The Spitzer Scandal: Lust Plus Pride Equals Black Man Will Now Run The Show
Talk about a red phone moment! On a day of heavy ironies for one of America's most prominent and promising politicians, there was drama. Not we're not talking about presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.
Today the focus shifted to the prostitution ring that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly patronized called the Emperors Club VIP. And to Hillary's chagrin, this fall from grace would be particularly bruising for her campaign, while America watches another African American rise to one of the highest positions of power in this country.
It was, in many ways, a Jimmy Swaggart redux for New York state: the sloppy fall of a man known for his uprightness, his starched shirts (white shirts everyday), and the vigorous adjectives he reserved for those deemed less righteous (as the Wall Street giant — and perennial Spitzer adversary — Ken Langone noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the governor called him "unsavory", "deceptive" and "tainted").
Spitzer may have made his name going after Wall Street gluttony, but he had a long history with criminal cases involving wiretaps, from his 1992 Gambino "mob tax" prosecution based on taped phone conversations to his 2004 calls for the FCC to let prosecutors tap internet phones and intercept text or picture messages on cell phones. Spitzer himself said that New York State does about 30% of the nation's wiretaps, and he helped make it a powerful weapon in the prosecutors' arsenal. If the charges are true, why would he think he was immune from such techniques? Another irony.
Four individuals had been charged last week with operating the Emperors Club VIP, which is described by law enforcement authorities as an "international prostitution and money-laundering ring." Court papers indicate the business garnered more than $1 million by arranging trysts between its more than 50 prostitutes and "wealthy male clients" in London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris and Washington. The customers are said to pay $1,000 to $5,500 per hour for the services of the ring's "Spokes Models" [sic]. Spitzer was allegedly among those clients.
Wiretaps allegedly recorded the setting up of a Washington, D.C., appointment between him and an Emperors Club "model." A defendant in the case, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, told a prostitute identified only as Kristen that she should take a train from New York to Washington for an encounter with Client 9 on the night of Feb. 13, according to the complaint. The defendant confirmed that the client would be "paying for everything — train tickets, cab fare from the hotel and back, mini bar or room service, travel time and hotel."
The prostitute met the client in Room 871 at about 10 p.m., according to the complaint. When discussing how the payments would be arranged, Client 9 told Lewis: "Yup, same as in the past, no question about it" — suggesting Client 9 had done this before.
According to court papers, an Emperors Club agent was told by the prostitute that her evening with Client 9 went well. The agent said she had been told that the client "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe ... very basic things," according to the papers, but Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that ... I'd be, like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"
The Emperors Club website crashed on Monday afternoon with the onslaught of journalistic and prurient interest. "Kristen" met with Client 9 the night of February 13, 2008, according to the affidavit, after describing herself as "petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, 105 pounds". They were finished, three hours and $4,300 later (It may not have been Client 9's first time there: he had a $500 credit.) "Kristen" then called a colleague at the Emperors Club and said that she liked Client 9. "I don't think he's difficult," she said. Spitzer's problem — long before this news broke — is that there are plenty in New York who would disagree.
The allegations will undoubtedly be more damning for Spitzer, a former hard-nosed prosecutor who had made ferreting out corporate malfeasance and cracking down on corruption centerpieces of his political platform. For African Americans, it's a bittersweet moment. While you can't help but feel for this man, all eyes are now on Lt. Governor David Paterson, a black former state senator from Harlem who in many ways will serve to avenge one David Dinkins, the former Mayor of the Big Apple who got kicked to the curb like no other New York politician of recent memory. That is, until now!
When Spitzer finally addressed the Emperors Club charges in a delayed and brief non-denial before the assembled media on Monday afternoon, the governor said, "I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas." But if these accusations do spell the end of Spitzer as an individual in political life, his ideas — of reform and clean governance in Albany — had already stalled because of a different cardinal sin: not Luxuria (Lust), as in Monday's scandal, but Superbia (Pride).
After sweeping to power in Albany with a landmark victory — he took office in January, 2007 by winning 69% of the vote — he quickly engendered resentment for both his policies and management style. Spitzer was the architect of a widely unpopular plan to issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, and did not endear himself to constituents by squabbling with the Republican-controlled State Senate, and particularly the body's majority leader, Joseph Bruno, whose camp accused the governor of deploying "dirty tricks" to smear his opponents.
"I don't think, by any metric, you'd say that his administration thus far has been a success," Phillips says. In order for Spitzer to keep his job, says Phillips, "he'd have to come clean right away, admit to what he did and not have this trickle of damaging information come out." [Time Magazine]
Today the focus shifted to the prostitution ring that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly patronized called the Emperors Club VIP. And to Hillary's chagrin, this fall from grace would be particularly bruising for her campaign, while America watches another African American rise to one of the highest positions of power in this country.
It was, in many ways, a Jimmy Swaggart redux for New York state: the sloppy fall of a man known for his uprightness, his starched shirts (white shirts everyday), and the vigorous adjectives he reserved for those deemed less righteous (as the Wall Street giant — and perennial Spitzer adversary — Ken Langone noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the governor called him "unsavory", "deceptive" and "tainted").
Spitzer may have made his name going after Wall Street gluttony, but he had a long history with criminal cases involving wiretaps, from his 1992 Gambino "mob tax" prosecution based on taped phone conversations to his 2004 calls for the FCC to let prosecutors tap internet phones and intercept text or picture messages on cell phones. Spitzer himself said that New York State does about 30% of the nation's wiretaps, and he helped make it a powerful weapon in the prosecutors' arsenal. If the charges are true, why would he think he was immune from such techniques? Another irony.
Four individuals had been charged last week with operating the Emperors Club VIP, which is described by law enforcement authorities as an "international prostitution and money-laundering ring." Court papers indicate the business garnered more than $1 million by arranging trysts between its more than 50 prostitutes and "wealthy male clients" in London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris and Washington. The customers are said to pay $1,000 to $5,500 per hour for the services of the ring's "Spokes Models" [sic]. Spitzer was allegedly among those clients.
Wiretaps allegedly recorded the setting up of a Washington, D.C., appointment between him and an Emperors Club "model." A defendant in the case, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, told a prostitute identified only as Kristen that she should take a train from New York to Washington for an encounter with Client 9 on the night of Feb. 13, according to the complaint. The defendant confirmed that the client would be "paying for everything — train tickets, cab fare from the hotel and back, mini bar or room service, travel time and hotel."
The prostitute met the client in Room 871 at about 10 p.m., according to the complaint. When discussing how the payments would be arranged, Client 9 told Lewis: "Yup, same as in the past, no question about it" — suggesting Client 9 had done this before.
According to court papers, an Emperors Club agent was told by the prostitute that her evening with Client 9 went well. The agent said she had been told that the client "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe ... very basic things," according to the papers, but Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that ... I'd be, like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"
The Emperors Club website crashed on Monday afternoon with the onslaught of journalistic and prurient interest. "Kristen" met with Client 9 the night of February 13, 2008, according to the affidavit, after describing herself as "petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, 105 pounds". They were finished, three hours and $4,300 later (It may not have been Client 9's first time there: he had a $500 credit.) "Kristen" then called a colleague at the Emperors Club and said that she liked Client 9. "I don't think he's difficult," she said. Spitzer's problem — long before this news broke — is that there are plenty in New York who would disagree.
The allegations will undoubtedly be more damning for Spitzer, a former hard-nosed prosecutor who had made ferreting out corporate malfeasance and cracking down on corruption centerpieces of his political platform. For African Americans, it's a bittersweet moment. While you can't help but feel for this man, all eyes are now on Lt. Governor David Paterson, a black former state senator from Harlem who in many ways will serve to avenge one David Dinkins, the former Mayor of the Big Apple who got kicked to the curb like no other New York politician of recent memory. That is, until now!When Spitzer finally addressed the Emperors Club charges in a delayed and brief non-denial before the assembled media on Monday afternoon, the governor said, "I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas." But if these accusations do spell the end of Spitzer as an individual in political life, his ideas — of reform and clean governance in Albany — had already stalled because of a different cardinal sin: not Luxuria (Lust), as in Monday's scandal, but Superbia (Pride).
After sweeping to power in Albany with a landmark victory — he took office in January, 2007 by winning 69% of the vote — he quickly engendered resentment for both his policies and management style. Spitzer was the architect of a widely unpopular plan to issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, and did not endear himself to constituents by squabbling with the Republican-controlled State Senate, and particularly the body's majority leader, Joseph Bruno, whose camp accused the governor of deploying "dirty tricks" to smear his opponents."I don't think, by any metric, you'd say that his administration thus far has been a success," Phillips says. In order for Spitzer to keep his job, says Phillips, "he'd have to come clean right away, admit to what he did and not have this trickle of damaging information come out." [Time Magazine]