Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Ask the Right Questions; Find the Reality
by Ken Houghton
Not that Spitzer didn't do it, but, not to be subtle about it: you can't keep that high-end a business running with only one client.
Now, I know that no one would ever believe that the Bush administration—and certainly not someone who worked closely with Michael Chertoff—would ever do anything for purely political reasons.
But don't be surprised if that is exactly what happened.
As a side note, I got the chance to see the most famous person prosecuted under the Mann Act live last summer (thank you, Ruth), and it's difficult not to think that that prosecution also made the world a slightly nastier place than it should be.
UPDATE: Felix Salmon summarizes the power struggle that led to the prosecution, and is more optimistic about the results than I (but who isn't?).
UPDATE 2: Lance speak, you listen. But see also the comments from Velvet Goldmine and, especially, actor212:
UPDATE #3: See Reg at Beautiful Horizons, who appears to have noticed what Tom Tomorrow pointed out, and (via Felix) Justin Wolfers, who basically explains (without noting it directly) why David Vitter and Larry Craig are still in office.
Jane Hamsher and Digby have noticed what anyone who looked at the indictment would know: this is a political smear job.
Not that Spitzer didn't do it, but, not to be subtle about it: you can't keep that high-end a business running with only one client.
Now, I know that no one would ever believe that the Bush administration—and certainly not someone who worked closely with Michael Chertoff—would ever do anything for purely political reasons.
But don't be surprised if that is exactly what happened.
As a side note, I got the chance to see the most famous person prosecuted under the Mann Act live last summer (thank you, Ruth), and it's difficult not to think that that prosecution also made the world a slightly nastier place than it should be.
UPDATE: Felix Salmon summarizes the power struggle that led to the prosecution, and is more optimistic about the results than I (but who isn't?).
UPDATE 2: Lance speak, you listen. But see also the comments from Velvet Goldmine and, especially, actor212:
Ask yourself this, Lance:
Since when has $5G ever been considered "large sums of money"?
That would mean, the next time you buy a car and put a down payment down, the Feds ought to be allowed to look at it first.
UPDATE #3: See Reg at Beautiful Horizons, who appears to have noticed what Tom Tomorrow pointed out, and (via Felix) Justin Wolfers, who basically explains (without noting it directly) why David Vitter and Larry Craig are still in office.
Labels: homeland security, Politics, Sex, the rule of law
Comments:
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Stop the room, this is the most spinning I've seen in some time.
So people are making a big deal out of what is presumably the highest-profile fish that got caught in this net and you're surprised by that? Is EVERYTHING a Bush-centered conspiracy these days? Did George himself order Spitzer to call up this service, rendezvous in DC with a whore, and ask her to "do things that she might not feel are safe" in the words of the transcript? Or did he send Cheney to do it, or did he call Ashcroft or Rumsfeld out of retirement just for that purpose?
This is not a "political smear job," this is deserved comeuppance for yet another politician who thought he could get away with something illegal and perverted. I don't care what side of the aisle he sits on, I don't care whether he was an appalling zealot for a cause I disagree with or a nigh-on hero for the one nearest my heart, the guy's a sleaze who was the craftsman of his own demise.
If you don't separate what he did in his professional life from the fact that he skirted the rules that the rest of us are subject to just so he could spend ghastly sums of money in the pursuit of cheating with his wife, you'll be guilty of the same Machiavellianism that you despise in other arenas. "So what if they guy's scum! He keeps the fat cats on Wall Street in check! The trains all run on time!"
So people are making a big deal out of what is presumably the highest-profile fish that got caught in this net and you're surprised by that? Is EVERYTHING a Bush-centered conspiracy these days? Did George himself order Spitzer to call up this service, rendezvous in DC with a whore, and ask her to "do things that she might not feel are safe" in the words of the transcript? Or did he send Cheney to do it, or did he call Ashcroft or Rumsfeld out of retirement just for that purpose?
This is not a "political smear job," this is deserved comeuppance for yet another politician who thought he could get away with something illegal and perverted. I don't care what side of the aisle he sits on, I don't care whether he was an appalling zealot for a cause I disagree with or a nigh-on hero for the one nearest my heart, the guy's a sleaze who was the craftsman of his own demise.
If you don't separate what he did in his professional life from the fact that he skirted the rules that the rest of us are subject to just so he could spend ghastly sums of money in the pursuit of cheating with his wife, you'll be guilty of the same Machiavellianism that you despise in other arenas. "So what if they guy's scum! He keeps the fat cats on Wall Street in check! The trains all run on time!"
The test here will be if this blows over in approximately Vitter time. Still, it is funny (cough, Don Siegelman, cough) that while allowing the banking system to burn, OCC investigated this.
Of course, Spitzer was heretofore not-unrightly considered a reformer, whereas people probably just assumed Vitter was a hypocritical pervert.
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Of course, Spitzer was heretofore not-unrightly considered a reformer, whereas people probably just assumed Vitter was a hypocritical pervert.
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