Another good US sex scandal
March 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm by David FarrarNew York Governor Eliot Splitzer, has been named in a federal prosecution of a prostitution ring.
Now personally I don’t think the fact he paid up to $5,500 a time to bonk some high class hooker means he is unfit for office. But because he has prosecuted prostitution rings in the past and campaigned on ethics, the hypocrisy is notable.
Most pundits are picking he will resign. Time will tell.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
i think..dpf..from my reporting of this..(early this morning..)..
that he wasn’t just a mug-punter/trick..
but was involved in ‘the organisation of’..
what we call ‘pimping’.
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
As a mere consumer of this service he might just survive. But if it goes further or if he is charged with some offence over the method of payment then there could be a resignation. No doubt he is getting advice from the Clintons on how to survive this sort of thing.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Can you believe that in 2008 it is still illegal to do this sort of thing?
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Well Phil, your expertise in whoring and your expertise in being wrong is again shining through. Wow, I’m *so* impressed that you know that pimping is the organisation of whoring. I never would have guessed that.
But reports indicate that he was only a punter. He was identified as “client 9″ so it looks like you are wrong. Again. Seems to be a pattern emerging.
(It’s quite amazing- the link you put on your whore blog clearly states that he was a client. Can’t you read properly?? I mean it’s pretty obvious that you can’t *write* properly, but we’d always assumed you could read).
“The Times reported that a person with knowledge of the governor’s role believes the governor is identified in court papers as a client of a prostitution ring.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/10/usa1
Stick to link whoring Phil. At least you know how to do that.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
How did I know what party this guy was from, even before I looked it up.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
He’s a Democrat, he will get away with it.
Oh and the guy who first told me about this said that there was a big cheer when it was announced on the trading floor in New York.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
“Can you believe that in 2008 it is still illegal to do this sort of thing?”
Can you believe that in 2008 it is illegal to carry a protest placard urging people not to vote for the Labour party without having your name and home address printed on it?
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
This man would go well in the Liarbore party, someone offer him a job. Prehaps something in the families commision or maybe the commissioner for children.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Well, all mention of Splitzer has already been wiped from Clinton’s campaign website. Of course, if he resigns she’s down one pledged superdelegate but that’s the least of her problems.
As Governor, Splitzer has been something of a walking disaster area — and he’s not even much liked among New York Democrats. In fact, last December one poll had 61 percent of Democrats giving him a negative performance assessment while 42 percent would vote for “someone else” as governor.
Why the hell is she going to expend any political capital on him, or open herself to media stories about the last time she stood by a Governor who couldn’t keep his cock in his pants?
And if it turns out, as has been suggested, that this prostitution ring has links to a crime family that makes the Sopranos look like the Waltons, then you’ve got to ask questions about his judgment.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
The theory I heard was that they have dirt on everyone, so they can painlessly get rid of anyone at a moment’s notice. You can’t get the job otherwise.
Makes you wonder what Spitzer had uncovered- maybe he was too much of a threat to the teetering US banks??
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
*cough* family values *cough* *cough*
Randal David Ankeney is the Republican activist who was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child with force. He was charged with six counts related to getting a 13-year-old girl stoned on pot and then having sex with her. Ankeny has also been accused of sexually assaulting another girl. Source: Denver ABC Article
Jim Bakker is the infamous televangelist who worked with Pat Robertson at Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting network. Sources at the time, and then later Jim himself, confirmed that he committed adultery with Jessica Hahn, and then used charitable donations to pay her hush money. Fellow televangelists have stated in the past that they believe he’s gay. Bakker was indicted on 23 federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering.
Bob Barr is the Republican Congressman from Georgia who sponsored the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, saying “The flames of hedonism, the flames of narcissism, the flames of self-centered morality are licking at the very foundation of our society, the family unit.” He was married three times, and paid for his second wife’s abortion (she also suspected he was cheating on her). he failed to pay child support to the children of his first two wives and while married to his third and present wife and was photographed licking whipped cream off of strippers at his inaugural party.
Parker J. Bena was a Republican activist and a key player in the campaign to elect George W. Bush as President. Bena was charged and later pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and lying to the FBI. Bena reportedly told the feds that he had received an unsolicited e-mail containing pictures of children (some as young as three years old) performing various sexual acts, but agents learned that he had in fact voluntarily entered a number of child pornography websites and downloaded the images himself. This is said to have involved acts with children as young as 3 years old, on his home computer. Parker J. Bena was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000. Source: DemocracyUnderground.com
Louis Beres is a past chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon. Three of his family members accuse him of molesting them as children, when they were pre-teens. In an Editor and Publisher article, in August 2006, Beres confessed to the accusations facing him. The Portland Mercury
John Bolton, President George W. Bush’s highly contested appointee ambassador to United Nations is suspected of forcing his former wife to be involved in unsavory group sex acts. Corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton’s first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department despite inquires posed by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt concerning the allegations. Mr. Flynt has obtained information from numerous sources that Mr. Bolton participated in paid visits to Plato’s Retreat, the popular swingers club that operated in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Jim Bunn Congressman of Oregon: Many attribute the success Jim Bunn experienced in great part to support from the Christian Coalition. Congressman Jim Bunn won his congressional seat, and then sources say that he immediately ditched his wife, the mother of his five children, and married a staffer. Jim Bunn is said to have put his new wife on the state payroll for the unheard-of salary of $97,500, thereby becoming one of the biggest waste and spend conservatives from the state of Oregon. Source: Conservative Babylon
President of the United States George W. Bush, was accused in a criminal complaint and lawsuit of raping Margie Schoedinger, who later died in a questionable case of suicide. Bush was also accused by Tammy Phillips, a former stripper, who was quoted in the National Enquirer in 2000 saying she had an affair with Bush that had ended in 1999. Another serious question involves statements from the wife of Red Blount, whom Bush campaigned for, while possibly A.W.O.L from the Air National Guard at age 26. She stated that he was “all over their 14 year old daughter.” Multiple Sources
Neil Bush, brother or G. W. Bush, in a March 2003 divorce deposition, admitted repeatedly having sex with strange women who just showed up at his room while on an Asian business trip. Overshadowing the sex scandal at the time was a business scandal. Neal Bush keeps a low profile and is not seen in public very often. He also has questionable ties to the security of the World Trade Towers in the September 11th 2001 attacks on the United States. Source: Washington Post article
Ken Calvert, Congressman (R-California), has been called the champion of the Christian Coalition and its “family values.” But in reality, Ken Calvert was sued as an alimony “deadbeat dad” by his ex-wife who said, “We can’t forgive what occurred between the President and Lewinsky.” In 1993, Calvert was caught by police officers receiving oral sex from a prostitute. He attempted to flee the scene but apparently couldn’t move fast enough to get away from police, and was arrested.
Helen Chenoweth, Congresswoman (R-Id.). In 1995, Chenoweth had denied having an affair when asked about it by The Spokane Spokesman-Review. In 1998 she called (in a campaign ad) for Bill Clinton’s resignation saying, “I believe that personal conduct and integrity do matter”. Days later she admitted to a six-year adulterous affair with a married associate, but now she claims a pardon from a higher authority: “I’ve asked for God’s forgiveness, and I’ve received it,” she revealed.
Mark Foley, Republican Representative, Florida Sixteenth Congressional District. Resigned after trying to solicit sex from male congressional pages via an instant messenger program. The conversations included his asking a sixteen-year-old “stud” whether his penis was erect and requesting that he take out and measure his penis. The cover-up involved Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner, Ohio Eighth Congressional District and Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Illinois Fourteenth District.
Newt Gingrich, well established crusader against legislation that assists women and the poor, has married three times while spouting Christian values the entire time. Newt Gingrich’s campaign worker Anne Manning, admitted that she gave Newt oral sex while he was still married to his first wife, essentially placing Newt in the exact same position President Clinton had to endure when Gingrich and his cronies maintained their pressure over the Lewinski incident. Gingrish informed one wife he was filing for divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer treatments. Salon article
Philip Giordano, the former Republican mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut was sentenced by a state court to serve 37 years for forcing two little girls to perform acts of oral sex on him in his Waterbury City Hall office. While investigating municipal corruption, the FBI discovered phone records and pictures of Giordano with a prostitute named Guitana Jones, as well as with her 10-year-old niece and her 8-year-old daughter. 37-years is a very long prison sentence, many said at the time that it still wasn’t enough. Source: NBC Article/Newsday Article
Rudy Giuliani, New York Mayor and Republican Presidential Candidate, is reported as having had an adulterous affair that failed to stay out of the public light. Groups also cite Giuliani for pocketing an $80,000 fee for speaking at a charity benefit for tsunami aid which raised only $60,000 for the victims themselves. Critics of Giuliani say there will be more revelations about his character and past as his presidential aspirations gain momentum.
Matthew Glavin, president and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, was a big player in the Clinton Impeachment proceedings, and he has spearheaded a good number of anti-homosexual jihads. He has been arrested multiple times for public indecency, sources report, one time it was for fondling the crotch of the police officer who was arresting him at a national park. Opponents say his actions were treated “with kid gloves” and therefore inadequate.
Neal Horsley is a political figure of the far right, and the author of a website devoted to his advocacy of militant pro-life, secessionist, and anti-gay views. He has called for the arrest of all homosexuals. He admitted on the Fox News Radio’s The Alan Colmes Show, that he’s had sex with mules. He put photographs on his Web site of naked men engaging in homosexual acts and a nude woman engaging in bestiality amid shots of grotesquely maimed fetuses. Drug dealer convicted of possession of hashish with intent to sell. He calls for “the establishment of a new government, one that can obey God’s plan for government.”
Lewis “Scooter” Libby is the former Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted but recently exempted from having to serve his sentence by the President. In 1996, “Scooter” Libby published a novel containing bizarre sexual content, including bestiality and pedophilia. Other high level White House officials were said to have been involved in the book that Libby published.
Rush Limbaugh is the infamous talk show pundit and advocate of moral values who has been divorced three times. A staunch anti-drug crusader, Limbaugh is in reality, a 30-pill a day drug addict. He also takes questionable trips to locations where many western men travel to buy sex under shady circumstances. It was a return from one of those possibly sordid journeys when one of his drug arrests occurred. Limbaugh was returning from the Dominican Republic. The Rush Limbaugh sex tourism story could seriously lead to his downfall if any of the allegations were founded. “Turnabout is most certainly fair play,” is how one news agency worded it. Then there is the report of Rush’s use of Viagra while he was single. Sources: correntewire.com/The Smoking Gun.com
Jeff Miller, (R-Cleveland), Senate Republican Caucus Chairman in Tennessee and the sponsor of Tennessee’s Marriage Protection act. He was divorced in April 2005 because of an affair he was having with an office aid. Miller described the Tennessee Marriage Protection Act as a means of preserving the sanctity of marriage. He opposed an amendment, however, which stated that “Adultery is deemed to be a threat to the institution of marriage and contrary to public policy in Tennessee.”
Joseph M. McDade, 75, was issued a summons on a charge of exposure of his sexual organs, a misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The longtime Pennsylvania Republican congressman who served for 36 years in the House and now works for a Washington lobbying firm, has been accused of exposing his private parts to two women at a beach resort on Sanibel Island. Source: DKOS diary
Bill O’Reilly is the highly controversial right-wing conservative talk show host on Fox News known for the “O’Reilly factor” and the “no spin zone.” O’Reilly is highly contested over his ability to polarize people along political lines. Bill O’Reilly has been sued for sexual harassment by his producer. The female Fox News producer named Andrea Mackris filed a lawsuit claiming that he subjected her to repeated instances of sexual harassment and spoke often, and explicitly, to her about phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies. He settled with the producer for an undisclosed amount of money.
Bob Packwood, Senator (R-Ore.) resigned in 1995 under a threat of public senate hearings related to 10 female ex-staffers accusing him of sexual harassment. A pro-choice Republican who often rallied for women’s rights, Packwood let down generations of supporters, and is a good example of the complexity of human nature, since he supported legislation to protect women’s rights during his 25 years in office while simultaneously making unwanted sexual advances toward many different women. In the end, 19 women testified to outrageous behavior which was mostly carried out when Packwood was drunk. The most damaging was the charge of a former staff woman who was only 17 years old at the time. Packwood might still have survived the challenge had he responded with his former talent for compromise, but he was defiant and confrontational, trying to bully his way through the situation and alienating even his friends, it is reported.
George Roche III, carried on a 19 year affair with his son’s wife, while serving as president of Hillsdale College, which “emphasizes the importance of the common moral truths that bind all Americans, while recognizing the importance of religion for the maintenance of a free society.” The scandal broke out in 1999 when the wife of George Roche IV, Lissa Jackson Roche, claimed to have had an affair spanning 19 years with her husband’s father. Shortly after, she was found dead in the college’s arboretum with a handgun, and the death was ruled a suicide. Following his resignation in November 1999, Roche left public life and moved to Colorado.
Joe Scarborough, former Republican Congressman, is currently a conservative talk show host. He resigned his congressional seat abruptly to spend more time with his family, amidst allegations of an affair. His intern, Lori Klausutis, was soon after found dead in his office. The medical examiner, who had his license revoked in Missouri for falsifying information in an autopsy report, and suspended in Florida for six years, ruled the case an accident, after giving conflicting information about her injuries. He said he lied about them because “The last thing we wanted was 40 questions about a head injury.”
Ed Schrock was a two-term Republican Congressman, with a 92% approval rating from the Christian Coalition. Co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, consistently opposed gay rights. Married, with wife and kids, he withdrew his candidacy for a third term after tapes of him soliciting gay sex were circulated. The Virginia Pilot reported in October 2000 that Schrock favored ending the Clinton administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military, BlogActive noted. “He supports asking enlistees whether they have had homosexual experiences in an effort to try to keep gays from serving. ‘You’re in the showers with them, you’re in the bunk room with them, you’re in staterooms with them,’ Schrock said.”
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, right wing conservative radio host, is known for promoting family values. She is estranged from her mother, opposes birth control, has had her tubes tied. She espouses saving oneself for marriage, and admits to having had sex before she was married. She opposes adultery, but has committed adultery while she was married, and has slept with a married man. She opposes divorce, but she is divorced and remarried, and has posed for nude photos which are available online.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the hit Hollywood movie actor turned politician and California Republican governor, has admitted during a Oui interview, having sex with a 16-year old when he was 28. Today men who commit similar acts in Oregon are branded sex offenders and placed in correctional facilities. At the time of the Oui story, Schwarzenegger, then 29, was appearing in “Pumping Iron,” a documentary on the bodybuilding circuit. In the Q&A with Manso from Oui Magazine, today’s California Governor spoke about his sex life then, his drug usage, and his belief that men “shouldn’t feel like fags just because they want to have nice-looking bodies.” Source: Oui
Jean Schmidt is a Republican legislator from Ohio. Though not herself implicated, she employed a campaign manager named Joe Brauns in her 2005 election who once wrote an article condemning gay men for running sex ad profiles, and who was then accused of running his own sex profile on Collarme, an S&M sex site. The profile called for “submissives” to wear only a collar and handcuffs and to have hot wax dripped on them. Source: DKOS Diary
Jimmy Swaggart, televangelist, exposed in 1986 fellow Assemblies of God minister Marvin Gorman, who was having an affair with one of his parishioners. The following year, Swaggart then exposed Jim Bakker’s sexual indiscretions and soon after appeared on the Larry King Show stating that Bakker was a “cancer in the body of Christ.” As a retaliatory move, Marvin Gorman hired a private-detective to follow Swaggart. During his investigation, the detective found Swaggart in a Jefferson Parish, Louisiana motel on Airline Highway with prostitute Debra Murphree and took pictures as proof of the tryst.Source: Wikipedia
Randall Terry, Right to Life activist, founder of Operation Rescue, was involved in the Terri Schiavo protests. He was once imprisoned for sending former President Bill Clinton an aborted fetus. His son Jamiel is gay; his daughter Tila had sex outside of marriage, became pregnant, had a miscarriage – she is no longer welcome in his home; his daughter Ebony had 2 children outside of wedlock and became Muslim. He has campaigned against infidelity and birth control, gays and unwed mothers. Terry himself was censured by his church after committing adultery.
Strom Thurmond was an outspoken southern republican senator and racist. According to information revealed toward the end of his life, he had as a younger man raped and impregnanted a 15-year old African American maid. Throughout his adult life, as a politician and U.S. Senator, Thurmond quietly contributed to the family of the young African-American mother of his child. In contrast to, say, George “I Was Wrong” Wallace, Thurmond had always been an ornery redemption project. He did not repent. Even so, his illegitimate daughter further complicated the moral picture. Source: slate.com/BBC Article
Jim West, Spokane Mayor, supported a bill which failed, would have barred gays and lesbians from working in schools, day-care centers and some state agencies. He voted to bar the state from distributing pamphlets telling people how to protect themselves from AIDS. He proposed that “any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person” among teens be criminalized. He ended up having a sexual affair with an 18-year old boy. Source: Spokesman review
(http://salem-news.com/articles/october172007/repub_scandals_10_17_07.php)
*cough* *cough* *splutter* wheres my lemsip?
…Clutching at straws?… never! …Desperate for a democrat sex scandal… no way!
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Oh and the guy who first told me about this said that there was a big cheer when it was announced on the trading floor in New York.
They’ll do that when you try and hold them to account… or maybe it was in celebration of the chance for him to be replaced with someone more willing to toe the line…
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Boy Mike that must’ve been bottled up for some time – did it feel good to get it all out – one might be excused for thinking that you were mildly obsessed! All it confirms is what we all know – politicians get involved in sex scandals regardless of their political orientation. What we do know about Democrats is that they are more likely to tough it out, face less press hostility and fewer electoral repurcussions than their GOP equivalents.
That said, Spitzer appears to be stalling for time as he does a deal with the FBI before resigning. He had few friends left before this after the State trooper scandal and the abortive driver’s licence scheme for illegals. No one from the Dems has stood up to support him. The word hubris and arrogant are frequently mentioned in the same sentance as Spitzer’s name. His relentless pursuit of prostitution rings makes this bust grade 1 gold medal hypocrisy. Prostitution is still illegal in New York and the Federal Mann Act still bans interstate prostitution. It also appears the Emperors Club may be in a spot of bother over illegal money laundering. The issue here is not where a man chooses to put his willy but the extent to which New York State’s highest office holder (and previously as the State’s Attorney-General) Spitzer could be compromised by blackmail. Who knows why Spitzer chose to target his prosecutions when he was AG. He certainly unjustifiably ruined the reputations of a number of innocent businessmen in the state in his headlong rush to make the headlines. No wonder as Kimble noted that the traders on the Stock Exchange floor cheered when the news broke.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
You know Mike you really are a true lefty when you assume that if an enforcement official from the state brings a case against someone, it is always because of naughtiness on the part of some filthy capitalist. Regulatory authorities the world over (and yes in NZ as well) can and do undertake ideologically driven campaigns against certain businesses and industries on the flimsiest of evidence – I’ve seen it with my own eyes with the NZ Securities Commission. That is not to say that some crooks they go after are worthy of their attention but I have seen innocent people who own honest businesses gunned down in a speculative hail of bullets in a scatter gun unprofessional attempt to rid a particular industry of cowboys. Reputations can be ruined and livelihoods left in tatters and the mistaken gunfire is never apologised for nor can there be any recourse by the victims of the state’s overreaching. Spitzer ruthlessly targetted Hank Greenberg of AIG Insurance and found nothing wrong and no charges were ever laid on him or his corporation but the mere hint of suspicion cost him his CEO position
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Mike
Those in *cough* glass *cough* houses………
Sen. Daniel Inouye. The 82-year-old Hawaii Democrat was accused in the 1990s by numerous women of sexual harassment. Democrats cast doubt on the allegations and the Senate Ethics Committee dropped its investigation.
Former Rep. Gus Savage. The Illinois Democrat was accused of fondling a Peace Corps volunteer in 1989 while on a trip to Africa. The House Ethics Committee decided against disciplinary action in 1990.
Rep. Barney Frank. The outspoken Massachusetts Democrat hired a male prostitute who ran a prostitution service from Frank’s residence in the 1980s. Only two Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to censure him in 1990.
Former Sen. Brock Adams. The late Washington Democrat was forced to stop campaigning after numerous accusations of drugging, assault and rape, the first surfacing in 1988.
Former Rep. Fred Richmond. This New York Democrat was arrested in 1978 for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old. He remained in Congress and won re-election—before eventually resigning in 1982 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and drug possession.
Former Rep. John Young. The late Texas Democrat increased the salary of a staffer after she gave in to his sexual advances. The congressman won re-election in 1976 but lost two years later.
Former Rep. Wayne Hays. The late Ohio Democrat hired an unqualified secretary reportedly for sexual acts. Although he resigned from Congress, the Democratic House leadership stalled in removing him from the Administration Committee in 1976.
Former Rep. Gerry Studds. He was censured for sexual relationship with underage male page in 1983. Massachusetts voters returned him to office for six more terms.
Former Rep. Mel Reynolds. The Illinois Democrat was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault with a 16-year-old. President Bill Clinton pardoned him before leaving office.
Sen. Teddy Kennedy. The liberal Massachusetts senator testified in defense of nephew accused of rape, invoking his family history to win over the jury in 1991.
President James Buchanan (D) and Senator William Rufus King (D-NC) were the subject of scandalous gossip (alleging a homosexual affair) in Washington, DC for many years
Walter Jenkins (D) top aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson – caught in a gay liaison with a Hungarian man in a YMCA bathroom (1964)
Neil Goldschmidt (D-OR) former Oregon governor – affair with underage female, 1970s
Wilbur Mills (D-AR) – Fanne Foxe scandal (1974)
Wayne Hays (D-OH) – Elizabeth Ray scandal (1976)
John Young (D-TX) – a former female staffer said that she received a pay raise after giving in to Young’s sexual advances (1976)
Allan Howe (D-UT) – arrested for soliciting two police officers posing as prostitutes (1976)
Fred Richmond (D-NY) – charged with soliciting sex from a 16-year-old boy (1978)
Gerry Studds (D-MA) and Dan Crane (R-IL) are censured July 20, 1983 in Congressional Page sex scandal (1983)
Gary Hart (D-CO) – Donna Rice scandal (1987)
Brock Adams (D-WA) eight women accused Adams of committing various acts of sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual harassment to rape (1988)
Jim Bates (D-CA) made sexual advances toward female staffers (1988)
Gus Savage (D-IL) accused of trying to force himself on a female Peace Corps worker in Zaire (1989)
Barney Frank (D-MA) reprimanded by the House when Steve Gobie, a male escort whom Frank met after hiring him through a personal advertisement, claimed to have conducted an escort service from Frank’s apartment when he was not at home (1989)
Chuck Robb (D-VA) – Tai Collins affair (1991)
Mel Reynolds (D-IL) – indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse for a relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer (1994), and was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography (1995)
President Bill Clinton (D-AR) – Monica Lewinsky scandal (1998)
Gary Condit (D-CA) – affair with intern Chandra Levy (2001)
Paul Patton (D-KY) Kentucky Governor – affair; became public after former mistress alleged retaliation against her business (2002)
Bob Wise (D-WV) West Virginia Governor – affair with state employee (2003)
Jim McGreevey (D-NJ) New Jersey Governor – ; closeted homosexual extramarital affair (2004)
Kevin Shelley (D-CA) California Secretary of State – a number of former staffers and other associates accused Shelley of abusive behavior, including sexually explicit gestures and remarks (2004)
Gavin Newsom (D-CA) San Francisco Mayor – accused of extramarital affair with wife of campaign manager and former deputy chief-of-staff Alex Tourk (2007)
Antonio Villaraigosa (D-CA) Los Angeles Mayor – extramarital affair (2004), affair with Spanish-language television reporter Mirthala Salinas (2007)
John Burton (D-CA) former California Senate Pro Tempore – accused of sexual harassment by a female employee at his charity organization (2008)
Kwame Kilpatrick (D-MI) Detroit Mayor – extramarital affair with his Chief-of-Staff, Christine Beatty (resigned January 28, 2008). Uncovered racy text messages between them by the press contradicted their sworn denials of an affair. Kilpatrick was also alleged to have stayed at the Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC with a woman named Carmen Slowsky, whom was not his wife (2008)
Billygate — U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy Carter, legally represented the Libyan government as a foreign agent
Chicago city clerk Walter S. Kozubowski (D) was sentenced to 5 years in prison for mail fraud.
Illinois Chicago alderman John S. Madrzyk (D) sentenced to 41 months in prison for mail fraud.
Illinois Chicago City Treasurer Miriam Santos (D) originally sentenced to 40 months for extortion and mail fraud but the sentence was overturned on appeal. She subsequently pleaded guilty to mail fraud and sentenced to 3 months, only served 17 days in prison.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White (D-IL) introduced secretary and friend Donna Lumpkins Floyd to numerous legislators, and encouraged them to give $175,000 of the taxpayers’ money to her charity. However, there was no charity, and Floyd said that White destroyed all transaction records. After an investigation, the Illinois State Board of Elections fined White $800,000.
Louisiana In what was called the Louisiana Scandals, Governor Richard W. Leche (D-LA) (and others including the LSU president) were convicted of corruption relating to the influence of the followers of Huey Long (D-LA) and the Long family.
Maryland Lobbyist Gerard E. Evans (D) convicted of fraud after dummying up legislation and collecting fees from clients to fight it
Massachusetts politician James Michael Curley (D-MA), convictions on various allegations of corruption
Minnesota Democratic consultant and businessman Pat Forciea (D) convicted of extensive bank fraud charges
New Jersey Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague (D-NJ) resigned as mayor amid accusations of widespread corruption; resigns other party offices later on
New York Lee Alexander (D-NY), Syracuse mayor, pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion. Served 6 years in prison.
New York Alan Hevesi (D-NY) Comptroller of New York pleaded guilty to one count of defrauding the government.
Thats just a sample, if you want more then just let me know.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Mike
Here are a few that you might remember well….
In 2000, Labour MP Chris Carter investigated the background of one of Clark’s Cabinet colleagues, Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels. During the investigation, Clark referred to John Yelash as a murderer. However, the court system had convicted Yelash of manslaughter. Yelash sued Clark for defamation, resulting in an out-of-court settlement.
Clark signed a painting for a charity-auction that someone else had painted. A political controversy arose about it, and after it emerged that she had not painted it, Opposition politicians referred the matter to the New Zealand Police. The Police found evidence for a prima facie case of forgery, but determined that it was not in the public interest to prosecute.[18] A staff member bought the painting back and destroyed it.
In 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after the Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer “that won’t be necessary”. Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005 but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as “by definition I cannot leak”. Helen Clark also responded by saying that National’s friends had funded Mr Doone’s defamation-suit.[19] Opinion on the significance of this incident varied.[20]
In 2005, a motorcade involving police, Diplomatic Protection Squad, and Ministerial Services staff reached speeds of up to 172 km/h when taking Clark and Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton from Waimate to Christchurch Airport so she could attend a rugby union match in Wellington. The courts subsequently convicted the drivers involved for driving offences, but appeals resulted in the quashing of these convictions in December 2005 and August 2006.[21] Clark said that she was busy working in the back seat and had no influence or role in the decision to speed and did not realise the speed of her vehicle.[22]
Observers criticised Clark for some of Labour’s election-campaign spending during the 2005 election campaign. Investigations found that the Labour Party, like all parties represented in Parliament except for Jim Anderton’s ProgressivesProgressives, had illegally spent parliamentary funds on its election campaign. Labour had spent $768,000 illegally, and this meant Labour also exceeded the legal limits for campaign-spending, the only party to have done so. Despite disagreeing with the Auditor-General’s conclusion, Clark announced Labour would refund the public purse and it did so in 2007. See 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy.
At an interfaith meeting in May 2007, Clark’s government put forward the National Statement on Religious Diversity, which stated that “New Zealand has no official or established religion”. Brian Tamaki of the Destiny Church opposed this statement, making a call not to “defile” New Zealand’s soil with “foreign religions”. A peaceful protest march occurred that same day to oppose Clark’s statement.[23] However, a poll of 501 New Zealanders by Research New Zealand in June 2007 found that 58% of respondents did not endorse Tamaki’s attitude on Christianity as New Zealand’s official religion.[24]
In 2007, Clark’s Government introduced the Electoral Finance Act, which placed restrictions on the spending of lobby-groups, who must now register with a government agency if they are spending over a certain amount[25]. So far, the Act has been highly controversial and has attracted severe criticism from organizations such as the New Zealand Herald for its alleged attack on freedom of speech.[26]
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Fucking pwned.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
“They’ll do that when you try and hold them to account”
Is that what you think he did, Mike?
Spitzer used his public position to grandstand and prime his public image for a run at Governor and (obvious to all) President in the not too distant future. He may have done some good, chasing down crooks atc, but nothing more than you would demand from somebody in the same role.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Greta (nipped tucked and talking) Van Susteren of Fox says Splitzer will cut a deal with the Feds that he will resign but face no indictment.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
There is an old English term – being up queery street, it refers to bad debtors and bad debts. It suggests a certain impropriety to having debts, as if it is an immorality.
The Herald you may note ran a story about someone with some relationship to BlueChip having spent up large in a local brothel. Presumably this was to link personal spending and private behaviour with the companies situation. Given there was no link to this spending being from company money, it’s to suggest something “immoral” about people associated with the company. It’s about creating a figure, a symbolism of some corruption, to be cleaned up. Creating some sort of archetype for the people to rage in moral fury about.
It reminds one of the Herald and some local opposition to immigration in the 199O’s.
Just goes to show the diversity of the political right I suppose.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I’ve previously read a much longer list of republicans, ill see if i can find that. Regardless its the republicans that run the family values platform.
and kiwi in america, im sure youve seen (or intentionally ignored) the figures that show that the money lost through corprate crime is many many times that of street crime, doesnt seem like your too far off saying its ok?
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
SPC: not following. Are you claiming that the Herald are on the political right? Cause if I was the leader of the VRWC, I’d be expecting a fair bit more from a newspaper I ran. Like, maybe, saying nice things about the right wing of politics?
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
The Governor, as a former AG, of course prosecuted those involved in illegal activity. As a politician, unless he is campaigning for a law change, he has public respect for the law.
As an individual, he obviously has another point of view (reminds one of the end of the film The Untouchables).
Now he has been outed, he could always lead a campaign to change the law (what’s there to lose, now he is outed as a user).
In our former law, it was quite legal for a man to offer money for sex. It was also quite legal for her to receive this money for sexual services and pay tax on it to IRD.
The only problem was if she was living off the earnings – any good financial advisor would inform their client to allocate half the money received to that for the massage with the hands and the other as for the rest of the massage and put down their occupation as masseuse or personal fitness trainer. Thus they were living off the earnings of their massage of the hands/fitness training, the rest was the same top up on her living wage which the secretary earned for favours in the evening with her boss or the free meal “date”. Such expertise may again be required when a National caucus revisits the prostitution reform issue. Though they may bring in the American law, which would have policewomen dressed up like streetwalkers looking for Denny. But that might only encourage a return to our 1980′s police culture.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
PaulL
I was speaking as to whom that sort of journalism was catering – those of the right wing looking to act as moral judge of the way someone used their own money in their own time.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
DPF
You don’t think a man who pays for sex with prostitutes is unfit for high public (that’s p-u-b-l-i-c) office?
A position where we can expect leadership, honesty and integrity? (He’s not running a cafe).
Really? How strange.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
This tosser Spitzer campaigned for the Gov’s job mostly on family values. The guy is unfit for office.
Gotta say his Mrs looked highly pissed off on the video clip Fox played earlier.
Vote:March 11th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
DPF
One other thing…What’s ‘good’ about a sex scandal?
I’d have thought ‘sad’ or, given the evidence presented in some of the earlier postings on this thread, ‘tedious’ would be more appropriate.
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Poor Spitzer. Spends his career ‘rooting out corruption’ (to quote CNN). Will be remembered for ‘rooting’ (in good kiwi parlance).
Seems he may be charged because his ‘girl’ travelled by train from NYC to Washington DC and so crossed state lines for the purposes of prostitution. According to CNN, ‘Paying for a prostitute to travel from New York to Washington could violate federal law. The Mann Act makes it a federal offense to take someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.’ (appropriately named that ‘Mann’ Act – isn’t politics clever!). He’d be in less trouble if he’d bought local.
Saturday Night Live, Letterman et al should have a field day with this…
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Mike – I made no such inference. Regulatory authorities are charged with combatting white collar crime and can and should do the very best job possible in doing so. But you have naively assumed that any and all charges brought by prosecutors must automatically have merit. That is not always the case and Spitzer personifies the aggressive prosecutor who seeks fame, glory and headlines (to further their own political career) above genuine law enforcement. I have witnessed in NZ ideological witchhunts driven by government employees who exhibit a pathological hatred of capitalism and those that make money in the marketplace. They abuse their position of authority and use the consider power and resources of the state to attack honest businessmen who are not crooks. In some instances their false allegations and rapacious and time wasting investigations (that unearth nothing) have the effect of irreparably devastating reuptations and even driving profitable businesses under that employ staff and add to the economy. Operators like Spitzer always cloak themselves and their actions in a self-righteous shield supposedly in the protection of innocent investors and consumers from evil capitalist raiders and feed and prey on the fears that have arisen from the terrible dishonest actions of a few bad apples in an industry who indeed should have the full force of the law used against their dishonesty. I’m asking you to drop your ideological blinkers and see that not all enforcers of good laws have the interests of innocent small investors at heart.
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 9:05 am
“..Saturday Night Live, Letterman et al should have a field day with this…”.
(as they did..here is a roundup i posted this morning..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2008/the-best-spitzer-jokesone-liners/
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 9:14 am
kiwi in america, agree with your comments on regulators and Spitzer specifically.
On behalf of clients I’ve seen first hand how the Comm Comm, ASIC, US DOJ and the EU run roughshod over those they target and they have unlimited powers to do so.
Saying that, Spitzer brought about the biggest shake up in the modern history of insurance and one which was long overdue. Due to his personal crusade (regardless of motivation) the global insurance market today is totally more transparent and a good deal of the corrupt and fraudulent practices that were prevalent have been knobbled.
As to Hank Greenberg, he and sons constitiute one dodgy family. FYI, AIG settled a sum of US$1.6b with Spitzer to avoid criminal charges. My own company’s settlement was only a paltry $50m whereas our major competitor’s was $850m. Happy days all round.
So yes, regulators generally are the gestapo in disguise but on occassions they so very get it right.
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Here’s P J O’Rourke in the Wall Street Journal:
“”Conservatives generally tend to be funnier in their private lives,” he explains, “because of the hypocrisy factor. I am of course a big fan of hypocrisy, because hypocrites at least know the difference between right and wrong–at any rate, know enough to lie about what they’re doing. Liberals are not nearly as hypocritical as conservatives, because they don’t know the difference between right and wrong. But anyways the personal lives of conservatives tend to be funnier: They’ve always got the embarrassing gay daughter, and so on.”
In public policy, Mr. O’Rourke claims, “liberals are always much more hilarious. Liberals are always proposing perfectly insane ideas, laws that will make everybody happy, laws that will make everything right, make us live forever, and all be rich. Conservatives are never that stupid. Having conservatives in government is like having a stern talk with your dad in the den about what your allowance will be. . . . Of course, the Republicans always end up giving in: You know, giving you more money than you should have in your pocket, and the keys to the car, and then also a bottle of whiskey.”"
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
SPC and others (sigh) Those who offer thermselves up for governance roles be in central local church commercial or whatever type of organisation have to expect that they will be judged on their moral and ethical behaviour.
They are holding themselves out to be leaders and as such there is an expectation of standards.
If they show a weakness or lapse in a moral or ethical area it may imply that they a weakness in an area directly related to the core competency of the role they perform.
No one is perfect But those who hold thenselves out as pollies inevitably do to be holier than thou paint a big target on their foreheads as far as I am concerned if they turn out to be duds.
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
And here’s the $5,500 girls.
Vote:March 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
gd
I have no problems with our elected officials in brothels myself, provided they are using their own money and have not posed in favour of making it illegal for electoral purposes (the duplicity).
I do realise that it is an illegal arrangement in US law – because there is no way that the activity can occur because soliciting by both parties is illegal. I just note that two people can relate on the net worldwide or via R 18 video for cash (a huge American export business) and find their law on this to be an expression of favour to the power of capital against the working gal – their law is the hypocrisy.
In the case of the said Governor, enforcement of public laws as AG is simply his job, has he ever declared a political position when not AG on the issue?
Vote: