Spitzer Wiretap Documents to Be UnsealedA judge has ordered prosecutors to release sealed documents about wiretaps in the Eliot Spitzer scandal to the New York ‘Times.’
Eliot Spitzer Has Learned Some LessonsEliot Spitzer’s Washington ‘Post’ opinion essay about the economy is a thinly veiled advice column to dudes cheating on their wives with hookers.
Eliot Spitzer Pimps His New Vulture FundOn his 49th birthday, we get reports that Spitzer’s legal future looks grim, but his financial plan is a good one! Oh, yeah, and he doesn’t think the whole hooker thing was that big of a deal.
Eliot Spitzer: Disgraced Governor, Chronic ExpectoratorThe rapidly deteriorating economy, the five-year anniversary of Iraq, and new governor David Paterson’s seemingly limitless libido all may have distracted you from what’s going on with our fallen former governor. But news is still dribbling out about the Spitzer affair, and perhaps more importantly, so are sexy pictures of hookers!
The Spitzer Cycle Continues, With Or Without You Okay, just because you’re not as titillated by Eliot Spitzer’s trampage as you were last week, you still want to know what’s going on, right? Like, where the H is Kristen right now? Is Eliot Spitzer still chasing tail? And what’s going on with Silda? Is she recovering with her mom in a condo in Florida right now with a glass of iced Chardonnay and a Danielle Steele novel? Here’s what you may have missed over the weekend while you were too busy wandering around the East Village with green beads around your neck looking for a bar whose name began with a “Mc.”
• Federal investigators are looking into payment records to a Spitzer consultant named Kristian Stiles, who used to put a lot of travel, lodging, and entertainment expenses for the governor onto her own credit card and ask for reimbursement later. [NYT]
• The Times took this opportunity to chat with three high-end prostitutes about their jobs, and they wrote a story that included this gem: “Undoubtedly, their willingness to speak publicly came with unusually upbeat perspectives on prostitution, which for many women is devastatingly exploitative.” As they say, no one beats a happy hooker. [NYT]
in other news
Thank You, McGreevey Family, for Putting This Whole Spitzer Mess Into PerspectiveAt first we were grateful for the Eliot Spitzer prostitute scandal — it provided a much-needed beak from the endless horror that has been the Democratic-primary campaign. But now, less than a week after it broke, we’re suffering from Spitzer fatigue. Isn’t there anything else tawdry and embarrassing to talk about? We’ve sort of burnt out all of our nerve endings regarding Spitzer. It’s like Britney Spears — we’re all out of sorry. Lo and behold, yesterday we learned that there is something more tawdry and embarrassing than a married governor using hookers: a married governor having threesomes with his wife and male limo driver. Combined with the added bonus that the wife, despite having seen him frolicking in bed with another man, says she is shocked to learn that he’s gay. (Lady, regardless of whether there was another penis in the room, straight men do not “frolic,” mmkay?) And thus, Jim McGreevey, Dina Matos McGreevey, and hunky driver Teddy Pedersen have relieved us from our Spitzer doldrums.
white men with money
Spitzer–Mortgage Industry ConnectionAmid all the vengeful glee on Wall Street, the Ashleymania, and the coverage that has accompanied Spitzer’s fall, one aspect of the story has been underexplored, according to journalist Greg Palast: Could the Lonesome Gov’s fall have had something to do with the Fed’s $200 billion bailout of the subprime-mortgage industry, which Spitzer conspicuously opposed and which coincidentally occurred on the same day as his resignation? It was a federal investigation which uncovered Spitzer, Palast points out, and his outing could be seen as unusual.
Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, paid Washington DC prostitutes to put him in diapers (ewww!), yet the Senator was not exposed by the US prosecutors busting the pimp-ring that pampered him. Naming and shaming and ruining Spitzer — rarely done in these cases — was made at the ‘discretion’ of Bush’s Justice Department.
Palast, a cult hero in underground journalism circles (he’s the winner of six “Project Censored” awards), doesn’t really unload any evidence as much as speculate at sinister motives, but it’s interesting, and better than watching Ashley’s maddeningly chaste dance moves on some scrub’s cell-phone camera. —Josh Ozersky
Eliot’s Mess [Greg Palast]
Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime [WP]
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Sirius Creates Media Circus in Microcosm With Client 9 RadioCan you not get enough of the Spitzer sex scandal? Is the minutiae of the governor’s trysts with hookers that has subsumed pretty much every media outlet for the entire week still somehow not enough? Do you feel that there are some important people, such as deposed publisher Judith Reagan, Wikepedia dumpee Rachel Marsden, and Dennis Hof, owner of Nevada’s Moonlight Bunny Ranch, whose full opinions have not been given their due? Then, friends, we hope you subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio, which has just announced the creation of Client 9 Radio, a station fully devoted to news and opinion about Eliot Spitzer sex scandal. In addition to the aforementioned pundits, Client 9, which will air tonight and be hosted by Court TV’s Vinnie Politan, will also air the opinions of esteemed figures like John McCain, Alan Dershowitz, and “private eye Vito Colucci.” But most important, they will provide a forum for you, the listener, to join “this national conversation.” So go forth, citizen gossips! Let no crevice go unexplored.
in other news
Day Four of Eliot Spitzer WhoreGate: Where’s ‘Kristen’?Okay, so we’ve known the identity of the hooker who hung Eliot Spitzer for nearly two days now, and in that time we’ve heard from her sketchy friends, her family, and a dude who claims to have been her pimp but probably really wasn’t. But where’s Ashley Dupré, a.k.a. Kristen, herself? As AM New York brilliantly points out, “for a call girl, Ashley Dupré sure has proven hard to get ahold of.” The press is camped outside of her tony Chelsea building, but she’s not inside. She doesn’t need to work, because yesterday she made a ton of money off her selling her single on the Internet. But she’s nowhere to be found! Not even at Barbara Walters’s place! While we endure this interminable wait for her spectacular public debut, here’s what we’ve learned about her since yesterday:
• Some people (okay, us) wondered whether she was actually 32, not 22 as has been reported. But it turns out that’s probably wrong. [NYM]
• Spitzer had met with her several times before, but it was only after her last visit that she called her Emperor’s Club bosses and said, “Oh, my God! Do you know who this guy is?” [NYP]
intel
Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Kristen’ — Actually 32?You remember when bonnie lass “Kristen,” the girl who brought down a governor, was profiled this morning in the New York Times? They reported her age at 22, which seems about right. She’s a lovely young thing, and, well, when you’re paying you might as well buy the ripest fruit. (Oh God, ew, we hate ourselves for coming up with that metaphor.) But we’ve done some sleuthing, and we’ve discovered that two separate public identification records reveal that the only Ashley Youmans (the real name of “Kristen,” a.k.a Ashley Alexandra Dupré) from the Jersey Shore (or anywhere in New Jersey) is actually 32. Now, we’re not going to blame a girl for lowering her age on her résumé — she is, after all, a struggling singer and someone who, professionally, needs to have a reputation for not being able to hold her liquor. But still, knocking off ten years? Could this be true? How bad did she think the lighting was going to be in Room 871??
Earlier: Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Kristen’ Somehow Much More Adorable Than Anticipated, Daily Intel’s Complete coverage of the Spitzer Scandal
in other news
Kristen Is Rich
Last night, Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a.k.a. “Kristen,” told the New York Times she was worried about paying her rent in the fancy Flatiron district building in which she lives. But in fact, in the less than 24 hours since that interview took place, Dupre’s personal wealth has increased considerably. The two songs on her Amie Street profile, which each cost 98 cents, have reportedly been downloaded more than two million times, and according to that site’s business model, Dupré should receive 70 percent of the total profit. Plus! Playboy and Penthouse are both reportedly interested in setting up photo shoots. “We’ve already discussed some options,” Penthouse publisher Diane Silberstein tells Radar, adding that they’d pay in the “high six figures.” Book publishers, however, are dragging their feet. “I don’t think it’s worth anything,” HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham tells Portfolio today, making us want to wrap our hands around his neck and administer a light throttle. “There’s no story there.” Seriously? Does no one remember for instance the best-selling Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, soon to be an HBO series with Darren Star? Hookers are so hot right now.
in other news
As We Win One Hooker, We Lose Another
In the excitement surrounding the unveiling of Kristen, the Jersey-grown hooker who (accidentally) brought Eliot Spitzer down, we almost missed the fact that last night, the city lost another famous prostitute. Andreia Schwartz, the “millionaire” madam who was arrested last year for running a brothel on West 58th Street where call girls got paid between $700 and $1,500 an hour (how quaint!), was quietly deported back to her native Brazil after twenty months in prison and, the Post tells us, serving as a source for the federal authorities who were probing Spitzer. Schwartz’s biggest client was Time Warner CFO Wayne Pace, who she said paid her about $200,000 and helped her buy the apartment out of which she ran her business. He denied it and got off with only a terrible reputation, but now we’re wondering … who were clients one through eight?
Kinky Link to Brazil’s Bombshell[NYP]
Earlier: Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Kristen’ Somehow Much More Adorable Than Anticipated
intel
‘Kristen’ and Eliot Issue Dual Releases
Last night Eliot Spitzer finally released his official letter of resignation. It was short, simple, and hand-signed:
Dear Speaker Silver and Majority Leader Bruno,
I am writing to advise you that I am resigning my position as Governor of the State of New York effective 12:00 noon on Monday, March 17, 2008.
Sincerely,
Eliot Spitzer
Governor
We love that (a) he’s still governor until noon on Monday, which is surely a few extra hours that Paterson didn’t ask for (think of how many personal checks pardons he can issue in that time!) and (b) how he had to put “Eliot Spitzer, Governor” at the bottom of the letter. Savor that, dude. “Eliot Spitzer, Attorney-at-law” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
But more importantly, as Vulture pointed out, our beloved “Kristen” had a very important new release today, too. Her latest song track! It’s called “Move Ya Body.” We were going to make a joke about that song title and Eliot Spitzer, but then we realized that every pop name ever could be a pun about hookers and governors.
Resignation Letter Released [NYDN]
Kristen Releases Another Song! [Vulture]
Earlier: Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Kristen’ Somehow More Adorable Than Anticipated
in other news
Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Kristen’ Somehow Much More Adorable Than AnticipatedWe’re not really sure what we expected from “Kristen,” but when we learned that she was a fresh-faced, seemingly earnest 22-year-old, we realized it wasn’t that. We sort of thought the Emperor’s Club prostitute that brought down Governor Eliot Spitzer would be some over-made-up 35-year-old with pounds worth of hair extensions and a laugh that sounded like a whinny. But the real “Kristen,” a.k.a. Ashley Youmans, is nothing like that. In fact, we kind of like her. Here’s what we learned about her, starting last night with a big report in the Times:
• She’s from the Jersey Shore, and left when she was 17. And she comes from a “broken home.”
• She lives in the Flatiron district. [Ed: That explains everything! And nothing.]
• She’s an aspiring singer-songwriter. Her demo, which the Times says uses “dated slang,” can be found on her still-live MySpace page.
in other news
EXCLUSIVE! Silda Wall Spitzer and Hillary Clinton’s Phone ConversationExclusively in our imaginations, that is. We’re not sure whether Hillary Clinton, in the past 48 hours, has called Silda Wall Spitzer. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility. Clinton is close with the Spitzers, and she did call Dina Matos McGreevey after her ordeal with the whole “My husband’s a gay governor” thing to give counsel. So we’re just going to assume that she did for a moment (we’re not sure you’ll ever hear the real story confirmed by her press people anyway — they likely don’t want to remind everyone that Hillary for a long time was best known for standing by a philandering husband). We’ll never know for sure what might have gone on in such a conversation (until, of course, Silda gives up on Eliot and gets her $3 million book deal), but we do have an idea. Thus, we have constructed for your reading pleasure an imaginary phone conversation between Hillary Clinton and Silda Wall Spitzer:
[A phone rings somewhere in the Spitzer apartment on the Upper East Side. Silda is holed up in the bedroom, reading a copy of Honor Thyself, Danielle Steel’s latest best-seller. She does not get up — the thing has been ringing off the hook, and it’s always for him. Usually these insistent calls come late at night, after she’s thankfully taken a Klonopin and drifted off to sleep. On the other side of the apartment, Eliot is surrounded by advisers in the children’s playroom. He is seated precariously on a Playmobil tea table. He picks up the phone.]
Eliot: If this is anyone but the Daily Princetonian, I have no comment, okay?
Hillary: Hello, Eliot.
Eliot: Kristen? Is it you? I’ve been trying—
Hillary: NO, it’s not KRISTEN. God, they always have white-trash names, don’t they?
Eliot: Mom?
white men with money
Among Other Things, Eliot Spitzer Has Contributed to Hooker Inflation
When we were little, our grandpa used to tell us stories about the olden days. “Used to be, you could get a hooker for a dollar!” he’d say. “Those were the days.” Sigh. If Grandpa had seen the complaint filed in the bust of Emperor’s Club — well, he’d have about keeled over. The preferred escort service of former governor Eliot Spitzer, according to the complaint, charged between $1,000 and $5,000 an hour. And, as one potential prostie was heard to complain, that didn’t even include dinner. Inflation affects even the oldest profession, and according The Wall Street Journal, the “wealth boom — and the explosion in the number of multi-millionaires — has created entirely new pricing levels for escorts.” Of 661 people who own private jets, a survey from Prince & Associates, a Connecticut-based wealth-research firm, found, 34 percent of males and 20 percent of the females had paid for sex. And that’s just of people who owned private jets. If you apply those percentages to, say, people who own BMWs, that’s enough to skew the numbers for everyone. But at least one thing remains the same since Grandpa’s* day: The most popular reason the people surveyed gave for using escorts was “unique experiences.”
How the New Rich Are Changing the Oldest Profession [WSJ]
Earlier: You Can Say This About the Girls of the Emperor’s Club: They’re No Morons
*We made this bit up. Our real Grampy, God rest his soul, was a wonderful man and a devout Catholic who never ran with loose women. With the exception of his second wife. But they were married.
it just happened
Eliot Spitzer Resigns
At a press conference at 11:30 a.m. in his Manhattan offices, Eliot Spitzer announced that he would step down as governor of the State of New York. By his side was his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, his wife of 21 years, who spent much of the last 48 hours in the same apartment with her husband (but reportedly in different rooms). Below, a rough transcript of his speech:
In the past few days I have begun to atone for my private failures with my wife Silda my children, and my entire family. The remorse I feel will always be with me. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for the love and compassion they have shown me.
From those to whom much is given, much is expected.
I have been given much, the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York, and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me.
To every New Yorker and to all those who believed in what I have tried to stand for, I sincerely apologize. I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been, but I also know that as a public servant that I and the people I work with have accomplished a great deal.
it just happened
Joe Bruno Remarkably Restrained in Press ConferenceJoe Bruno held a press conference just now, and it was well played. Despite the fact that Eliot Spitzer has basically been up until now his mortal enemy, he didn’t rub it in that he was totally right when he told New York earlier this month that the governor was “two-faced. He does not tell the truth.” Rather, wearing an expression of weary “I-don’t-have-time-for-this-perv” resignation, he discussed the possible transition of David Paterson (with whom he has a “great relationship”) into the position of governor and went out of his way to make the point that just because someone decided to defy Lord and country by sleeping with hookers doesn’t mean that everyone else was going to stop doing their jobs. “There is no pleasure in what is going on in this state,” he said. “This is a distraction of proportions we have never experienced. As for Eliot Spitzer, my heart goes out to his wife and his family. He must deal with his problems in his own way.”
Related: How Eliot Spitzer Finally Got Joe Bruno on the Ropes [NYM]
in other news
TV Reports: The Spitzer Resignation Process Has Begun
Eliot Spitzer has begun telling officials that he will, indeed, resign today, sources say. According to NBC in New York, Eliot Spitzer will issue the statement in written form, rather than during a press conference. (CNN disagrees, claiming that a conference will be held at 11:30.) The television station also reports that the resignation may not go into effect until Monday. Meanwhile, ABC adds that Lieutenant Governor David Paterson has confirmed that the resignation is imminent. A letter, drafted yesterday, is expected be submitted to the secretary of state today. Later today, CBS adds, Paterson will be sworn in as governor up in Albany.
Spitzer to Resign Today [ABC]
Spitzer to Resign Effective Monday [NBC]
THE END IS NEAR [CBS]
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Spitzer to Resign Within the Hour? (Updated)
Just when you thought the Eliot Spitzer story couldn’t get any more tawdry, you’re totally proven wrong. Okay, okay, everybody knew this was going to get more ridiculous, you’re right. Right now the Post Website is reporting that the governor will resign within the hour. So until he does, here’s a little catch-up on some of the absurdity we’ve learned since yesterday:
• Spitzer started his liaisons with Emperor’s Club girls eight months ago and met with them in Dallas and Washington. Also, a “law enforcement official said Mr. Spitzer also had an encounter with a prostitute in Florida. On some trips of several days’ duration, Mr. Spitzer scheduled more than one visit with a prostitute, this person said.” [NYT]
• Over ten years, Spitzer spent up to $80,000 on prostitutes, according to sources. [NYP]
• On February 13, just before his tryst with “Kristen,” Spitzer was wandering through the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel asking his aides if they had a “classical music CD,” apparently to set the mood. [NYP]
party lines
Comptroller Bill Thompson: Spitzer Is ‘Shocking,’ Paterson Is ‘Talented’
At the annual Women’s Campaign Fund dinner last night at the home of Community Board One’s Julie Menin, City Comptroller William Thompson had a wry sense of humor about yesterday’s scandalous revelations regarding Eliot Spitzer and a gaggle of high-end prostitutes. “I wonder what we’ll be talking about this evening?” Thompson had already cracked twice before he made it all the way into the party. Thompson called Spitzer “a friend” and expressed “shock and disbelief” about the recent news. While he stopped short of calling for the governor’s resignation, he expressed the obvious concern. “I think it is very difficult to govern in the current situation.” He was not as reticent in his views about Spitzer’s possible successor, Lieutenant Governor David A. Paterson. “While Eliot’s a friend, David’s a very good friend.” Thompson went on to express his belief that as minority leader Paterson helped to change the Democratic Senate, that they became much more aggressive and idea-focused under his guidance. “I think the world of him; he is such a talented person.” —Catherine Coreno
Earlier: Reacting to Eliot’s Mess
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So Why Hasn’t Spitzer Resigned Yet?Yesterday we received word from multiple reliable sources that Spitzer was planning on getting the whole thing over with last night. We weren’t sure, but it sounded like there was to be an evening press conference, during which Spitzer officially resigned and David Paterson was sworn in as governor. But that never came to pass. Now Spitzer has wiped his schedule clean of public events and is hunkered down with advisers. Meanwhile, much of the mainstream media and many political rivals are calling for his head. As the New York Times pointed out, “any politician would have a full-time job just dealing with such revelations.” It seems impossible that Spitzer would be able to continue on as governor (in about 24 hours state Republicans will start impeachment proceedings against him), and yet he hasn’t resigned. What gives? Some theories:
• In preparation for a day in which he may have to face prosecution over his role in the Emperor’s Club prostitution debacle, stepping down from the governorship would be a great trump card. He could use it as a big sacrifice in any deal, saving himself from other punishments like fines, disbarment, or jail time. [National Review]
• He could be destroying documents or evidence, suggests DealBreaker. Though it sounds far-fetched, a private security expert tells them that the reason executives under investigation at big companies are immediately escorted out of the building is so that they can’t do that. “They should have the FBI there right now to prevent Spitzer from deleting his hard-drives,” their source argues. [DealBreaker]
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Dr. Laura: Basically, It Is Silda’s Fault That Her Husband Cavorted With WhoresThe Today show invited noted moralist Dr. Laura Schlessinger on to promote her book Stop Whining and Start Living and to discuss Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal this morning. But they seemed surprised when, predictably, she acted Dr. Laura–ish: “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 making him feel what he needs,” Schlessinger said.
Today hostesses Meredith Viera, Ann Curry, and Hoda Kotb stared at her. There was palpable silence. It was awkward, even for us at home.
Finally, Viera managed to speak: “You’re saying the women should feel guilty that they somehow drove the man to cheat?” she asked.
“The cheating was his decision to repair what’s damaged and to feed himself where he’s starving,” Schlessinger explained. “But, yes, I hold women responsible for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need.”
Right, because Spitzer was clearly a perfectly good man. Jezebel has video if you’d like to give yourself that nice, midday outraged feeling.
Dr. Laura: Women share blame for cheating men [MSNBC]
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Late-Night Hosts Take the Spitzer Ball and, Um, Dribble With It
If any good could come from the Eliot Spitzer scandal, it’s that the late-night shows have some of their best source material since Bill Clinton requested the definition of the word “is.” So with that in mind, we fired up our DVR for the most promising night of comedy in years. And boy, were we disappointed.
Letterman, predictably, was funny enough, opening his monologue by asking whether it was too soon to hit on Mrs. Eliot Spitzer, then telling a handful of jokes (“Did you happen to see the press conference? Very dramatic. Eliot Spitzer was there with yellow crime-scene tape around his pants”). The Times has a complete rundown of every joke, if you’re interested. Seated back at his desk, Letterman read off a Top Ten List of Eliot Spitzer excuses (No. 8: Just trying to help the economy!).
party lines
CFDA’s Stephen Kolb Touched Eliot Spitzer’s Sex HandsLast night at a party for this year’s CFDA Awards nominees, the Cut (that’s our fabulous new fashion blog, in case you don’t know) caught up with executive director Stephen Kolb, who, as it turned out, had had an interesting encounter with Luv Guv Eliot Spitzer. No, not that kind of encounter. Kolb was in Washington this past February 14, the day after Spitzer allegedly hired a prostitute. He and Narciso Rodriguez were at a hearing about fashion designers’ intellectual-property rights, when the lobbyist they were working with suddenly introduced them to Spitzer. “I shook his hand!” he told the Cut. “I shook his hand the next day! I’m thinking about how creepy that is now! No, I’m joking. So, I mean, it happened on the 13th?” Allegedly, yes. “Alright, well, he looked happy on the 14th!”
CFDA’s Stephen Kolb Touched Eliot Spitzer the Morning After [The Cut]
company town
New York Public Library Lions to Become Schwarzman’s KittensFINANCE
• As Blackstone’s profit sinks 89 percent, Stephen Schwartzman gets the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street named after him. The naming rights came with a very generous $100 million donation, but we’re not sure we’re ready to go have lunch on the lovely steps of “Schwarzman.” It’ll feel like we’re an undergrad at Penn or something. [NYT]
• Wall Street says “There is a God” as its longtime persecutor, Eliot Spitzer, falls from grace. [NYT]
• Lehman Brothers, the largest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds, plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce, which is about 1,400 people. Meanwhile, Bear Sterns, the second-biggest underwriter of mortgage bonds, lost more than $1.3 billion in market value yesterday as investors worried about the firm’s liquidity. [NYP, NYP]
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New Details Emerge in Spitzer Prostitution ScandalOkay, have you gotten over your shock yet? Have you called back your mother, who called you the minute she heard about it on TV and asked, “WHAT’S WITH YOUR GOVERNOR?” (“THESE GUYS WITH THEIR EGOS, THEY THINK THEY CAN DO ANYTHING,” she probably said when you returned her call. That was probably just before your aunt sent you an e-mail asking for “the buzz from the city.”) Well, if you’ve gotten past these initial phases of dealing with trauma, it’s time to unload some more awkward details on you. The Times does a really amazing job today of walking you through what happened leading up to, on, (under), and after that fateful February 13, when Client 9 had his assignation in the Washington with “Kristen” the call girl.
Kristen, having already passed through the lobby, with its wing chairs and its gilded half-clad cherubs, arrived in a small room in a quiet corner of the “Club Floor,” a special wing for V.I.P.’s. A king-size bed commanded the floor. Two photos — of the Capitol and the Washington Monument — hung beside a wood-framed mirror. As soon as she came in, Kristen called her boss, Temeka Lewis, who was the booking agent for the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., an online prostitution ring, the affidavit said. Ms. Lewis told her that the client had arrived. He was headed for the room.
photo op
Introducing ‘The Pucker’
It’s not a frown. It’s not quite a grimace. It’s not even really a sheepish wince. So what is this look that is captured in newspapers and Websites across the country today? The expression made the covers of both the Daily News and the Post into the dynamite keepsakes that they will inevitably become. We’re calling it “The Pucker.” Live it, learn it, love it. Or, you know, joke it, jeer it, judge it.
Earlier: Report: Eliot Spitzer Involved With Prostitution Ring
in other news
Reacting to Eliot’s Mess
Eliot Spitzer is still holed up in his apartment in New York, where he and his wife, Silda, have been conferring with advisers since last night. He’s weighing his options, and deciding whether to resign. Meanwhile, on the outside, the politicians and the media have descended into exactly the kind of feeding frenzy you would expect:
• The Post reports that State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno held back from reveling in his great rival’s fall: “I feel very badly for the governor’s wife, for his children,” he said. “The important thing for the people of New York State is that people in office do the right thing.”
• According to CNN, Republican state senators and assemblymen (and some Democrats) are aggressively calling for his resignation. So is the Republican Governors Association.
• If Spitzer doesn’t resign before a deadline set by state Republicans, they’ve vowed to begin impeachment proceedings, reports WCBS.
