((Umm, I never thought of this. But then, unlike some others here, I
never claimed to be particularly brilliant. I'm not even a Sailer,
much less an Oliver. But goddamn, this sure has the ring of
versimilitude, a few cents off F# anyway. Interesting at any rate.
And as I said, I have no brief for Eliot Spitzer, nor for
prostitution. But a politician should be judged for his behavior and
performance in governing and leading his people, not for buying a
piece of ass on his own time and with his own money. Bret. ))
Why Bush Watergated Eliot Spitzer
By F. William Engdahl, 17 March 2008
>>"The spectacular and highly bizarre release of secret FBI wiretap data
to the New York Times exposing the tryst of New York state Governor, Eliot
Spitzer, "No.9" with a luxury call-girl, had less to do with the Bush
Administration's high moral standards for public servants. Spitzer was the
target of a White House and Wall Street dirty tricks operation to silence
one of its most dangerous critics in handling the current financial market
Tsunami crisis.
A useful rule of thumb in evaluating spectacular scandals around
prominent public figures is to ask what and who might want to
eliminate that person. In the case of Governor Spitzer, a Democrat,
it is clear that the spectacular "leak" of government FBI wiretap
records showing that Spitzer paid a high-cost prostitute $4,300 for
what amounted to an hour's personal entertainment, was politically
motivated. Why?, is the interesting question.
Spitzer became Governor of the State following a record as a
relentless State Attorney General going after financial crimes such as
the Enron fraud and corruption by Wall Street investment banks during
the 2002 dot.com bubble era. He was bitterly hated on Wall Street for
that. He had made his political career on being ruthless against
financial corruption. Most recently, from his position as Governor of
the nation's second largest state, and home to its financial industry,
Spitzer had begun making high profile attacks on the complicity of the
Bush Administration in covertly arranging bailout if its Wall Street
financial friends at the expense of ordinary homeowners and citizens,
paid all with taxpayer funds.
Curiously, Spitzer, who had been elected governor in 2006 defeating a
Republican winning nearly 70 percent of the vote, has been not charged
in any crime. However, New York Assembly Republicans immediately
announced plans to impeach Spitzer or put him on public trial were he
to refuse resignation. Spitzer could be asked to testify in any trial
involving the Emperors Club prostitution ring. But so far he hasn't
been charged with a crime. Prostitution is illegal in most US states,
but clients of prostitutes are almost never charged. The Spitzer case
is in the hands of Wa****ngton and not state authorities, underscoring
the clear political nature of the Spitzer "Watergate."
The New York Times said Spitzer was an individual identified as Client
9 in court papers filed last week. Client 9 arranged to meet with
"Kristen," a prostitute who charged $1,000 an hour, on February 13 in
a Wa****ngton hotel and paid her $4,300, according to the court
do***ents. The case is clearly political when compared with more
egregious recent cases involving Republicans. Republican Mark Foley
was exposed propositioning male interns in Congress and Rudolph
Giuliani was discovered cheating on his wife but no Republican calls
for resignations.
Why the attack now?
Spitzer had become increasingly public in his blaming the Bush
Administration for the nation's current financial and economic
disaster. He testified in Wa****ngton in mid-February before the US
House of Representatives Financial Services subcommittee on the
problems in New York-based specialized insurance companies, known as
"monoline" insurers (monoline Versicherung). In a national TV
interview the same day, he laid blame for the crisis and its broader
economic fallout on the Bush Administration.
Spitzer recalled that several years ago the US Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency went to court and blocked New York State
efforts to investigate the mortgage activities of national banks.
Spitzer argued the OCC did not put a stop to questionable loan
marketing practices or uphold higher underwriting standards.
"This could have been avoided if the OCC had done its job," Spitzer
said in the interview. "The OCC did nothing. The Bush Administration
let the housing bubble inflate and now that it's deflating we're
dealing with the consequences. The real failure, the genesis, the germ
that has spread was the subprime scandal," Spitzer said. Fraudulent
marketing and very low "teaser" mortgage rates that later ballooned
higher, were practices that should have been stopped, he argued. "When
mortgages are being marketed, there is a marketplace obligation to
ensure the borrower can afford to pay back the debt," he said.
That TV interview was only one instance of Spitzer laying blame on the
Bush Republicans. On February 14, Spitzer published a signed article
in the influential Wa****ngton Post titled, "Predatory Lenders' Partner
in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping
In to Help Consumers."
That article appeared the day after his ill-fated tryst with the
prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel. Coincidence? Spitzer wrote, ""In
2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC
invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act pre-empting all state
predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC
also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of
their own consumer protection laws against national banks."
In his article Spitzer charged, "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 he federal government was
turning a blind eye." Bush, said Spitzer right in the headline, was
the "Predator Lenders' Partner in Crime." The President, said Spitzer,
was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Wa****ngton 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."
With that article, some Wa****ngton insiders believe, Spitzer signed
his own political death warrant."<<
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Financial_Tsunami/Watergating_Spitzer/watergating_spitzer.html
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