Who's being naive now?

(Couldn't resist).

Cause a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.

They should avoid the lessons from the state officials in Pennsylvania. Here they blow their brains out on live TV when corruption hits.

Sure about that?

If Spitzer is going to spend several grand on a whore, you'd think he'd pony up for a plane ticket instead of putting her on a train.

Latest update:


Mar 11, 11:25 AM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - As Gov. Eliot Spitzer faced mounting calls to resign amid a prostitution scandal, a law enforcement official said Tuesday that the governor first came under suspicion because of cash payments from several bank accounts to an account operated by a call-girl ring.

Spitzer was the initial target of the investigation and was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps that appear to have recorded him arranging for a prostitute to meet him at a Washington hotel in mid-February, the official said.

The official spoke to The Associated Press condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The scandal surrounding the man who built his political reputation on rooting out corruption stunned the state. Calls for Spitzer's resignation began immediately and intensified Tuesday with the New York Daily News, New York Post and Newsday all demanding that he step down.

"Hit the road, John ... and make it quick!" read the headline of the Daily News editorial, while the Post called him "NY's naked emperor."

Spitzer retreated from public view Monday afternoon, when he appeared glassy-eyed with his shellshocked wife, Silda, at his side and apologized to his family and the public, but did not directly acknowledge any involvement with the prostitute.

"I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my - or any - sense of right and wrong," he said. "I apologize to the public, whom I promised better."

Spitzer allegedly paid for the call girl to take a train from New York to Washington - a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines. The governor has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case. A Spitzer spokesman said the governor has retained a large Manhattan law firm.

The case started when banks noticed the frequent transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, the law enforcement official told the AP. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, prompting public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey was made aware of the investigation because it involved a high-ranking political official.

The inquiry found that Spitzer was a repeat customer with the Emperors Club VIP, a high-end prostitution service, the official said. In an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court last week, Spitzer appeared as "Client 9," according to another law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Client 9 wanted a high-priced prostitute named Kristen to come to Washington on a 5:39 p.m. train from Manhattan Feb. 13. The door to the hotel room would be left ajar. Train tickets, cab fare, room service, and the minibar were all on him.

"Yup, same as in the past. No question about it," the caller told Kristen's boss, when asked if he would make his payment to the same business as usual, a federal affidavit said. The client paid $4,300 to Kristen, touted by the escort service as a "petite, pretty brunette," according to the court papers.

The Feb. 13 tryst took place in the Mayflower hotel, where Spitzer rented a second room for the woman under another name, the law enforcement official who spoke to The AP on Tuesday said. Spitzer had to sneak past his State Police detail to get to her room, the official said.

According to the 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?"

Spitzer, a 48-year-old father of three teenage girls, was elected with a historic margin of victory, and took office Jan. 1, 2007, vowing to stamp out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives while state attorney general.

Spitzer's cases as attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and tourism involving prostitutes. He also uncovered crooked practices and self-dealing in the stock brokerage and insurance industries and in corporate board rooms; he went after former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso over his $187.5 million compensation package.

Spitzer become known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." The square-jawed graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law was sometimes mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.

Spitzer's term as governor has been fraught with problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear his main Republican nemesis.

It would not be the first time that a high-profile politician became ensnared in a prostitution scandal. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana acknowledged in July that his Washington phone number was among those called several years ago by an escort service.

Scandals also recently derailed neighboring Connecticut Gov. John Rowland and New Jersey's Jim McGreevey. And Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested last June in a Minneapolis airport restroom.

Attention turned to the state's lieutenant governor, David Paterson, who automatically becomes governor if Spitzer quits. There was no immediate comment from Paterson, who would become New York's first black governor.

There was no word on Spitzer's plans, but Assembly Republican leader James Tedisco said Tuesday he received a call Monday from Paterson.

Tedisco said Paterson raised the possibility of such a scenario by asking if Tedisco, who has been at odds with Spitzer, would be willing to start fresh with him.

"He called me to ask if we would give him the benefit of the doubt, and go forward," Tedisco said. "I told him we would."

The NY Times website is stating that Spitzer will resign in the very near future.

I don't see how he couldn't. And I think it's rather misleading to call it a "sex scandal". This goes well beyond being caught between the sheets in an extramarital affair. This was a man who knowingly (and perhaps repeatedly) broke the LAW. This is not just solicitation, but involves money laundering as well.

SPitzer always held himself out as "holier than thou," and he had no compunction against insinuating that other people, i.e Dick Grasso were involved in extra marital affirs if it helped him destroy his enemies.

When someone like this does what he did, he has set himself up to a higher standard than others, and his fall will inevitably be greater.

BTW, how do these wives stand there during these press conferences? God, if it were me doing this my wife would have flattened me with a frying pan. No way would she stand there looking al stressed out for the press.

The only way I could think of it is because of their children. Maybe she felt it would be easier on them if their parents seemed united. That's the only possible excuse I could think of.

Getting hit with a frying pan would be easy punishment coming from my wife. I think my teeth would be gone and I would need a an icepack on my family jewels for the rest of my life if I were guilty.

Kobe Bryant's wife probably sat there knowing full well a huge diamond was awaiting for her public humiliation.

Next we're going to hear that he was "banging cocktail waitresses, two at a time!"

I'm a Fredo you might be right.

This is all too intense for me.

"Bring out the peppers and salcicca."

I can't imagine anything more despicable than walking around with that "holier than thou" attitude while you launder money and buy hookers.

Like I said, I think it's insulting to refer to it as a "sex scandal". It's not. The man's allegedly a criminal. If they didn't have tons of proof, they wouldn't be going this far.

He made lots and lots of enemies with his "crusades". He insulted people, he bullied people, and now it has come back to bite him in the ass.

I wish Giuliani had run against him instead of running for President.

I've often told people that the day I have to start paying for sex, shoot me.

You're married, right olivant?

She pays me!

David Letterman (last night): Elliott Spitzer is known as Client #9 now. He may soon be looking for Wife #2.

We ALL pay for it, one way or another.

I thought that was one of the things that "Kristen" wouldn't do.

WCBS880 has him resigning today, effective as of this coming Monday. Guess he won't be marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

I couldn't agree more, Babe.

A politician being involved in a sex scandal doesn't even phase me anymore. Not to be cynical, but I've come to expect it. I don't condone it, I just expect it. It's almost like it's a side effect of the megalomania that drives them in to politics to begin with. They all think they're entitled to more than one partner, whether they're Democrats or Republicans.

What galls me the most is that this guy's specialty as a prosecutor was "financial crimes." He ruined more than a few families on Wall Street during his crusade. Then to be accused of washing money himself? Well, it's just fucking reprehensible, on par with Eliot Ness becoming a drunk.

$80,000 on hookers! Well, I guess I can see why it cost so much. He is the ugliest politician this side of Giuliani (who should have run for Governor!).

Maybe his wife will write a book and run for Senate.

PB, you are 100% right. And I hope that he gets the book thrown at him. I'm sure that he's been holed up in his office with his lawyers, trying to make a deal to avoid prosecution.

They shouldn't give him a microsecond off of the possible time he might serve. If he is indicted and convicted, then he should be given the maximum sentence allowed.

As Letterman pointed out last night, if it were any one of us, we would have been fired immediately. He should not be allowed a free ride.

As an attorney and former prosecutor, he obviously knew the consequences of his actions. And he should face every single one of them.

Marv Albert did it. That's where most of the 80k went.

Amazing how an ass-biter like Marv Albert got casted in that Disney flick THE GAME PLAN.

Almost as funny as Bob Crane, the TV star-turned-sex-addict pornographhic actor/filmmaker, doing GUS.

Daily News claims he's out TODAY.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/12/2008-03-12_gov_spitzer_to_resign_wednesday.html

Press conference at 11:30, which is right now.