Client 9 from Outer Space

As more details emerge regarding the evidence and charges against Gov. Eliot Spitzer, aka Client 9, in the Emperor Club VIP prostitution ring and money laundering investigation, the more baffling Spitzer's behavior becomes. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton.)

His attempts to keep his activities secret were laughable. Spitzer arranges to send the lucky gal down to Washington for a rendezvous at the Mayflower in a room rented under a donor's name. He uses telephones, text messages and email to communicate with the club, utterly oblivious to the possibility of wiretaps in the golden age of government domestic surveillance. Spitzer resembles the chiropractor who stood in for the dead Bela Lugosi in "Plan 9 from Outer Space" by swooping about with a cloak covering his face.

This was not merely a single, outlandish lapse in judgment or self-control. Spitzer was pre-paying in cash for future services. Spitzer was a lawyer and a prosecutor, for heaven's sake. He prosecuted prostitution rings as attorney general. He knows what the Mann Act says about transporting someone across state lines for purposes of sex. He knows that it's a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He knew he was engaging in high-risk behavior.

High-risk behavior may have been the point. In a recorded conversation between Kristen, the prostitute, and her booker at the club, the booker confides that Client 9 sometimes asks women "to do things that, like, you might not think were safe." Urgh.

I am just so angry that this jerk has wasted our time and his opportunity to advance a progressive agenda in New York. As the Times notes in their editorial tomorrow:

A further tragedy here, beyond the personal one of the Spitzer family and the damage he has done to the reform cause, is that Mr. Spitzer’s targets are now relishing their tormentor’s torment. Those on Wall Street who fumed at having to make their world fairer for ordinary shareholders can now chortle with satisfaction in their private enclaves. For New York Republicans, who have blocked some of the most important reforms in Albany, it is hard to imagine the private glee — especially at a moment when they are fighting desperately to hold their majority in the State Senate.

Walter Shapiro provides a little background on the hopes which must now be dashed:

When Spitzer triumphed in 2006 with 70 percent of the vote (Hillary Clinton received 67 percent in her reelection that year), he became the first governor in modern memory (aside from maybe Cuomo) with the potential to change the corrupt political culture of Albany. In a way that would make Congress in the hey-day of Tom DeLay seem like the Athenian democracy, the New York state Legislature operates as a rubber-stamping body controlled by Bruno in the Senate and Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, in the Assembly. Spitzer had the dream and the reputation, and he was on the cusp of getting the votes to finally move New York state politics out of the Erie Canal era.

The thought of Bruno and Silver escaping because Eliot Spitzer needed to rendezvous with a prostitute on the eve of Valentine's Day is just galling.

Cable news commentators were in agreement tonight that the only reason Spitzer didn't resign this afternoon is that he must be in negotiations to avoid prosecution. Will his downfall and resignation be enough to satisfy a Justice Department in Republican hands?

If Spitzer resigns, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would succeed him and make history as the state's first African-American and first legally blind governor. Paterson will have many well-wishers in the job, but the vultures will be circling well before the next gubernatorial election in 2010. Andrew Cuomo is a likely contender, as is the uber-rich political dilettante, Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

I expect the repercussions of this to radiate outward. Spitzer was a Dem superdelegate supporting Hillary Clinton. She will not appreciate being linked with someone embroiled in a tawdry sex scandal. Beyond that, it will merely confirm some voters' cynicism regarding all crusading politicians. It will validate those who believe there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats.

I would be curious to know how people outside New York State view this sexcapade stink-bomb.