Spitzer is Gone

New York Gov. Spitzer to announce his resignation at 11:30 a.m., source tells CNN.

Thanks for letting everyone down. Take some time to make amends to your lovely wife and those three daughters of yours.

And, do me a favor--get the hell out of my Democratic Party.

The DOW surges in the wake of Spitzer's Fall

Not surprising:

(AP) Wall Street looked to extend its gains Wednesday as investors overseas applauded the move by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to pump more liquidity into distressed financial markets.

The tone in markets around the world was clearly improved after investors sent stocks sharply higher on Tuesday, including a 416-point surge in the Dow Jones industrials, their biggest one-day point gain since 2002. Most Asian and European markets rose more than 1.5 percent on Wednesday.

The Fed said it plans to lend Treasurys in exchange for mortgage-backed securities and other battered debt that all but collapsed in the subprime mortgage crisis. Global financial institutions have written down almost $200 billion due to the credit crisis, and big U.S. investment banks next week are expected to report more losses when they issue first-quarter results.

But, Wall Street's big gains might be short lived given the market's volatility in the past few weeks. And rattled investors might use recent gains to sell and take profits.

We could use a little good economic news. But I suspect this surge has more to do with the fact that Elliot Spitzer isn't going to be around much longer, and Wall Street is celebrating his demise. Getting rid of Spitzer means less intrusion into the inner dealings of the big firms that have been taking a beating lately and less scrutiny from Albany. More than that, it's symbolic to have the guy who went after Dick Grasso go down in flames.

It's pretty clear from what I've seen that Spitzer did this to himself, crazy theories and conspiracy models notwithstanding. The culprit appears to be a single wire transfer of money that he tried to break up into smaller pieces, and the bank contacted the Feds, as required by law.

It's all over but the shouting

Spitzer is all but gone. ABC is reporting that he is in "transition talks" and had planned to announce his resignation last night at 7:00, then abruptly changed his plans on the advice of his attorneys.

"It is inevitable; it is just a question of when," said one cabinet-level New York state official.

The Lieutenant Governor, David Patterson, and his chief of staff reportedly spent all morning sequestered with his chief of staff, reviewing organization charts and deciding what members of Spitzer's staff might be retained in the Patterson administration once Spitzer officially tenders his resignation.

Fine. He's gone. And good riddance. Stupid fucker.

But just once in my life, I want to see a wronged wife get properly pissed and make a god-damned scene. I want to see one of these randy jackasses forced to stand in front of a gaggle of reporters with a cut above a black eye, a broken, bleeding nose and more than a couple of gaps where teeth used to be. And I want that bastard to stand there alone. I want to see the wife on the other side of a split screen, holding her own damned press conference, pointing to his clothing on the street and his Harman Kardon in the driveway in pieces, because she has run over it a few times. I want to see one of these wives hold up a copy of the divorce papers and restraining order that were filed less than an hour before. I want to see the furniture from his den and all of his memorabilia reduced to ashes and smoldering on the lawn.

In short - I want to see one of those women react the way I would.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

I want to see Dr. Laura parading around in her lingerie, keeping her OWN man happy:

[h/t to Think Progress]

Dr. Laura blames Spitzer’s wife for scandal.Today, right-wing radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger appeared on NBC’s Today Show in a segment called “Why do men cheat?” Schlessinger argued that Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) cheated because his wife failed “make him feel like a man”:

When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings — sexually, personally — to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success, to make him feel like her hero, he’s very susceptible to the charm of some other woman. […]

The cheating was his decision to repair what’s damaged and to feed himself where he’s starving. But yes, I hold women accountable for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need.

He was "starving" for over-priced bareback action with twentysomething skank?

Hell YES Spitzer Should Resign

From the Federal Affadavit:

According to the affidavit, Kristen called Lewis about 9:32 p.m. Wednesday, February 13, and told her she was in Client 9's room -- number 871 -- at the Washington hotel.

Four minutes later, Client 9 was in the hotel, Lewis told Kristen in another call.

No more calls were logged until 12:02 a.m. Thursday -- Valentine's Day -- nearly 2½ hours later. At that time, Kristen told Lewis Client 9 had left and she had collected $4,300.

Lewis told the prostitute she'd been told that Client 9 "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think are safe -- you know -- I mean that ... very basic things," the affidavit says.

Kristen told Lewis, "I have a way of dealing with that. ... I'd be like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"

"I don't think he's difficult," Kristen is quoted as saying. "I mean it's just kind of like ... whatever ... I'm here for a purpose. I know what my purpose is. I am not a ... moron, you know what I mean."

Spitzer, who has not been charged, went before reporters Monday to confess to an undisclosed personal indiscretion, saying he had acted "in a way that violates my obligations to my family, that violates my or any sense of right and wrong."

Forget the titillating aspect of the NY Governor Elliot Spitzer case--he should resign immediately because, as Governor of the State of New York, he is given access to Classified material through the Department of Homeland Security. I mean, it's pretty obvious--he's into what a call girl would consider a "deviant" type of sexual practice. And if what you're doing with a woman paid to have sex with men is considered "dangerous," you have issues that go well beyond anything we have to consider as far as politics are concerned.

I mean, whoa. Get some help, Governor. And get your ass out of office now.

Regrettably, I am not an expert on High End Prostitution Rings. In only the satirical sense do I wish I was, but some things in life are just not meant to be. So I can't really speak to the idea of paying $4,300 just to roll in the hay with someone who is not Mrs. Pale Rider. But if you're the Governor of New York--and you have access to classified material AND you can pretty much direct the full Executive power of a major state against anyone you want--that is, shut down businesses, investigate people and call for people to be indicted--you probably shouldn't be using the services of a call girl ring AND you damned sure better not be crossing state lines to do so.

I know there's a Libertarian aspect here--fine, I'm not going to debate that. But when you start talking about the kind of money involved in one of these rings, I'll bet you dollars to donuts there's organized crime that's involved as well.

A sad day to be a Democrat, but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn into a shithead about it. Thanks for your service Governor Spitzer, but you're done. Now, can we get some better Democrats please? Thanks.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

One of my long-time friends on the blog front, shortstop, explains what "do you want the sex" really means.

That's what "very basic things" and her telling him "You want the sex...? [No glove, no love]" means.

Boy, am I red-faced. Thanks, shortstop! I'll just go back to GAO reports and impolite commentary.