Old friend Steve Fournier concisely sums up the back story to the public humiliation of Eliot Spitzer:
Brothers at the bar Charles Schumer, Michael Mukasey, and Eliot Spitzer, three New York lawyers with considerable influence over public policy, crossed paths this week when wiretaps of New York Governor Spitzer arranging for paid sex were made public. Mukasey is the attorney general, and the federal authorities who wiretapped Spitzer work for him. Schumer is the junior senator from New York, and Mukasey was confirmed as attorney general on his say-so. Schumer recommended confirmation despite Mukasey’s refusal to confront racketeers in the executive branch who corrupted federal prosecutors. During his confirmation hearings, Mukasey was asked why Democrats are more often the target of federal prosecutions than Republicans. Not because of anything improper, Mukasey protested, and Schumer and two-thirds of the Senate took him at his word. Now it appears that Democrat Spitzer was specifically targeted by subordinates of Republican Mukasey, who wouldn’t be in office but for Democrat Schumer.
Let us stipulate that Spitzer was incredibly stupid and incredibly arrogant. The fact remains that this is probably a politically motivated hanging. There are a lot of things about it that don’t pass the smell test. Those questions are being examined at Firedoglake, e.g., here and http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/10/some-questions-about-the-spitzer-incident/.
By the way, isn’t it interesting that we haven’t heard a word about David “Diaper Man” Vitter? No federal charges there, and no resignation.
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