Nelson Award: Client 9

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

ALBANY - 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 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.

My first thought when I saw the headline was that this had to be some old thing coming back to bite him now that he's Governor...Then when I see that this just happened last month, all I can think is, "What the fuck is the matter with these fucking guys?"

I mean, seriously. 1. You're in public life and have everything to lose. 2. You are the goddamn Governor of New York. 3. You were a world-renowned prosecutor and asskicking Attorney General fer crissakes! More from the Times (and this is the part that absolutely cinches the Nelson "Ha Ha"):

[...] As attorney general, [Spitzer] also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

High-flying Democrat on the rise? So fucking what. By your own measure, Governor, you are nothing more than loser john, cruising the boulevard. Just so happens you were a loser john scheduled to appear on "Meet the Press" the next morning.

Adíos, Governor, you are NOT above the law, yet clearly you think that you are. Get the fuck out. This ain't the GOP.

And for the love of God, why do these assholes take to the podium with their wives next to them? Could there be any more humiliating form of abuse you could heap on someone than to ask them to stand up there with you? We know you have testicles, Governor—they clearly control your actions—could you make use of them now and face the fucking music on your own?

At least you got your ass stung now instead of in the middle of a confirmation hearing in the Obama Administration...

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald begs to differ. No, Glenn, in the grand scheme of things, this shouldn't be a big deal, nor even a crime if you take it that far, but the fact is that it is a crime. And in Spitzer's case, his booty call became a Federal case when he flew her from NYC to DC. As a guy who made his bones as a tough prosecutor and put plenty of other people behind bars for the same thing and used prostitution convictions to build cases, and moralized about it loudly and publicly—he gets exactly NO sympathy from me (though I feel horrible for his wife). In many ways, his biggest crime, in my eyes, IS hypocrisy.

Oh, by the way, how much does the Governor of NY make that he can spend $5,000 an hour on a call girl and pay for her to travel from NY to DC? Just wondering...