I never imagined I’d comment on this...but the latest wrinkle in the story has gotten under my skin.
For the last few days the Eliott Spitzer hooker scandal has been juicy and distracting in a schadenfreude kinda way. We felt bad—and angry—for Spitzer’s wife, Silda, an attorney who gave up her career when her husband ran for office and had to stand beside the weasel Eliot twice as he did his mea culpas. But, had it not been for the fact that Spitzer fashioned his career based on a holier-than-thou, corruption-busting tough guy image, it was hard to get too upset about the fact that the governor went to a high priced call girl.
I mean really. Prostitution, at least at the call girl level, is a victimless crime. (Young immigrant women in the back rooms of massage parlors who are little better than indentured sexual servants are something else again.)
Other than the fact that it’s, well, illegal, the hooker thing seemed morally preferable to say…..carrying on with a young intern.
Then yesterday, we learned a little about Spitzer’s pricey paramour, courtesy of the New York Times.
It turns out that “Kristin,” the fabulous. thousand-dollar an hour call girl that cost Eliot Spitzer his job as governor, is in reality 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupré (born Ashley Youmans).
A pretty girl with a poignant and hopeful MySpace page, Ashley says she left home at age 17 , and that there was abuse. After bouncing around, being “broke and homeless” she eventually headed to New York in the hope of finding a career in music. After a bad boyfriend ran out on her, she was looking for a way to survive financially and evidently somebody mentioned the escort option.
So the fabulous $1000-an-hour “Kristen,” while a pretty and rather winning-looking young woman, was not some drop dead gorgeous, exotic sex goddess, but an emotionally banged-up New Jersey girl young enough to be Spitzer’s daughter. Literally.
Spitzer has three daughters ages 13, 15, 17.
Bottom line: Spitzer has, over the years, spent possibly $80 to screw young women just a few years older than his eldest kid. (And exactly the age of my kid, and my kid’s friends.)
What a CREEP! What a lousy, selfish, narcissistic jackass! Aaaarrrggggh!
A pox on you, Eliot Spitzer.
(Okay. Next post will be about gangs and other pithy issues. But I just couldn’t let this pass without saying something.)
Who does Kristin think she is charging $1,000 an hour–a lawyer? Well, both will screw you.
She doesn’t do it for me.
Why is it obligatory for women to stand by their husbands in these press conferences about their misdeeds? I felt sorry for her, but I don’t know if she’s just another Hillary Clinton type who cares more about power. I heard that she was telling her husband to fight to stay in office.
Spitzer has ruined lives of people who did less than him. Now, let’s see if he gets treated as he treated others.
P.S. I think that the creep spent $80 in the first minute with the slut. I guess you mean $80,000.
I won’t parse what’s most problematic or bizarre or would be “morally preferable” as regards the Spitzer thing – although his wife standing at his side had a creepiness factor it would be hard to top. And, of course, George W. Bush has broken more serious laws and remains in office – but getting exercised over that doesn’t have much to do with the Governor’s self-immolation. Spitzer’s shamelessness – and the reason he should have resigned last week – is summed up in this morning’s Kristof column in the Times. It would be hard to even parody this stuff:
“The last time I saw Eliot Spitzer, he encouraged me to write about his work involving prostitution. So here goes.
“The governor buttonholed me because he wanted credit for passage of a tough state law against sex trafficking. Frankly, he deserves credit, for the law took the innovative step of cracking down on johns by increasing penalties.”
Wow. Not only was a guy who as attorney general in particular and also as governor mandated with enforcement of the laws on the books, he actually urged a reporter to publicize an effort to increase penalties for a violation that he himself was flagrantly committing. As often with the sex scandals of politicians and other public figures, I’m more likely to be put off by their hypocrisy than their legal infractions – Spitzer has upped the ante to a staggering level. At least for a heterosexual Democrat.
What Reg said with regard to the prostitution hypocrisy. What a scumbag hypocrite.
When Spitzer was NYSAG, I liked him, but shortly after he became governor the bloom came off the rose. His approach to the role of governor unfortunately came closer to resembling the AG role and he apparently wasn’t skilled enough to make the transition. Indeed, his style came closer to resembling Rudy Giuliani’s than anyone else’s and for the same reason that I don’t think Giuliani should be in politics, I don’t think Spitzer should be either – even if the whole prostitution angle didn’t exist.
David Patterson will be a much better governor. He’s 100% classy and will be remembered long after Spitzer is forgotten.
Spitzer getting caught by his own law is like President Clinton getting caught by Paula Jones using a law that Clinton signed.
Spitzer needs to go to Zales and buy his wife “The Kobe.”
We’re sure that “Kristen” is telling the truth. Like that “Memoir” on gang life from the girl from Marlborough. No, I’ll save my revulsion for the one and only “Dr. Laura” who told a TV audience (on FOX, I believe) that if Soldi hnad been a better layEliot wouldn’t have snuck around!
Arrgh!
A little opinion piece from WBC’s favorite Los Angeles times Reporter. Why is Silda so weak/stupid, why is Spitzer’s wife allowing herself to be part of the humiliation press conference? The “War on Prostitution” was lost thousands of years ago, only a fool would keep battling an undefeatable enemy.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks13mar13,0,5062755.column
Where’s your outrage, Hillary?
As first lady, Clinton condemned prostitution. So why did she send Eliot Spitzer and his family her ‘best wishes’?
March 13, 2008
Deja vu?
If Spitzergate is creeping you out, think how Hillary Clinton must feel. Just when she was supposedly “hitting her stride,” along comes a world-class sex scandal that reminds us of the darkest days of her husband’s administration.
Just a few days ago, Brooks had one of her snarky-harpy pieces urging Hillary to resign, just as the lady I quoted was saying “Why Should She,” urging Hillary and her “Hillarista” army of refusing-to-be-invisible “hags” to have the guts to stay the course. If ever there were an opinion writer more predictably annoying and obnoxious in tone and “logic,” mired in that notoriously one-note boomer self-righteous liberalism, writing for a major paper, I can’t think of her. You found her. (Seeing Brooks’ smug face preening by her byline, which matches her tone, makes me want to wring that neck so she’ll shut up.)
As for Hillary sending “best wishes,” it just might have to do with the fact that she knew the family and how this was affecting all of them, including the wife and teen kids, from first-hand experience. And both scandals were with very young women not their social equals, just weakness of the flesh. Maybe she’s thinking they can work past it, too? Hillary was seen as weak, too, and now she’s running for President. One difference: Bill did a huge mea culpa and fakes sincerity, and they never looked as dejected as the Spitzers: That’s Hilda’s mistake, to show up with that face which says victim.
True, it doesn’t help Hillary to put this analogy in voters’ minds.
Without addressing the compulsive hate, I feel compelled to point out that Rosa Brooks is hardly a “boomer” (which would make her slated for euthanasia, of course.) She’s in her late ’30s. (And no I don’t care to listen to an explanation as to why this was still an insightful commentary on Brooks’ columnar crimes against humanity. Just STFU.)
Ah, there he is, on cue. I don’t need your permission to have an opinion on why her notoriously self-righteous one-note, snarky, devoid of logic/ totally motivated by political bias, stupid ramblings make me barf.
Clearly, you identify with her and justly so. If she isn’t quite a boomer, she looks like one, sounds like one, may as well be one — her non-stop vitriol about Hillary, the smug haranguing, and brainlessly accepting Obama’s self-depiction of himself as the successor of JFK, MLK, abolitionists, and those who fought fascism, may as well come from Marc Cooper and all the other clones.
Her attempt to “logically” justify why Iran isn’t really a threat cuz gee, their GNP is just that of Finland and they’ve never overtly invaded a country yet either, bla-bla: underscores that she’s as naive and stupid as opinionated. Her regurgitating the knee-jerk rhetoric of the boomers teaching at our top universities and elsewhere, during the Vietnam/Black Panther era and beyond, enlightening students that everything our government did was for greedy hegemony and blood for oil, views more thoughtful and intelligent people have gotten past, is what makes her “stuck on stupid.” This is what’s wrong with the leftie boomers, not their age per se — after all, Hillary is one, and just not radical enough to suit them. She’s had the ability and mental agility to evolve.
Of course, Brooks’ is exactly the kind of laughable “logic” it takes to persuade you, her valiant defender and soulmate. So “just STFU” yourself, or rant in the wind.
WBC here’s a hint. Dont read this Brooks character – I’ve never heard of her. Course maybe you need a jump start in the morning from “Lefty Boomers” to get going.
Sorry I have to go now – time for my “Day of Rage” with other old Weather pensioners!
Fuck you…you’re the one ranting here. And, trust me, nobody here gives a shit about your whining, preening and unhinged ad hominem. So yes, STFU.
Shorter WBC – “I’m right even when I’m wrong.”
ric, I do scroll past her smug head and desperate attempts to get attn with some raving headline, but if there’s any justice in the world, the next round of layoffs will have her at the top of the list. Her snide, snarky holier-than- thou attack on Silda is just low. No wonder L A has such a low national rep — she raises blood pressure and lowers IQ with every rant. Maybe she can go to Oakland or Berkeley, where like minds still reign, and join her chief fan reg.
Marc at least is toned down and readable when in HuffPost and besides, if we didn’t have him around, we’d forget just how obsessively vindictive the left can be about Hillary, too. It’s definitely a bipartisan sport.
Her regurgitating the knee-jerk rhetoric of the boomers teaching at our top universities and elsewhere, during the Vietnam/Black Panther era and beyond, enlightening students that everything our government did was for greedy hegemony and blood for oil, views more thoughtful and intelligent people have gotten past, is what makes her “stuck on stupid.†This is what’s wrong with the leftie boomers, not their age per se  after all, Hillary is one, and just not radical enough to suit them.
Let’s not forget the threat of world dominance by Hugo Chavez, and WTF, no mention of Che Guevara tee-shirts? Ok my brothers of the 60’s it’s now time to put on your Angela Davis or Huey P. Newton tee-shirts and march lock-step to this James Brown classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXWA6ELe3bk
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Maybe you could sell off some of that old stash of t-shirt to help out our city in this economic crisis. After all, if anything Mao — pins, stickers, stamps — can be hot sellers in China, among those with short institutional memories… And don’t forget Castro. Maybe turn them all into one of those stacking dolls they had for Russian dictators from Lenin and Stalin to Gorbachev…
Rosa Brooks’ face and pompous rants are the best argument in favor of legalized prostitution. Who could take that woman.
At the risk of actually venturing into the murk of her logic, why is she adament that paying a call girl (who got $4000 for two hours with Spitzer, apparently, probably split with her madam) is “a lot worse” than sex with an intern, because hooking is based on inequality, financial need, exploitation of woman, bla-bla. The same can be said of most lowly subordinates like interns, who often oblige for the same reasons, whereas hookers choose to take the risks for fast money. (Although Monica seemed to bask in the notorious attention.)
Brooks does inform us that Spitzer had kinky tastes which made some girls queasy and were probably beyond the scope of most interns and office workers. Yuk.
“Rosa Brooks’ face and pompous rants are the best argument in favor of legalized prostitution. Who could take that woman.”
Classy…
At the risk of actually venturing into the murk of her logic, why is she adament that paying a call girl (who got $4000 for two hours with Spitzer, apparently, probably split with her madam) is “a lot worse†than sex with an intern, because hooking is based on inequality, financial need, exploitation of woman, bla-bla.
Not that I defend Bill, but there’s no human trafficking, no money laundering with Monica.
reg: And, of course, George W. Bush has broken more serious laws and remains in office – but getting exercised over that doesn’t have much to do with the Governor’s self-immolation.
That’s like Hillary bringing up Obama’s blackness, over and over, by saying that it doesn’t have a place in the campaign.
WBC, some shrinks on the news said that Spitzer’s scandal goes far beyond the “weakness of the flesh.”
Randy, Clinton didn’t money launder with prostitutes because the Chinese had more cash.
I had a lot of sympathy for Spitzer’s wife standing there by him looking pathetic–until I heard that she was telling him in private to fight to stay in office. It reminded me of another marriage for convenience.
“Kristen” is quoted in her MySpace page, saying that she loves her life now that she’s living high in Manhattan. Her friend and fellow escort, Natalie McClellan, describes her as being very apparently happy with her choice — something they both did to get financially set. It was a choice, something they obviously preferred to slinging burgers, and it wasn’t standing on the corner putting your life at risk for a hundred bucks. I’m not saying it’s a choice I’d advocate, but it certainly wasn’t “human trafficking.” As a wife, in some ways it would be easier to handle than where there’s emotion involved, or office gossip going on behind your back about you… Unless of course it becomes a national scandal. The revelations the guy was kinky is even more humiliating.
Natalie and Kristen/Ashley’s madam both tell Larry King that this should guarantee her otherwise-dormant recording career so is she a victim then? Any more than Paris releasing a sex video of herself to further her career? With apparent support from her parents, who in a way have always sold her? They both use their bodies to get something they want.
Dr. Drew weighed in that it could even be a “Pretty Woman” story where Spitzer fell for her, and she might have been using him, what if he was being blackmailed by someone who knew about this… THAT’s what should concern the public, that anything like this can lead to blackmail and possible manipulation of an elected official. So that’s worse than an affair for taxpayers — but not cuz the hooker’s the victim here.
Monica, meanwhile, had a brief moment in Hollywood but was recently caught on candid video obese and forgotten.
Randy, Clinton didn’t money launder with prostitutes because the Chinese had more cash.
Once again, you miss the point.
WBC – thanks for your kind words.
Hookers For Jesus
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Nice tee-shirt…