Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...

I've held off writing about this, cause I've hated this sonuvabitch for so long that I couldn't objectively contain my glee enough to blog intelligently. I think the reason I hated Spitzer so much, was that for all the endless prattle about standing up for the little guy, at the end of the day, he proved to be nothing more than a bully. I was so glad when Dick Grasso, the embattled former head of the New York Stock Exchange decided to "fight it out" with Spitzer over his huge pay package rather than capitulate as so many of his contemporaries had in the face of the Sptizer PR machine.

See, Spitzer liked to fight these things out in public. He'd leak things to the media, sometimes things that shouldn't have come out in order to keep pressure on the alleged perpetrators and force them to settle. Go back and read some of the stories about his depositions - he'd get personal, and you know it was his intent to let the current subject of his scrutiny that this information might get out.

All of this was preening and grandstanding was to aid his blossoming political career, and it overshadowed some of the genuinely (admittedly few) good things his DA's office was able to accomplish, not the least of which was to bring large mutual fund companies to heel in the market-timing scandal of the early oughts. For anyone living under a rock for the last few years, Spitzer went on to win the New York governor's race in the 2006 Democratic tidal wave by 60+ percent of the vote.

He ran as (surprise) a reformer. He was gonna bring his combative, corruption-fighting (read bullying) style to Albany and clean up state government while enacting a sweeping Democratic agenda that was a New Dealer's wet dream. Didn't happen. Sptizer found that playing little tin god (that's a small "g" there) as DA of NYC didn't prepare him so well for politics on the larger stage in Albany. The administration was plagued by scandal almost from day one. His number one assistant was accused of having the state police follow around the equally combative head of the Republican opposition. There were other examples of this sort of activity - he was famously accused of attempting to bully Bloomberg as well - but at the end of the day, he got nowhere with his agenda, and was forced to defend his flanks on multiple occasions.

This past couple of weeks we found out that our boy Eliot has an appetite for the ladies, especially ladies of the evening. It seems he'd spent about $80,000 over the past few years on hookers from some high-class escort service. The hypocrisy, nay hubris, was staggering. I mean, this is the guy who nattered on endlessly about integrity and honesty, only to prove that he really knew nothing about the concepts at all. The same guy who made his name prosecuting white-collar financiers in the city would be laid low by the basest of charges, and hopefully face some sort of prosecution himself. It was a fall of Shakespearean scope - and I couldn't be happier.

Look at the picture above. Even in defeat, Spitzer looks smug. This is the guy who admitted on (I believe the "Daily Show") that he was his little league soccer team's enforcer - I mean who remembers shit like that, AND takes pride in it to the extent that he brings it up in an interview 25 years later? What a putz! If there was ever anyone who deserved this, it was Spitzer, and I couldn't be happier. One last thing before I sign off. Why do these guys who get caught with their hands in the cookie jar (or honey pot in this case), bring their wives to the "I apologize" press conference? And why do the wives continue to "stand by" these assholes? I mean, if my wife found out that I'd blown $4,000 on a night with a hooker you can bet your sweet ass she wouldn't be standing quietly behind me quietly while I apologized to my family, friends, and constituents - unless she was given a device to deliver electric shocks to by genitalia whenever she pressed a button.

I can only assume that couples like this treat the marriage a business arrangement. I believe they were both from wealthy families, and when you don't need money, you keep score by playing politics. Maybe the meteoric rise of Spitzer in Democratic political circles was the only fuel the marriage needed. One wonders how it will stay alive now that Spitzer has been forced to leave the public stage.

clipped from online.wsj.com Spitzer Steps Down, Has No Deal to Avoid Prosecution Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York, but his departure left unanswered whether a man who made his name as one of America's leading crime fighters will himself face prosecution. Mr. Spitzer's decision to step down under pressure, two days after word that he was a customer of a high-priced prostitution ring, could work to his benefit, in that prosecutors may have less interest in aggressively pursuing what may be a relatively weak case against him once he is out of office. Michael Garcia, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, issued a statement saying "there is no agreement between this Office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter." Mr. Spitzer's greatest vulnerability may be to charges of violating federal banking laws, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Personally, I'm afraid of Obama...

clipped from campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com Why I’m Afraid of the Clintons So throughout the Democratic primaries, I’ve been rooting for Barack Obama. The nobler side of me admires him, even across party lines, for the tremendous interest and enthusiasm he has engendered among younger Americans. But the larger, less decent part of me believes that Hillary Clinton would be a more formidable general election opponent for the Republican nominee. She’s certainly on the ropes right now: her campaign has been flailing through the last few rounds of primaries in a way that Clintons are usually able to avoid. But we’ve been losing to Clintons for a long time now: I’d still just as soon avoid her in a general election campaign.

Clipped this from the New York Times campaign trail series of articles. This one was by Dan Schnur. Pretty well-written, and it lacks the usual vitriol you see from Clinton-haters. Note that I'm making a distinction here; Schnur is clearly not a Clinton-hater; it's obvious that he respects Hillary. His argument is quite logical; basically he feels that Hillary Clinton is the stronger Democratic candidate in a general election owing to her ability to govern from the center and the Clinton political machine. He further asserts that once the Republicans start hammering Obama and start yapping about his voting record (most liberal of any senator) during his tenure, that John McCain will steamroll him on the way to the White House.

I see things a bit differently. Now, nobody wants to see the Republicans retain the White House more than I do. If we assume that the Democrats will continue to make gains in the House and Senate, which seems like a safe bet given the current political climate, we're already approaching the 60 votes needed to end debate on any legislation the Democratic leadership wants to move to the floor. The only thing that will stand in the way of crippling legislation and entitlements the likes of which we haven't seen since the New Deal will be a Republican in the White House, and even then we'll be approaching a veto-proof majority in congress.

The only good thing that would come out of a Democratic presidency would be the almost certain end of troops from Iraq, and the reduced spending that will accompany that. And God knows we're gonna need that money cause...

Everything else that's on the table is gonna break the bank, especially the disastrous health-care plans, will saddle us with an entitlement legacy that will be borne on the backs of generations to come. You wanna know the definition of eternity? It's a government entitlement.

Look at Europe. Reformers have been handcuffed there for decades. Just try weaning people from the public teat. In France they riot. We don't even try it here anymore - look what happened to Bush when he suggested private Social Security accounts. The demagoguery of the left was amazing; especially as organizations like the AARP came down against it and started their fear-mongering amongst the senior population. A quick aside - when did old people get to be so dumb? Just curious. Most of these proposals wouldn't impact people who are already over 55 anyway cause it'd be political suicide... But we digress...

This post is about who stacks up better in a general against John McCain. It seems to me that the very points that Schnur makes about Obama are the reasons Republicans should fear him. Here's the thing - by all objective measures, Hillary Clinton is a far better Democratic candidate. I mean, let's take stock quickly of Hillary:

• Want government run healthcare? Check! Mandatory coverage for everyone
• Want the military out of Iraq? Check! Start drawing down troops in the first year
  
• Want to slam the door on free trade? Check! NAFTA is evil; let's revisit it (never mind Bill - it'll be OK)
  
• Want to redistribute income (raise taxes)? Check! Let's roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy
  
• Want experience? Check! Great senatorial career, diligently spent learning the ropes and building coalitions
  
• Want someone strong on foreign affairs? OK - you got me there, but same can be said for Obama

She's been preparing for this her whole life! It's hard to imagine a better qualified candidate. In many ways Obama has very few original thoughts about the issues - from a policy perspective he's a complete naif and remarkably similar to Hillary. And this is what's scary about Obama...

There's really no way he should be winning - but he is. Now a lot of this is about what a horrible campaign Hillary has run. I mean, I watched some of the clips from the Texas debate, and the whole "SNL - see if Barack needs a pillow" thing came across as puerile and just plain mean. She's been almost completely atonal for 6 months now. I think the unforgivable act has been allowing Obama to set the agenda and to allow yourself to get off message. Now, it may be that no matter how good a job Hillary could have done, that Obama truly has captured lightning in a bottle and is destined to win. But I don't believe it; I think that Hillary just let the wheels come off the wagon and never figured out a way to get back on track.

Go read those last two sentences again. That's what's scary about Obama. See, he might actually be destined to win. And, if that's the case, and he can win against someone as well-loved as the wife of one of the Party's true legends - a smart, politically savvy woman with true liberal roots who has paid her dues in the senate, well, then it won't really matter what the Republicans throw at him, cause he can certainly win that contest as well.

Now, you might infer from this little epistle that I really don't like Obama, and you'd be completely wrong. What's seductive about Obama is that even diehard libertarian, fiscal conservatives like myself are quite taken with him. I think he's amazing; a truly likable, visionary, and galvanizing figure. If my supposition is correct, people like Obama only come along once or twice in a lifetime, much like JFK.

And, I'm ashamed to say that, irrationally, I truly dislike Hillary Clinton. Further, there's nothing about her campaign behavior that changes my thinking, which originates deep in my lizard-brain - basically I don't like Hillary the same way I don't like spiders. Paradoxically though, for true moderates, Hillary is quite logically the better candidate. She knows better than to try to do too much too fast. Even she knows that without a radical reconfiguration of congress, she has no hope of enacting any of her grandiose plans once elected. But what she can do is build relationships and advance some truly liberal causes.

Conversely Obama, if elected, will rise to office on the wings of a generational mandate. It's entirely possible that he'll be able to railroad through a truly massive liberal agenda. And this guy is a true zealot - I mean, he's drunk the liberal Kool-aid by the gallon. And yet...

I still like him. And if he can make someone like me feel that way, then you can bet your life that he can beat McCain; it's tough to beat destiny, and that's why I'm more afraid of Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton.