Governor Elliot Spitzer: The Emperor of Denial.

Well...

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer has been caught with his 20+years Married Hand in the Classy Call Girl Cookie Jar (a biz called "The Emperor's Club"... hence the title of this Blog.)...

Tsk... tsk... tsk...

I mean... Call me "Crazy"...

(although, the proper term is 'Schizophrenic', according to my psychiatrist.)

But, I don't get how New York Governor and former Wall Street-Steamrolling, "Mr. Clean" NY State Prosecutor, Elliot Spitzer Ever thought it was a good idea to order a high-priced call girl from a telephone or via email.

I mean...
Didn't he know that Everything anyone of us says on our phones or in an email might be (and in the case of Mr. Spitzer, who had made many powerful enemies over the course of his career, Likely Is) being listened in on and/or read.

That whole AT&T, Bush and Friends' Domestic Spying Program, although being sold to the Public as being used only to catch and thwart those faceless Evildoer's, Secret, Evildoing, Terror Plots...

(...By the by...
I must say: Any Terrorist worthy of the Label of "Terrorist" would NEVER discuss their Evildoing Plan on an unsecured telephone line or openly in an unencrypted email....
Duh!)

... potentially is also filtering through (and Filing and Storing) All of Our conversations and emails.

Having been a NY Prosecutor, I'm sure Mr. Spitzer, on numerous occasions, listened in on the recorded conversations and/or read the emails of people he was actively prosecuting or building a case against.

Even Lil' Nobody Me is a bit more careful about what I say in my emails or on the phone...
...But, not too much... like I said... I got a psychiatrist who can vouch for me.

But a High-Profile NY Prosecutor-turned-Governor?

One with a lot of High-Profile Enemies with Deep Pockets and Really Good Connections?

All I can say is:
Duuuude... What were you thinking?!

(Even if Mr. Spitzer got caught as a result of a vast web cast for a sting operation targeting The Emperor's Club... Neither he nor Any Of Us should assume our conversations/emails are "Private"... Just in case you didn't know...)

Peace.
(Disclaimer: The Federal Government, in collusion with AT&T and other Telecoms, might be keeping track of what Blogs you visit... although, considering who's at the helm, they might not care about any porn or other site that has nothing to do with using your Brain.)

L.

From: The Guardian U.K.


Wow! Doesn't his beautiful wife look like Jennifer Anniston?

Sting exposes New York's Mr Clean as Client 9 of the Emperor's call-girl club

· New York state governor apologizes on television
· Alleged prostitution ring link revealed by wire-taps


He was billed as a possible future president, a rising star in the Democratic party who made his name on the back of high-profile prosecutions against organised crime and corruption. But last night Eliot Spitzer, the governor of the state of New York and self-styled Mr Clean, was facing calls to resign after he apologised on camera in the wake of an alleged link to a prostitution ring.

Spitzer delivered a short statement in Albany, the state capital, with his wife of 21 years, Silda Wall Spitzer, by his side. The governor did not refer to the allegations that he had employed the services of a high-class prostitute in Washington last month, but he did admit that in what he called a "private matter" he had acted in a way that "violated my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right or wrong".

The news that the hard-man of New York politics - once known as the sheriff of Wall Street - had become embroiled in precisely the kind of ring for which he is famous for cracking caused astonishment across the state and beyond. Minutes after the New York Times broke the news on its website, local TV stations were clearing their schedules to focus on the story.

Law enforcement officials told Associated Press that Spitzer had been recorded through wire taps as he communicated with a high-end call-girl service, the Emperor's Club VIP, which also operates in several European cities, including Paris and London. Detectives planted an undercover agent in the prostitution ring, and Spitzer, allegedly identified in court papers filed in a Manhattan court as Client 9, was tracked as he arranged a meeting with at least one woman in a Washington hotel.

The prostitution ring ran a website through which clients could see 50 prostitutes' bodies, with their heads hidden, and check against their hourly rates. The women were ranked using a diamond system: three diamonds cost $1,000 (£496) an hour, seven diamonds $5,500 or more.

Client 9 appeared to pay $2,600 for an appointment on the night of February 13 at the Washington Mayflower hotel. It may not have been a one-off: the court documents refer to him saying to the organisers of the Emperor's Club: "Yup, same as in the past," and paying a deposit against future liaisons.

Spitzer, 48, made his name during eight years as the state's attorney general, challenging the titans of Wall Street. He took on the former chief executive of the New York stock exchange, Dick Grasso, forcing him to resign in 2003 after Grasso accepted a pay package of $140m.

Spitzer also confronted the mob and organised crime, breaking up at least two prostitution rings. After one such case in 2004, he said: "This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation. It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring."

By the time he won the election to state governor in 2006 with a landslide 69% of the vote he was being talked about as future president. But within months, his administration started to stumble. He displayed a stubbornness that strayed into excess. He once told a Republican opponent: "Listen, I'm a fucking steamroller and I'll roll over you and anybody else."

His troubles deepened last summer when his aides admitted asking state police to spy on the top Republican in the state senate, Joe Bruno. New York tabloids dubbed the affair "Troopergate".

The attorney general launched an investigation, ultimately chastising the governor for tracking Bruno in an attempt to generate unsavoury media coverage of his rival.

Spitzer has backed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, but that endorsement was looking less valuable last night. Four people have already been charged in relation to the Emperor's Club ring. Under federal law, it is illegal to move people across states for the purpose of prostitution, a misdemeanour punishable by up to five years in prison.

As details of the scandal reverberated around the country, questions were being asked about Spitzer's political future. The Republican leader in the New York state assembly, James Tedisco, called for his immediate resignation. "He has disgraced his office and the entire state of New York," he said. Spitzer refused to say whether he would stay in post, adding: "I don't believe politics in the long run is about individuals ... But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself."