Will they steal the WH china, too?
December 1, 2008 4:59 PM   Subscribe

Remember the Eliot Spitzer take-down thread here on the blue?It turns out that Spitzer's character assassination may have been more Bush Administration sock puppetry -- back on Valentine's Day, Spitzer wrote an editorial in the WaPo demonizing the lack of consumer protections and was about to file a lawsuit against several Wall Street firms for predatory lending, but the Justice Department caught him with his fly undone and the papers didn't get filed.

As a result, we had that October-November financial collapse and a quiet $200 billion bail-out turned into a $900 billion bail-out. Greg Palast was on it, but the MSM didn't bother to look into it. But this past week, Congress did...
posted by vhsiv (22 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
So, if Spitzer could keep it in his pants, we'd save $700 billion? That's one expensive spurt, dude.
posted by jonmc at 5:02 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


Yeah, "as a result" should refer to Bush Administration policy, not Spitzer's crimes. He was sleazy and it sounds like this was a politically motivated investigation, but he didn't create the collapse and I don't think his lawsuit could have prevented it - it's just as likely it would have prompted it. It was inevitable - houses of cards eventually fall.
posted by Miko at 5:08 PM on December 1, 2008


actually at 40 million sperm per ejaculation, that comes to $17,500 per little wiggler. Every sperm may not be sacred, but they sure ain't cheap.
posted by jonmc at 5:11 PM on December 1, 2008 [2 favorites]


back on Valentine's Day, Spitzer wrote an editorial in the WaPo demonizing the lack of consumer protections

Speaking of a lack of consumer protections, wasn't Spitzer the guy who had a reputation with the escort agency for not wanting to wear a condom?
posted by grounded at 5:21 PM on December 1, 2008 [4 favorites]


There was probably not a moment during Spitzer's tenure as governor, or during his previous job(s), when you couldn't find many people on Wall Street, and among their supporters, with motives to do harm to him. Just because he got busted around the time he was pursuing this issue means nothing.
posted by guanxi at 5:22 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


Where in the third link does it say that Spitzer was about to file a lawsuit? It seems to say he had joined in litigration several years before, as New York attorney general. Why would a governor file a lawsuit?
posted by enn at 5:27 PM on December 1, 2008


This is my shocked face. After the Siegelman conviction the Spitzer hunt was nothing.
posted by ryoshu at 5:28 PM on December 1, 2008


Isn't it character suicide? Although I disagree with a lot of the vitriol directed against prostitutes & johns, it still is against the law, and he was governor, formerly attorney general. He should be upholding the law, methinks.

(I seem to recall that he was the prosecutor in a moderately large prostitution case, in which case it's definitely character suicide. But I can't find it, because doing a search on google for any variant of Eliot, Spitzer, Prostitution, Case gives me the obvious results)
posted by Lemurrhea at 5:36 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


I call bullshit. First, Eliot Spitzer was the governor, not the attorney general. He doesn't file lawsuits, the attorney general does. The papers could have been filed regardless of what happened to him. And it wasn't that the all-powerful "they" caught him with his pants undone, it's that he undid them himself, when he knew damn well he had made a huge target of himself by going after wall street.

Second, are you suggesting that the Bush Administration wanted this financial collapse to happen? Why, so his approval ratings could vanish entirely and the Democrats would sweep the White House and Congress?

Third, lawsuits against lenders for predatory lending have been filed on an ongoing basis since 2005.
posted by Pastabagel at 5:52 PM on December 1, 2008 [2 favorites]


I was really pissed at Spitzer for not being able to keep it in his pants. He was the first political "hero" I had since... Alan Cranston.
posted by queensissy at 6:08 PM on December 1, 2008


actually at 40 million sperm per ejaculation, that comes to $17,500 per little wiggler.

New retirement plan for the win!
posted by rokusan at 7:38 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


Are you suggesting that the Bush Administration wanted this financial collapse to happen? Why, so his approval ratings could vanish entirely...?

Maybe they believed after they hit zero, they'd roll over to 99999.
posted by rokusan at 7:41 PM on December 1, 2008 [3 favorites]


Maybe they believed after they hit zero, they'd roll over to 99999.

That's a result of his intensive checkers training.

King Me!
posted by cjets at 7:56 PM on December 1, 2008


The moment he got burned I thought it was interesting how he was caught via anti-terrorism/drug trafficking measures. You know the mission creep and privacy invasion that they always promise won't happen when they ask for new invasive powers..
posted by srboisvert at 5:55 AM on December 2, 2008


“Second, are you suggesting that the Bush Administration wanted this financial collapse to happen?”

They didn’t?
$900 billion is a pretty big incentive. Gee, I lost the election but funneled billions of dollars to my buddies who will grease me as soon as I get out of office.

Anyway, his testimony got derailed and he wasn’t even charged. I’d call that a political character assassination, yeah.

Either way the law was misused. I would like an investigation as to why the federal government spent its time investigating where the governor put his dick rather than, y’know, the economic structure of organized crime, drug syndicates, terrorism outfits and corrupt financial institutions.

Far as I know Bushco not only did allow folks to get ripped off, they actively took steps to prevent states from protecting people from getting ripped off.
Our own AG in Illinois really sounded off about this.

They not only shut down state legislatures looking to stop predatory lending, now, after the fact, they’re shoveling yet more taxpayer money at the banking industry.

So did they want the collapse? Yeah.
Oh, not directly. But it always helps to have a big distraction when you loot the place.

$900 billion? Hell, if he could have kept his wick dry he might have had a “car accident.”
posted by Smedleyman at 10:23 AM on December 2, 2008


Not to mention, the biggest deficit in history. Just like the fiscally responsible Republicans to ram our debt into the dirt, so the next Administration cannot implement social programs.

Just like the Reagan Admin.
posted by captainsohler at 11:41 AM on December 2, 2008


Smedleyman, I fully agree. One parting treasury-grab.
posted by DesbaratsDays at 7:37 PM on December 2, 2008


The current financial crisis is about much much more than predatory lending.

$900 billion is a pretty big incentive. Gee, I lost the election but funneled billions of dollars to my buddies who will grease me as soon as I get out of office.

Which buddies would those be? The ones booted by their boards? Also, I doubt Bush will need much help when he gets out of office.

Overall, I think the argument is pretty weak. Even when assuming the premise that Spitzer was the victim of character assassination, there's no way to prove a Bush link - Spitzer made a ton of enemies, small and large.

Anyway, a good look at Spitzer's tenure as a prosecutor will reveal some quality character assassination on his part. Live by the sword...
posted by kjars at 8:31 PM on December 2, 2008


Why am I not surprised that penises and vaginas caused all this trouble?
posted by Aquaman at 9:24 AM on December 3, 2008


Spitzer has a new piece at Slate: We need to stop using the bailouts to rebuild gigantic financial institutions.
posted by homunculus at 3:57 PM on December 3, 2008


Spitzer has a new piece at Slate: We need to stop using the bailouts to rebuild gigantic financial institutions. The Dog Ate My Hard Drive: With lots of easy options, there's no excuse for not backing up your data. Here are the best ways to do it.

Thar she blows
posted by jckll at 8:25 AM on December 4, 2008


Whoops. Thanks for the save, cklennon.

New thread on Spitzer's piece.
posted by homunculus at 9:41 AM on December 4, 2008


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