In everything I saw last night, almost no attention was paid to Spitzer's resignation speech.  The assumption seemed to be that it didn't really matter what he said, that it was all just platitudes anyway.  And that's probably true.  Nevertheless, I did think about his words.  He said that he didn't want to let his personal failures interfere with "the people's business."  He said that that business was more important than whether or not he stayed in office.  Of course, he's right.

Poor girl. How embarassing. 365,000 hits on her myspace page... why didn't she take it down?
(Here it is by the way http://www.myspace.com/...

She seems nice enough. And she is pretty. And got herself into prostitution, but she was at the top of the profession. I hope she won't be charged with a crime. I can't see how she did anything wrong. Seems like they shafted her! The agency charged 5000 an hour and she only got 1000. And she didn't know he was the governor. How could she have known? She's from New Jersey. Lot of money.

Which is worse having sex with the intern (depending on your definition of "sex") or dropping $80,000 of your daddy's money on prostitutes (depending on what the definition of "ho" is)?

It seems like Hillary knew Bill was a ho. Ms. Spitzer, she's surprised, shocked. She didn't know. At least Hillary was or should have been prepared. Sidla is genuinely surprised. Or did she know? She didn't have any idea? Still, my wife somehow thought Monica-gate was worse, from a marriage point of view. I wasn't so sure, so I went out of the room and came back in...

For a couple of days, I was a bit stunned at how quickly Elliot Spitzer was forced out of office as governor of New York State.  Most of the time when there is a sex scandal involving a high-profile politician, the political party to which that official belongs will at least attempt to rally around him (or her, though I can't think of any female politicians involved in sex scandals) to prevent his collapse.  In this case, it seemed either virtually unanimous that Spitzer must resign, or at least that those defending him did so half-heartedly.  A few hours ago, I thought of a theory explaining this.  More after the jump.

As far as I know Spitzer never said that.  I think we all remember who did.  My first reaction in both cases was "Why????"  Why blow so much for an hour or two?  I was tempted to say an hour or two of pleasure, but after reading Harold Meyersons's column What $5,500 an Hour Buys in today's WaPo, I think there is another way of looking at it that is more meaningful.  Look below the fold and see if you agree.

Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and yet another Democrat gets caught with his pants down! Don't these guys EVER learn?

Not since I read of the Dirty Tricks Department of Richard Nixon's Administration have I considered this exists in politics today. But what is disturbing is that Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-N.Y.) has become the latest target of a Republican inspired Coup D'Etat.

First consider the fact that in Republican philosophy advanced since their much vaunted "1994 Revolution" that there was a move to return more power to the states. Ever since the 1960's and the press for Civil Rights, the Republicans have shamefully used code words like "State's Rights" and "Local Authority" and other words that are against a more inclusive society. Is it any accident that Ronald Reagan went to Neshoba County, Mississippi in 1980 to reemphasize his commitment to "State's Rights". The same area where civil rights advocates and more importantly college kids were savagely murdered in the 1960's? Wouldn't there be an outcry if a candidate for President stood in Dealy Plaza, in Dallas, Texas, or the lobby of the old Ambassodor Hotel in Los Angeles, California and reemphasized their commitment to the 2nd Amendment?

Hearing the story about Governor Spitzer sparked something in my memory from 2004.

I remember reading an article somewhere about how "escorts" are being flown into New York because of the increased demand as a result of the GOP National Convenion.  I did a google search and found the article here (I love the internet).

The Bush mentality of going after anyone who doesn't walk in step has changed the Justice Department into the Department of Homeland Vengeance. Scott Horton, writing for Harpers magazine, has been looking at the shenanigans of the Bush Justice Department for some time now. And he ain't liking what he's seeing.

Read this,
and this,
and here titled: Vote Machine: How the Republicans Hacked the Justice Department (thanks to DNHN blog for the link).

Read Horton's work. And then let's see if there is something to be done.

So I was sitting in class yesterday when I caught the Spitzer news on the NYTimes front page.

I immediately decided to write a quick diary, full of sarcastic snark, on whether Hillary would reject AND denounce Spitzer's endorsement Previous Diary