Meanwhile, I found some interesting facts related to orionATL’s comment last night, from a copy of “Fall of the House of Bush” by Craig Unger. Will hope to toss the relevant info up, but much later today…. perhaps this pm.

sailmaker – sailing sounds infinitely more sane than anything related to DEC VAX (which I think that I can envision what you reference, though not sure I’m accurate… sounds vacuum-toobish
Sailing definitely trumps the long waits…

The government got what they wanted. The media is following Spitzer’s limo to his resignation the way they followed OJ, Martha Stewart, and Britney. They have officially Britenyized the Democratic Governor of New York.

Ethically this reeks and this was obviously done in a way to bring Spitzer down. They used a direct complaint instead of an indictment, so no Rule 6(e) Grand Jury secrecy rules (often broken by the government who leaks all the time anyway when it’s to their advantage). DOJ personnel aren’t and have never been worried about punishment. Contrary to what their alumna at FDL will say, the fact is that they fought vigorously for any adherence to local bar rules, and got a huge modification buried in of all things the 450 pages of the Patriot Act in 2001. I documented that at FDL and it got ignored, of course by the two former AUSAs there when I did it. They clucked that of course they are under the rules of the local bar. The fact is they have to be members of the local bar and pass the exam, but they are exempted from all but the most basic dicipline for say not paying dues regularly thanks to a provision they fought to get into the Patriot Act that Leahy agreed to back then. I documented this a couple weeks ago at FDL.

The government would defend any attempt at discovering how they actually got the information in the first place with a State Secrets argument. They have a front story that is extremely shaky along the lines of a standard IT interception as outlined below:

Eliot Spitzer’s Software Nightmare

How an information system helped nail Eliot Spitzer and a prostitution ring

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

SAR Activity Review By the Numbers

There is a lesson in this, Democrats think that it’s good to let the Rs sort these things out yet the minute it is a D the clamor from Rs is huge. Democrats can’t just sit there next time, and must demand resignations any time Rs are involved in scandal; otherwise they risk letting them off the hook like Vitter and Craig) so that when the shoe is on the other foot the same Rs they let off the hook will screw them.

Related to this, isn’t it great that Larry Craig is appealing to the Minnesota Court of Appeals? Hopefully he will do so from now to the election. There have to be pictures of McCain with Craig. Yes we have to fight fire with fire.

Maybe something like “5 Ways Bush-Cheney Have Damaged the U.S. International Prestige,” with examples like SWIFT, the human rights problems, etc. Certainly if there’s ever another call for debate questions we should be ready to barrage the site with them. Might lead somewhere, and anyway the eye-glaze index alone would be worth it.

if i were spitzer i would not resign without a fight.

Spitzer’s lead defense attorney in this matter is Michele Hirshman.

In a book on Pathagoras I read the ancient Greeks believed ‘3′ was the first real number, and that One and Two were not numbers but rather “number creators.” Pathagoras regarded “the One” as good and the source of the finite, and ‘two’ as the dyad or evil demon and source of the infinite. (I think zero was evil, too, or somehow against the gods so zero was not discussed in polite conversation.)

So to summarize, I guess two is evil and three is a good starting point… for whatever that’s worth. Now back to Spitzer and the politicization of the DoJ.

Did anyone else think the two Club professionals were needlessly talkative on the phone regarding client 9’s arrangements? For a prostitution ring that billed itself as discrete, they seemed to be going out of their way to mention crossing state lines, paying for service, etc–almost as if reading from a script.

Another thought: when the news first broke, I thought from the wording of the headlines that Spitzer was accused of running an international prostitution ring. It was a while before I heard any mention that he was a possible john in the whole scenario. Wondering now if that first impression was the intent by the media–or just their way of avoiding blurting out the fact that someone close to investigation leaked client 9’s identity.