Other Crap

"Eliot Spitzer was not my only governor" - says Annie the top hooker

"Though Annie's former boss, ex-madam Kristin Davis, corroborates that Gov. X was a client, his spokesman flatly denies that the married politician has ever hired hookers."

That denial is weaseling, as usual. Gov. X can technically say he didn't pay, since a third party took care of the bills.

There can only be eight possibilities based on the "hard clues" in the article: (1) it is a male; (2) he was a governor in 2006; (3) he is currently a governor; (4) he has a prominent wife (I based that on whether the wife had her own Wikipedia page.)

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California
   
2. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota
   
3. Bill Richardson of New Mexico
   
4. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania
   
5. Mark Sanford of South Carolina
   
6. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee
   
7. Tim Kaine of Virginia
   
8. Joe Manchin of Wyoming
   

Then we come to the soft clues:

I eliminated Sanford, because if this story involved him it would not be a shocking scandal at all.

I eliminated Bredesen and Manchin, neither of whom can reasonably be called one of America's most prominent governors, which is how Governor X is described. The other five passed this test. Schwartzenegger and Richardson are obviously prominent. Pawlenty and Rendell have both been chairmen of the National Governor's Association. Kaine is chairman of the DNC.

I eliminated Richardson because his wife Barbara is not really very prominent, despite her Wikipedia page.

And then there were the final four. The article seems to suggest that the New York hooker was booked for an out-of-state gig and drove there in a car belonging to "Michael," stopping for dinner before sex. That means that Ed Rendell moves to the first seed, and the betting favorite, given that it is not easy to drive from NYC to Virginia, Minnesota, or California for dinner. (Although the article does not say that the client was governor of the state where the date occurred.) Rendell's wife is a prominent federal judge, and that has nothing to do with being his wife or first lady, so there is no question that she is prominent "in her own right."

Arnold moves to the bottom seed of the final four. Maria is certainly prominent in her own right, and Arnold is known to be horny, but he's unlikely to be the guy described here. He's arguably the most famous man in the world, so famous that it's difficult for him to sneak around as casually as described in the article, and it's not likely that the hooker would be unaware of his marriage, as she says she was. (Although it is possible. We can't assume that the hooker is another Jon Stewart when it comes to current events.)

I guess Pawlenty would get the second seed, because his wife can reasonably be described as "quite prominent in her own right," while Kaine's wife ... not so much. She is both the wife of one Virginia governor and the daughter of another, but her highest career position was as a family court judge in Richmond, and I don't know if that would really make her "quite prominent in her own right."