Elliot Spitzer Resigns

By now almost everybody knows Elliot Spitzer, Democratic Governor of New York was caught in a scandal involving his paying for prostitutes, history on that is here and here in previous posts at Wake up America.

Today reports are in that Spitzer has resigned, citing "personal failings".

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, reeling from revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring, announced his resignation today, becoming the first governor of New York to be forced from office in nearly a century.

Mr. Spitzer, appearing somber and with his wife at his side, said his resignation is to be effective Monday, and that Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson would be sworn in to replace him.

His statement:

"I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me. To every New Yorker, and to all those who believed in what I tried to stand for, I sincerely apologize."

Over the course of my public life, I have insisted — I believe correctly — that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor."

According to some reports, the threat of impeachment from the GOP pushed him to resign:

Since issuing an initial apology on Monday, Mr. Spitzer had been holed up at his apartment at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street in Manhattan, where his aides said he had been engaged in an intense legal and family debate about whether to resign or, as his wife was urging, to stay on.

Mr. Spitzer emerged finally at about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday with his wife by his side and got into a black S.U.V., which headed for his headquarters on Third Avenue as news helicopters followed above.

On Tuesday, as Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat, contemplated his next move, the New York political world remained in a suspended state, with cries — even from fellow Democrats — growing louder for him to step down.

In one of the last and desperate rounds of the end game, a top Spitzer administration official reached out to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s staff on Tuesday to see if the governor could avoid an impeachment vote. But the prospects were grim.

Yesterday GOP lawmakers had given him 48 hours to resign or they would seek to impeach him, which would have caused greater embarrassment for Spitzer, his family and the Democratic party as a whole.

City Room provides the full text of Spitzer's resignation:

In the past few days I have begun to atone for my private failings with my wife, Silda, my children, and my entire family. The remorse I feel will always be with me. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for the love and compassion they have shown me. From those to whom much is given, much is expected. I have been given much: the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York, and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me. To every New Yorker, and to all those who believed in what I tried to stand for, I sincerely apologize.

I look at my time as governor with a sense of what I might have been, but I also know that as a public servant I, and the remarkable people with whom I worked, have accomplished a great deal. There is much more to be done, and I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people’s work. Over the course of my public life, I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor. At Lt. Gov. Paterson’s request, the resignation will be effective Monday, March 17, a date that he believes will permit an orderly transition.

I go forward with the belief, as others have said, that as human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. As I leave public life, I will first do what I need to do to help and heal myself and my family. Then I will try once again, outside of politics, to serve the common good and to move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our children. I hope all of New York will join my prayers for my friend, David Paterson, as he embarks on his new mission, and I thank the public once again for the privilege of service.

Question: After this humiliation, why on earth would his wife has encouraged him not to resign and why is she still with him?

Maybe Hillary Clinton can give us some insight into those answers.




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Elliot Spitzer paid a very high price for a prostitute

[Update] 3/12/08- Spitzer resigns.

I am not talking about the thousands of dollars he paid or the money to transfer said prostitute across state lines.

I am talking about a promising career to which, even if he doesn't resign, is no longer so promising.

I am talking about publicly embarrassing his family and his wife, Silda, with his indiscretions.



Party wise, this is the height an election season to which Democratic contender, although not a part of the story itself, is being affected...evidenced by Hillary Clinton scrubbing all mention of her high profile Spitzer endorsement off of her site within an hour of the story breaking.




An awful high price to pay for a call girl, don't you think?

We touched on the original announcement yesterday, but today, more news continues to flow about Elliot Spitzer and what led to the scandal of this campaign season, even though it isn't even a scandal involving any presidential candidates.

The news about how this investigation progressed came out yesterday when ABC headlined their piece, "It Wasn't the Sex; Suspicious $$ Transfers Led to Spitzer".

In that article it said:

The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.

It was only months later that the IRS and the FBI determined that Spitzer wasn't hiding bribes but payments to a company called QAT, what prosecutors say is a prostitution operation operating under the name of the Emperor's Club.

Today we see more reports showing exactly how those initial investigations progressed.

A routine tax inquiry:

A criminal investigation began last year into suspicious financial transactions, conducted by Elliot Spitzer, were reported to the internal revenue service when banks found several unusual movements of cash involving the governor of New York.

According to officials speaking anonymously, it wasn't even the transactions themselves that flagged Spitzer, it was his efforts to "conceal the source, destination or purpose of the movement", of those transactions.

The money ended up in the bank accounts of what appeared to be shell companies, corporations that essentially had no real business.

The transactions, officials said, suggested possible financial crimes — maybe bribery, political corruption, or something inappropriate involving campaign finance. Prostitution, they said, was the furthest thing from the minds of the investigators.

This brought together different agencies to investigate, the I.R.S.'s Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and federal prosecutors from Manhattan.

It didn't take long for these investigators to realize, they were not looking at a man trying to conceal bribes, but a man attempting to conceal that he was meeting, arranging travel for and paying for prostitutes.

This led investigators to the Emperor’s Club V.I.P, a very high priced escort service that used shell companies, which are corporations that essentially had no real business,to run their money through.

Many Spitzer supporters are saying he should not resign, but loyal party members seem to disagree, because the story that broke yesterday is about to get worse for Elliott Spitzer. Some reports say that there is more than 5,000 intercepted phone calls and text messages and more than 6,000 e-mails recovered with search warrants as well as bank records, travel and hotel records and physical surveillance.

Spitzer is putting together a very impressive legal team which will fight this battle for him, but the evidence of the investigation, listed above, will end up in the public eye and for the Democratic party, his resignation is the only way that will help blunt further damage to the Democratic party as a whole.

Disassociation is the name of the game at this point and many, just as Clinton did, want to distance themselves from Spitzer as quickly as possible.

On a side note, there are GOP lawmakers indicating that they will seek to impeach Spitzer if he does not resign within 48 hours.

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NY Gov. Elliot Spitzer is linked to prostitution ring

[Update] 3/12/08- Spitzer resigns.

Part #2, The price Spitzer paid for his indiscretions.

Elliot Spitzer, Democratic Governor of New York, has been implicated in a prostitution ring and it is being reported that he has informed his most senior administration officials of his involvement.

Gov. Spitzer has been caught on federal wiretap arranging to meet with a prostitute at a Washington hotel last month.

Back on March 7, 2008, reports came out of federal authorities arresting four people 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.

The ring, known as the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., had 50 prostitutes available for appointments in New York, Washington, Miami, London and Paris, according to a complaint unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The appointments, made by telephone or through an online booking service, cost $1,000 to $5,500 an hour and could be paid for with cash, credit card, wire transfers or money orders, the complaint said.

Today we see that Elliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York, has been implicated in that prostitution ring.

It is believed that the governor is one of the men identified in that prostitution ring,as a client. (PDF file of court papers)

Spitzer, 48, is married and has three daughters and in the latest reports he has publicly apologized to his family.

Spitzer was in the public eye recently for his proposal to give illegal aliens driver's licenses, licenseswhich he withdrew after it became a political hot potato.

[Update] It seems that this is coming at a bad time for Spitzer since he is expected to testify to the state Public Integrity Commission, to answer for his role, in a case where his aides were accused of misusing state police to compile travel records to embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno, who is Spitzer's "nemesis".

[Update#2] Spitzer's statement:

I acted in a way that violated in my obligation to my family...I apologize first and most importantly to my family, and to the public, I promise better.

I am disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected my expect I must dedicated some time to regain the trust of my family.

[Update #3] According to the USA Today blog, an anonymous source says Spitzer "has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month."

More is coming out from the NYT, AP, New York Sun, Fox News and CNN, some saying Spitzer is expected to resign and if he does then he would be succeeded by Lt. Governor David A. Paterson.

[Update #4] According to CNBC, if Spitzer resigns over this scandal, then he will be succeeded by Lt. Governor David A. Paterson.

[Update #5] What WCBSTV call reliable sources are telling them that Spitzer may officially resign tonight.

Reliable sources told CBS 2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer that Lt. Gov. David Paterson could be sworn in as governor as early as 7 p.m. Monday.

UPDATE!

It is being reported that it took Hillary Clinton less than one hour after this story broke to completely "sponge" her campaign website clean of Spitzer, specifically his endorsement, which WAS listed until today.

Either way, Hillary Clinton has already delivered the first of many "You're dead to me, Eliot"-moments, sponging her campaign website clean of all mentions of Spitzer's endorsement last May. Spitzer's name was gone from the website less than an hour after the Times story broke—impressive timing when you consider it took Mitt Romney nearly an entire day to decide to throw Larry Craig under a bus last August.

Just because I have spent over 40 years perfecting the art of bitchiness and because I think she should have left it alone and just denounced the endorsement instread of trying to "scrub" it..

Let Hillary try to scrub this:

The Hill, "Spitzer endorses Clinton, says nation in ‘crisis’

Fox on MAY 8, 2007, "New York Governor Spitzer to Endorse Hillary Clinton for 2008 President"

CNN on MAY 14, 2007, "Spitzer endorses Clinton, New Jersey mayors lend support to Obama."

(---Hillary Clinton with Spitzer )

[MAJOR UPDATE] 5:00PM, AZ time- It wasn't the sex that led to Spitzer it was the money, according to ABC:

The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.

I will continue updating this as the day goes on and more information comes out.



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