Young Writers Society

As a resident of New York, this is all I've heard about all day.

Federal wiretaps have essentially uncovered New York governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring. He has not admitted to the allegations, but he and his wife appeared very solemnly in front of the press yesterday and he made an apology to his family and to the people of New York. Now the big question is: Should he resign?

I remember people speaking very highly of him when he was elected. Some were even saying he'd be running for president in 2012. Not so much anymore. A lot still say he's a good politician...unfortunately, he made that largely impossible by doing this.

I'm a member of the Teen Council for the local paper, and they asked a bunch of people on their Citizen Impact Team/Teen Council to write about the issue, so I actually had my little blurb about it in the paper today. My stance on it is that he's a dirty hypocrite and we can't trust him. (Though in nicer words.)

Here's just one link to a story on NYTimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/nyregion/11fall.html?scp=16&sq=spitzer&st=nyt

Thoughts?

It's sad, and yes, he's a dirty hypocrite. And of course he's a good politician; he says one thing and does another.

He should definitely resign. He's a criminal and a cheater.

Prokaryote

You know what I find absolutely disgusting about this whole thing is the 'escort' who had Spitzor for a client (actually her name is something like Ashley Dupree or something like that), well she is, to use their phrase, an aspiring singer. She's unsigned but apparently has songs for sale on this website, amystreet.com, and sales of her songs have skyrocketed since this whole scandle. It's rediculous.
By the way, what do you guys think of Patterson? if you know anything about him. I really don't. I just hope it's not out of the frying pan and into the fire (not that I'm not thrilled to be good and rid of Spitzor). I'm a New York state resident too.

Another NY state resident here. I actually have mixed feelings on this. I thinks it's morally wrong to hire a prostitute (especially when you're married!). I never really follow politics much but I noticed that this one ordeal turned majority of his supporters against him. I find that incredibly stupid. If people were actually loyal to Spitzers cause, they wouldn't have turned on him that fast.

As for Spitzer himself, I'm not going to start throwing nasty remarks about him. I don't see why he's getting in so much trouble. A lot of people hire prostitutes to cheat on their spouses and they aren't getting in trouble with the law. I understand that a governor should be the person that represents the state. Technically speaking he sort of is. It's too bad that a NY governor had to stoop so low.

Layleun wrote:As for Spitzer himself, I'm not going to start throwing nasty remarks about him. I don't see why he's getting in so much trouble. A lot of people hire prostitutes to cheat on their spouses and they aren't getting in trouble with the law. I understand that a governor should be the person that represents the state. Technically speaking he sort of is. It's too bad that a NY governor had to stoop so low.

Prostitution is illegal. Elected officials shouldn't be breaking laws.

Prokaryote

The problem actually isn't prostitution, or at least, it's one of the lesser crimes he committed. I agree with Layleun in that on that charge alone, he doesn't need to resign, although he probably should. In other words, on that charge alone, impeachment proceedings wouldn't be prudent.

However, soliciting a prostitute is his lowest charge. The crime Spitzer will most likely be indicted under is a Federal law known as structuring. Structuring is much the same as money laundering in that you are hiding the source of the money, in this case by shifting it around. It's a law designed to catch drug dealers and terrorists, and Spitzer himself used it to catch a lot of illegal financial activity on Wall Street.

His other, potentially even bigger, problem is that the money he used to solicit a prostitute may have come from his own campaign.

He's likely to be indicted soon, and if that does happen, he's going to be serving jail time. What's ironic is he will be indicted under the very same charges & crimes that he once served against some people on Wall Street.

Yep.

He has resigned now, and lieutenant governor David Paterson will take office on Monday. A lot of people are now criticizing Paterson because he is 'too liberal' and will thus ignore the problems of upstate.