Thank Goodness For Bloggers

Otherwise this democracy thingy would be really hard to understand.

Fortunately, we have rather insightful people like Mark Schmitt at Tapped who sorts out the "why" of the ongoing Florida re-vote controversy.

Clinton's only ally is uncertainty. The minute it becomes clear what will happen with Michigan and Florida -- re-vote them, refuse to seat them, or split them 50-50 or with half-votes, as some have proposed -- is the minute that Clinton's last "path to the nomination" closes. The only way to keep spin alive is to keep uncertainty alive -- maybe there will be a revote, maybe they'll seat the illegal Michigan/Florida delegations, maybe, maybe, maybe. In the fog of uncertainty, Penn can claim that there is a path to the nomination, but under any possible actual resolution of the uncertainty, there is not.

Schmitt points out that as soon as you reset Florida and Michigan, the race doesn't look close at all: Obama up by a million in the popular vote count and will undoubtedly do better in Florida than the 32% he originally got, cutting into The Math of her near parity in pledged delegates.

Perception being reality in politics, her perceived competitiveness vanishes, which is what she is counting on to sway superdelegates. Mind you, I'm of the opinion that seating superdelegates from Florida, where MSNBC's Chuck Todd informs us that she holds a decent advantage, is what the game's all about, but it was another blog by MikeVotes that ties Todd's suspicions with the tidbit that

Florida law prohibits election officials from authenticating votes cast in the Democratic Party's proposed do-over primary by mail, state officials said Thursday, a potentially fatal blow to the increasingly embattled plan.

Mike usefully provides the link to the Miami Herald article that explains what you won't see on the TeeVee, that Florida election officials take their responsibilities very (cough) seriously -- especially the Republican ones when they see an opportunity to screw a Democrat with an arbitrary and capricious whim, again.

Thanks Mike. And thanks as well to other bloggers who explain the inexplicable ... like Kagro X who makes sense out of the arcane parliamentary games that are possible when you have even the slightest congressional majority and need to fight and win the FISA battle. And make George Bush sing that old song about saving the "patriotic" telecoms so he can save his own hide.

The blogosphere will tell you everything you wanted to know, and even the stuff you didn't need to know.

It represents the collective wisdom, idiocy, and research facilities of humanity at large, which is why Avedon's admonition that Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur is so very apropos when translating the tattoos on Eliot Spitzer's call girl, "Kristin" a.k.a. Ashley Dupre.

You are so right Avedon. Everything does sound more impressive in Latin. And we'd never know how impressive this bimbo's belly was if it weren't for the IntertubeZ. (Hat Tip: Wonkette)

Oh, the tummy tatoo translation? The best my one semester of Latin combined with the collective wisdom of the blogosphere can tell is that her tatooist didn't speak Latin too well, but who does.

Best guess: "I was safely protected?" or something like that. The Post's "fair value" is fun, and that might be what Ashley thought tutela valui meant, but knowing she insisted that her performances be "safe" or You Don't Get The Sex, Dude, seems all too fitting.

Palast Links Spitzer Sting To Big Bank Bailout

The minute the salacious news hit that the F.B.I. was wiretapping Eliot Spitzer, and all they came up with was the Governor's dalliance with some high priced prostitutes, I smelled a rat.

Prostitution is a state crime. So why was the federal government involved?

Sure, you look hard enough and you can catch someone who's trying to hide something embarrassing at ... something, like the antiquated Mann Act. After all, how much time and how many millions of dollars were invested in in Ken Starr's witch-hunt before a crime was all but manufactured to pin on Bill Clinton.

The idea that he transferred too much money at one time to the wrong shell company seems a plausible enough explanation, at least on the surface. It also gave rise to a possible federal "structuring" charge. But seriously, they really went after this guy, and made sure we knew who "Client 9" was despite his name being withheld in the official charges.

So who stood to gain the most from Spitzer's fall? Who would want Spitzer's private hell to be "hotter than anybody else's?"

Face it, if our overly politicized justice department was genuinely concerned that Spitzer may have been the victim of some underworld blackmail scheme, why didn't they just approach the Governor and ask if he needed help? Likewise, if they thought they might have stumbled onto some kind of corruption, they could easily have gone to the governor and pressured him to turn on any co-conspirators -- the uh, real criminals.

No, they knew Eliot was up to something naughty, and wanted to nail him for it. Somebody at Justice found someone at the New York Times with as much integrity as Judy Miller, and "leaked" the name of Client 9. Somebody at the Times decided that a headline saying "Spitzer was caught with a hooker" wasn't nearly as productive as saying he was "linked to a prostitution ring." They didn't just want to expose a crime here. They wanted Spizer destroyed.

Come on. Didn't they make it sound more like he was a pimp and not a john? And wasn't that exactly what the headline writers at the NY Times wanted? This was overkill.

The ever astute Christy Hardin Smith noticed that someone, probably many someones, were cooperating with the government for quite some time, which is why the original charges were filed via information and not a grand jury proceeding. Bottom line, we know way too much, way too soon about Eliot Spizter's sex life. No reporter dug for the facts here. It was handed to them, and so was a pat answer on why the Fed's got involved at all.

If this is a government source for these reports, that says to me that someone wants this story out there in spades.

Knowing that the U.S. Justice Department has pretty much operated as a goon squad for the Republican National Committee, it's next to impossible not to conclude there wasn't a political motivation to watch Spitzer so closely, but I didn't anticipate that there was more to it than the "D" after his name.

Greg Palast thinks otherwise.

The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked

How could we forget the horror of finding out that Spitzer's liaison with "Kristen" was the day before Valentine's day. Oh, the tragedy for his long suffering spouse. Did you wonder what he was doing in Washington before "ordered out?" Are you curious about the timing of his demise? Did they think Hillary really needed any help throwing her campaign to the gutter?

It's the economy, not the primary, stupid.

It was the night of February 13 when Spitzer made the bone-headed choice to order take-out in his Washington Hotel room. He had just finished signing these words for the Washington Post about predatory loans:

“Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.”

Bush, Spitzer said right in the headline, was the “Predator Lenders’ Partner in Crime.” The President, said Spitzer, was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Washington to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the biggest financial powers on the planet.

Spitzer wrote, “When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably.”

But now, the Administration can rest assured that this love story – of Bush and his bankers - will not be told by history at all – now that the Sheriff of Wall Street has fallen on his own gun.

The Wall Street moguls assembled today to hear the imparted wisdom of His Fecklessness to "have confidence" in his miserable economy (after he's done such a heckuvajob so far) are certainly resting a bit more comfortably as they listen to Bush propose, well ... nothing really at all.

They are more confident today than they were last week. Not that the economy will improve anytime soon, but that they won't end up in jail for causing the mess in the first place.

I Honestly Hope This Is True

I truly hope that our Justice Department is functioning as it should, that there is a compelling reason the FBI was investigating Governor Spitzer and he wasn't just a political target as recent history of Gonzales rousting Ashcroft in his hospital room, illegal wiretapping run amok, the US Attorney's Scandal, and the railroading of Alabama Governor Siegelman might suggest.

Newsday via Josh:
But Spitzer had the money broken down into several smaller amounts of less than $10,000 each, apparently to avoid federal regulations requiring the reporting of the transfer of $10,000 or more, the sources said. The regulations are aim to help spot possible illegal business activities, such as fraud or drug deals.

***

The bank, as is required by law, filed an SAR, or Suspicious Activity Report, with the Internal Revenue Service, reporting the transfer of the money that exceeded $10,000, but had been broken down into smaller amounts, the sources said. …

The assumption, the sources said, was that Spitzer was being victimized either by a blackmailer or an impostor. The agents also speculated that perhaps the governor was involved in some sort of political corruption, the sources said.

It is beyond any doubt that Spitzer was stupid, arrogant and reckless beyond belief just for thinking he could be who he is and still get away with an extra-marital affair, let alone pay for it and never get caught. My hat is off the the professionalism of the ladies at the Emperor's Club for the discretion they were so handsomely paid to provide.

Having such a high profile mark on the hook, a guy who made his bones as a law and order champion and even busted a couple of prostitution rings, provides an almost irresistible target for blackmail by an organization that is by definition a criminal syndicate. Admirably, for "Kristen" and her friends, it was all just business.

So for now I'm satisfied that Spitzer's own stupidity got his ass in the sling ... figuratively that is ... I think.

Meanwhile, between Eliot, Gerry Ferraro's outrageous remarks, and just getting the snot beat out of her in Mississippi, this is turning out to be a pretty shitty week for Hillary Clinton, don't you think?

Should Spitzaer Stay Or Go

Two Words: Bob Taft.

I reference the former convicted Governor of Ohio not as anty defense or encouragement for Spitzer to duke it out and hang on -- but as an example of why he should step down as soon as possible (although I can't begrudge him for holding out long enough to use his resignation as a bargaining chip with prosecutors.)

Taft was corrupt politically, not personally, and his crimes were not as readily understandable to the public at large as paying for sex. Nevertheless, his approval rating went down so low, single digits even, that anyone even remotely associated with him merely by party affiliation suffered. The Statehouse was swept clean of Republicans and for the first time in a long time the GOP legislature was no longer veto-proof.

Spitzer is now political poison and due to his unique and high profile association with the Junior Senator from New York, he's not doing her or any other Democrat in Albany any favors by staying in the Governor's mansion one minute longer than it takes to make a deal with prosecutors. That much time I'll give him, even though it hurts, but to even suggest that he ride this out like Taft did after he was convicted is as stupid as paying a couple grand for a hand-job.

Spitzer aka Client 9 Another Victim Of GOP Justice

I hope FOX is right, and that Eliot Spitzer will be resigning after he apologized once he got caught making arrangements to meet with a high priced hooker.

The sooner this is off the front pages, the better it is for all democrats, especially a certain Senator from New York.

Mind you, this is just getting some on the side, not accepting bribes from defense contractors. It's enough to ruin a political career, especially if the guy is a former prosecutor, but hardly deserving of the lengthy jail sentence so many Republicans are facing and what others should be facing once we get a functional justice department. I am convinced that if Spitzer's name had an "R" after it instead of a "D" he's still be referred to as "Client 9."

I don't think for a minute it's merely a coincidence that the Republican controlled federal government was tapping the phones of a Democratic Governor, or that they're clueless who is bombing recruiting centers in Manhattan but are intimately aware of the sexual proclivities of rival politicians in Albany. They targeted Spitzer to find dirt. Guess what? He's dirty -- and may have been hoisted on his own petard, at least these guys would want you to see it that way.

I feel so much safer knowing that the 1910 Mann Act is being so fiercely enforced, justifying Federal Tax dollars being spent to expose someone crossing state lines to pay for blow jobs. I guess there are no employers to investigate for hiring undocumented workers, or contractors to examine whether they are bilking the government out of more billions, or ah ... any terrorists to watch maybe.

No Halliburton employees have been indicted lately, have they? Has anyone brought any Diebold employees before a grand jury to answer some hard questions? But making a date with an escort service and instead of spending cash on flowers, candy, dinner, hotel and a movie, Eliot cuts to the chase and pays cash (hey, he's a busy guy) -- damn him for all time.

He got caught, and he has to go -- only because the GOP has this whole "culture of corruption thing going against them and I'd like to keep that alive for a bit. But geez, is this really how the FBI should be spending their time?

What bullcrap. After seeing what they did to Alabama Governor Don Siegelman this sad affair seals it for me. The United States Justice Department is a wholly own subsidiary of the Republican Party, and that ain't right.

It wasn't even gay sex with an underage page. What a shame. I hope she was good.