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March 12, 2008
Eliot Spitzer — Frankenstein Monster of the MSM
As it comes to light that crusading moonbat Eliot Spitzer has been blowing $thousands in cathouses for years, journalists are scratching their hollow skulls and wondering how such a public figure could think he would get away with it. As Kimberley Strassel observes, they'll find an answer in the mirror:
[F]rom the start, the press corps acted as an adjunct of Spitzer power, rather than a skeptic of it. […] Time magazine bestowed upon Mr. Spitzer the title "Crusader of the Year," and likened him to Moses. Fortune dubbed him the "Enforcer." A fawning article in the Atlantic Monthly in 2004 explained he was "a rock star," and "the Democratic Party's future." In an uncritical 2006 biography, then Washington Post reporter Brooke Masters compared the attorney general to no less than Teddy Roosevelt.
This is because Spitzer played to journalists' jejune leftist ideology, posing as the "moral avenger" taking on the "Wall Street titan."
He knew what sort of storyline they'd be sympathetic to, and spun it.
Spitzer "played the media like a Stradivarius," catering to moonbat prejudices, rewarding toadies with valuable information, and slamming the door on anyone with the integrity to criticize him. The press helped him bully and smear his opponents, and buried anything that might embarrass him. Without this cooperation, he might not have been such a thug:
The Spitzer method was to target public companies and officials, leak allegations and out-of-context emails to a compliant press, watch the stock price fall, threaten a corporate indictment (a death sentence), and then move in for a quick settlement kill. There was rarely a trial, fair or unfair, involved.
On the substance, his court record speaks for itself. Most of Mr. Spitzer's high-profile charges have gone up in smoke. A New York state judge threw out his case against tax firm H&R Block. He lost his prosecution against Bank of America broker Ted Sihpol (whom Mr. Spitzer threatened to arrest in front of his child and pregnant wife). Mr. Spitzer was stopped by a federal judge from prying confidential information out of mortgage companies. Another New York judge blocked the heart of his suit against [former New York Stock Exchange chief Dick] Grasso. [Former American International Group CEO Maurice "Hank"] Greenberg continues to fight his civil charges. The press was foursquare behind Mr. Spitzer in all these cases, and in a better world they'd share some of his humiliation.
Spitzer thought he could get away with anything because he had the press on his side. Combined with great power this produced arrogance that attained sociopathic levels.
I wonder if there's anyone else in a position to assume great power, who has learned to count on fawning subservience from the mainstream press?
On a tip from Varla.
Posted by Van Helsing at March 12, 2008 8:31 AM
Comments
Spitzer was a slimebag politically and personally. No wonder he rose to the top of the Democrat party. The Democrats have it easy, their voters expect their candidates to be sleazy and corrupt. Ted Kennedy, Gerry Studds, William Jefferson, Alcee Hastings, Mel Reynolds, all were as bad or worse than Spitzer, but enjoyed long and honored careers anyway. Hell, Detroit's Hip-Hop Mayor apparently hit the trifecta: hiring a stripper, having her capped, and getting the police to cover it up. Watch out, Ted Kennedy!
Republicans, on the other hand, have much less tolerance, which is why Mark Foley is out of work and Larry Craig soon will be.
In other political news, Dr. Death runs for congress. Imagine a congress where all the fringe loons actually got elected ... Dr. Death, Cindy She-hag, Dennis Kucinich... oh, wait, he's really in.
Posted by: V the K at March 12, 2008 8:53 AM
And on the lighter side of this issue......
Moonbat comedians eat their own........
JAY LENO: New York Governor Eliot Spitzer admitted publicly he was
involved in a prostitution ring, which means Hillary Clinton is now only
the second angriest wife in the state of New York.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Right about now, Spitzer is huddling with his advisers
to develop a drinking problem. That's what he's going to do.
JON STEWART: He was caught on a wiretap. The kind most likely authorized
by the law and order governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer. Oops.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Did you happen to see the press conference? Very
dramatic. Eliot Spitzer was there. He had yellow crime scene tape draped
around his pants. It was crazy.
CONAN O'BRIEN: I violated my obligations to my family, and I violated my
sense of right and wrong. That was a quote, yes. Spitzer also admitted
violating someone named Amber.
Posted by: Oiao at March 12, 2008 10:16 AM
Actually the NY Post has been breathing down his neck ever since they seen him get 'bowled over' by Silver and Sheldon.
Then they really laid it on when he hired the thugs to stalk the other loon.
Same crap every year. One mintue Bloomberg they love, the next they despise. But I must say they did point out Spitzer was skating on thin ice quite often, but like Kennedy and Clinton, who's gonna bust them? They have to screw themselves
Posted by: wiz at March 12, 2008 10:20 AM
this is a great and a sad day for ny.
spitzer was aiming to be the worst governor in NY state history, but now were stuck with a LT governor whom is just as questionable.
just a note, Spiter's different family members hold different offices all over long island, nassau and suffolk counties , and they turned it into a moonbat hell
Posted by: furballz at March 12, 2008 10:21 AM
More on the Mayor of Deeetroit: "Maybe I whacked a stripper, but people have been calling me a n-----!". Which is, of course, a kerbillion times worse.
Posted by: V the K at March 12, 2008 11:32 AM
Obambi would make Spitzer look like a choirboy.
Posted by: steven at March 12, 2008 11:39 AM
Reads like Spitzer is cut from the same cloth as Mike Nifong. I wonder if they went to the same school of crooks... er... law.
Posted by: Jimbo at March 12, 2008 12:30 PM
Spitzer is an ass - OK, not funny because it is true.
The Joke is - Who's laughing all the way to fame and the bank? The whore who serviced Spitzer.
Woman at the Center of Governor’s Downfall --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/nyregion/12cnd-kristen.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Posted by: Oiao at March 12, 2008 4:07 PM
Oiao, did you recieve a big jolt of electricity when you hit the post button after putting a link to the New Yawk Times zero in the comment section??? Just curious. LOL!!!
There's three words for Spitzer... hipocrite, Loooser, and Stoopid!!!!!
Posted by: HoosierArmyMom at March 12, 2008 7:13 PM
