More later today, I hope. Early tomorrow at the latest [I’m preparing a nursery and a few other exciting things - stay tuned].
But b’god, y’all need a new sheet of paper! 88 comments! You’d think some kind of big… ongoing… important… thing was happening.
Fanny Roborat
41 comments
gillian
March 10, 2008 at 3:05 am
1But they all seemed so sincere at the time…
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/03/10/tomo/
becca (and brian)
March 10, 2008 at 5:38 am
2Yeah Gillian, it’s hard to even muster an ironic or sardonic laugh at this point.
On a lighter note, the danger of doing ads economically and purchasing stock photo footage:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/clinton.ad.obama.ap/index.html
(though to her credit she’ll vote for either democratic nominee!)
It's Pat!
March 10, 2008 at 5:45 am
3The cardinals are really starting to sing. It is inconceivable that tulips will pop out of the snow soon (but they do it every year).
So Adam - cotton or paper diapers?
Murray
March 10, 2008 at 10:29 am
4I saw cloth diapers for the first time since my youngest was potty trained 30 years ago, last week. The sound mixer guy used one on his console to keep the rain off it.
siobhan
March 10, 2008 at 11:03 am
5Elliot, what were you thinking??
At least I know with what you were thinking.
It's Pat!
March 10, 2008 at 4:24 pm
6Well Murray, the last time I used them was ~15 years ago on my son. And they work great waxing cars too.
This Spitzer thing is beyond belief. What is it with big shots thinking with their big shots????
Ann
March 10, 2008 at 4:30 pm
7Yes, Becca (and Brian!), NPR reported on that this morning. As if it, y’know, actually meant something!
Now if they’d somehow misquoted the girl or misrepresented her opinions, that would be significant. But fergodsakes, it was stock footage! Ads are full of photos of people who don’t actually endorse those products! Is this a surprise to anyone? Is it newsworthy?
Can we please go back to attacks on HRC’s character, positions, and voting record? Please?
hedera
March 10, 2008 at 4:48 pm
8The Spitzer thing is just sad. In my humble opinion Elliott Spitzer has used his various offices to do genuine good - and he just blew all of it away because he wanted a “boys’ night out.” Or whatever it was he wanted. He has just erased any credibility he had. Euripides would have made a play out of this - actually, maybe he did. No, not Oedipus - the woman wasn’t his mother…
becca (and brian)
March 10, 2008 at 5:45 pm
9Ann-
I totally agree. This isn’t news. It was just stock footage. (But it was ironic)
B
Pope Benny 16
March 10, 2008 at 5:56 pm
10hedera, it’s with absolutely no malice, no glee - none whatsoever - uh-uh, nein frau, nicht mir (oops, I mean - no ma’am, not me), that I most reverently and with the kindest, most heartfelt, benevolent intentions humbly point out to you that Eliot Spitzer is, unfortunately, spelled with but one “l”. May God bless your life and improve your spelling from here on. Amen.
Joseph Ratzinger
Dale
March 10, 2008 at 6:04 pm
11Male libido must be a strange and terrible thing.
hedera
March 10, 2008 at 6:04 pm
12Danke schoen, mein herr. I will note it. Since I don’t vote for him I never bothered to check the spelling.
Back to the subject of Governor Spitzer: we have yet another case here, like the Bill Clinton impeachment, where the entire rest of the world (with the possible exception of Great Britain, with which we share some cultural similarities) is looking at these headlines and saying, “So? What’s the issue?”
just plain Jack
March 10, 2008 at 6:06 pm
13Ann, b&b, I assume you did hear the part of the story where Hillary’s angelic young lady, sleeping safely in bed at 3:00 AM, is now an Obama precinct captain. Of course you did. I guess this may be an example where experience is trumped by bad
judgmentluck.Rudy G.
March 10, 2008 at 6:10 pm
14Yeah, hedera, the Arabs will say “what’s the big deal”, the Jews will say he paid too much.
russell
March 10, 2008 at 6:55 pm
15Um, I keep wondering about John Edwards these days. He could conceivably break the impasse now, or in August, or he could wait and be a factor in November. What’s he up to? Has anybody talked to him?
Ann
March 10, 2008 at 7:10 pm
16I think August J. Pollack sums it up nicely:
http://www.xoverboard.com/index.html
David
March 10, 2008 at 7:46 pm
17Only in a place like America could a wiretap discovery that a governor was a patron of a service that probably dates back before the agricultural revolution bring down someone who was distinguishing himself as a champion of the notion of saving Wall Street from its out-of-control self. We do superficial piety like no one else in the first world. I understand that he cracked down on prostitution as attorney general. If so, he’s dumb on two counts.
He has to resign, of course, and bring this story to an end immediately. But how sad, since I don’t think there is anyone else out there with the knowledge, courage, and skills he brought to tackling Wall Street corruption. It is also worth remembering that he pulled together the rescue of the NY munis. This is a very sad day, and a terrible loss for the commonweal.
Yes, the male drives are all too often a rough sentence in the modern world. What accounted for our male forebears preserving the species in the brutal world of our earlier animal existence doesn’t always agree to stay in its proper place in what we hope is an evolving civilizing of the human experience. But Eliot Spitzer following an adolescent urge is so inconsequential compared to Bush and Cheney launching a criminal assault on Iraq, resulting in likely a million innocent deaths, the squandering of a couple of trillion dollars, the death at this point of over 3,000 American troops (are we approaching 4K yet?), and serious injury to many, many more of the people who chose to wear the uniform of the United States, and those sonofabitches will get to finish out two murderous terms in office.
Merd.
Chris Harlan
March 10, 2008 at 8:44 pm
18Yeah, but four and a half grand for a few hours of whoo–hhaaa!? Oh my.
Chris Harlan
March 10, 2008 at 9:00 pm
19By the way, this thread is quite funny if you just skim it to try and catch up, what with Edwards, Spitzer, diapers, and the Clinton stock photo Obama girl (not to be confused with the actual Obama Girl) all churning into each other, all sorts of images arise.
Ah, Spring.
Chris Harlan
March 10, 2008 at 9:15 pm
20PS Adam–I’m sure you’ve heard this, but truly–”What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and the two follow ups are great, especially “the First Year.” They made me a better father.
David
March 10, 2008 at 9:22 pm
21Chris,
It must be the romper room equivalent of a “power breakfast,” that is esoteric eggs, toast, coffee, hash browns and some little extra specialty for about $50, or whatever the going rate for an egocentric meal of the morning is. I assume the $4.5K was thought to mean his privacy would be secure. Hah! There is no such thing anymore.
SeattleDan
March 10, 2008 at 10:34 pm
22Adam, follow Chris’s advice on books. Very good books, indeed.
All I got for Spitzer, he wasn’t foot tapping, and having a wide stance in the stall. That said, he probably should resign, and think about his future law practice.
Dale’s right about the Male libido. It is scary. I know.
tim
March 11, 2008 at 1:52 am
23A particularly interesting detail is the use of the name “George Fox” as a pseudonym. The real George Fox, a Spitzer friend and donor, got a phone call from the NY Times. I would have loved to wiretap that call. “Huh? So that’s what I get for my donation? Now my name will be broadcast over CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and HGTV for all I know. Thanks, Eliot, buddy. I appreciate that.”
Also, doesn’t the Mayflower Hotel check your driver’s license and credit card on check-in? I travel all the time, and I always have to produce both. Not that I ever contemplated such an assignation, of course.
russell
March 11, 2008 at 3:41 am
24For the literarily-inclined in our midst (you know who you are), this Spitzer drama has an obvious parallel in the previous Democratic administration. Does the perfidy of [yet another powerful] man subplot help Hillary, or hurt her? Do we feel more inclined to make her President out of persistent sympathy, or because of her comparative virtuousness? Or do we wonder once again, why not dump the toad? Or is the toad of some political value? And what about all these damned diapers - surely they figure into it somehow?
dee
March 11, 2008 at 4:26 am
25Let me see if I can tie up all these themes:
David Vitter wore cloth diapers at 3 AM.
Vinnie
March 11, 2008 at 4:27 am
26Yo, Dale. Yo, it’s uh killuh! BTW, you wearin’ dat pretty blue blouse dat I always said made your eyes sparkle? (Ya see w’at I mean?)
Dave von Ebers
March 11, 2008 at 6:51 am
27Dale … what is this “libido” of which you speak? I am not familiar with it …
Seriously, the problem isn’t that he had sex with a woman not his wife; the problem is (unlike Bill Clinton), Spitzer apparently broke the law. An antiquated law, maybe. But soliciting prostitution is a crime just about everywhere outside of Nevada. (Just ask Sean Hannity. He’s a big fan of the Bunny Ranch …)
And for the record, Bill Clinton did not commit perjury. Perjury is where you lie under oath about a matter germane to the case in which you’re giving testimony. Sorry, Mr. Starr, but you never had a case against Big Bill.
Soliciting prostitution, on the other hand … kinda illegal.
Chris Harlan
March 11, 2008 at 7:17 am
28Setting aside the sexual aspect of these events, my problem with Spitzer’s actions are two-fold. 1) This seems to have occurred before, and is possibly even a regular event, so at the going rate, he may be spending up to several Mercedes a year on his hobby–that’s a lot of loose change for a public official to be floating around, and 2) It must have been clear to him that by utilizing such an organization, however cutesy the name, he was leaving himself open to pretty serious blackmail, and, in fact, probably should have expected it. Maybe he’s lucky it was the Feds who got him.
Now, reintroducing the sex aspect: I’ve never really gotten the whole prostitution thing. I’ve always been much happier when my partner is actually interested in me. Not much fun, otherwise. Personally, I’d rather have a fifty dollar breakfast.
Chris Harlan
March 11, 2008 at 7:26 am
29PS Call me illiterate, but I don’t quite get why people think this Spitzer thing has parallels to Bill Clinton, other than they want it too. They seem particularly unrelated other than they have sex involved. Oh, and Democrats. The soliciting thing reminds me more of Larry Craig, but then, he’s across the isle.
Dave von Ebers
March 11, 2008 at 8:17 am
30Chris, you are right about the non-parallel (wait, isn’t that some kinda candy, or something?) between Clinton and Spitzer. The major difference being that Spitzer broke the law.
As did Larry Craig.
But, of course, Larry Craig’s bigger sin, from the Republican point of view, is that he had the bad taste to be gay. Being a cad is all well and good, but a gay cad? Now, that’s just unacceptable.
Chris Harlan
March 11, 2008 at 9:14 am
31My double entendre didn’t quite make it, did it? I’m guessing I should have said, “Oh, and Democrats. The soliciting thing reminds me more of Larry Craig, but then, he plays for the other team.”
There we go.
It's Pat!
March 11, 2008 at 10:26 am
32You need to change cloth diapers more often, but there’s much less rash to worry about. Plus you get to jab at your kid with pins. First time I used cloth diapers I was shaking like a leaf in a tree. After awhile it’s a breeze - flipping the kid around like they were a fish being cleaned.
Dave von Ebers
March 11, 2008 at 10:31 am
33No, Chris, your double entendre worked fine. I’m just a little slow on the uptake today, is all. As George Costanza would say, “It’s not you. It’s me.”
And speaking of Seinfeld, I like the “plays for the other team” reference. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
siobhan
March 11, 2008 at 6:40 pm
34Since I don’t want to mess up a new (serious) thread with lighter news, this is where I’ll mention that Mary Ann was busted for mary jane.
No word on Ginger’s whereabouts.
David
March 11, 2008 at 8:47 pm
35Love that description, It’s Pat!
Boomer
March 12, 2008 at 5:32 am
36siobhan, aren’t these defense lawyers creative? All my brothers had a crush on Mary Ann - Ginger scared them to death!
Dave von Ebers
March 12, 2008 at 10:23 am
37For some reason, I keep humming “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” …
David
March 12, 2008 at 5:14 pm
38Dale,
Have you seen this article regarding Eliot Spitzer’s sexual behavior?
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/16579966.html
Dale
March 12, 2008 at 7:50 pm
39Thanks David. Doesn´t excuse Spitzer, but does suggest rethinking prostitution laws, and/or forcing all public servants to take sex drive inhibitors. (A mandatory testosterone check before each legislative session?)
Please, please, please Barack–keep it missionary and monogamous!
Dave von Ebers
March 13, 2008 at 1:33 pm
40Last night, David Letterman pointed out that Eliot Spitzer was one of Hillary Clinton’s Superdelegates. “Boy,” he said, “she sure can pick ‘em.”
I dunno. I thought it was funny.
David
March 13, 2008 at 10:17 pm
41No connection between Eliot’s serious personal failings and the fact that as the governor of the state she represents in the Senate, who else could he reasonably endorse? The DNC, not the candidates, chooses who will be superdelegates. I tend to react negatively to jokes that are misleading, even if at first blush they are funny. The best political humor clarifies, and this particular quip muddies the picture, so while it’s funny, I expect more from someone like Letterman.
Yeah, Dale, I was thinking in terms of a plausible explanation, remembering that an explanation is not synonymous with an excuse. At this point, I don’t know what the answer is. Remember that separating a male from his testosterone is an unnatural prescription. Best we can do is learn how to make our essential makeup work for us, not against us, in what is supposed to be the forward evolution of civiliztion. A person can hope, no? I, too, hope that Barack is keeping it publicly acceptable. We’ve got an election to win and a presidency to succeed at for the commonweal.