10 years ago today - Governor Eliot Spitzer was first exposed as Client 9
He resigned two days later.
“He always acted so squeaky clean and would get really upset if you said anything even slightly off-color,” said David Paterson, the former lieutenant governor who would take over Spitzer’s position when he resigned. “When people act like that you know there’s something wrong. But no one, no one expected this.”
As attorney general and governor, he was an avid crusader against prostitution, placing him in the same category of hypocrite as those anti-gay crusaders who get caught getting it on in the men's restroom.
Over two years he paid some $80,000 for the services of pros. (Maybe more, but that much was traceable.) He paid $4,300 plus travel expenses for one rendezvous with Ashley Dupre. To his credit, he did not spend any public funds. It all came out of his pocket.
There were those who considered him to be cut of presidential timber. Here's a guy with 1590 on the SAT who got his law degree from Harvard, where he became editor of the law review. He was obviously very smart, but apparently he wasn't smart enough to realize that his face was well known, and that one of the hookers would eventually recognize him, expose him, or possibly blackmail him.
What a schmuck.
SIDEBAR: Presidential "timber" or "timbre"? There seems to be no clear answer. I'm going with "timber" because that expression appears in print earlier. A point not covered at the linked site: based on the OED, I'm guessing that the ultimate origin of this expression is Francis Bacon's Essays: "Such disposicions are ‥ the fittest tymber to make great Pollitiques of." In that case, he clearly means "wood," not "tone." He goes on in the next sentence to point out that different woods are used to build houses as opposed to ships, just as different personalities are required for leaders and humanitarians. (So, he's basically defining "leadership timber.")
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