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The Boardroom Journal

Mayflowergate

March 11, 2008 at 10:52 AM 

The news that Governor Eliot Spitzer was caught in an IRS probe of cash flowing betwixt and between shell companies and a high roller escort service is just the sort of thing to make a journalist feel good about his or her choice of occupation. This is as close as it gets to guaranteed employment for scribers.

 

Spitzer's real troubles are only about to happen, however, as journos are lined up with sources to spare, extramarital and otherwise, to stretch this baby. Now any wonder why resignation is on the table?

 

The upcoming weeks are likely to be brutal beyond anything Bill Clinton had to contend with...why?

 

  1. Tip O'Neil said, "all politics is local" only the locale now is NYC and DC. The city desks will be having a bumper crop, their sources fertilized and cared for over the years - doormen, bartenders, housekeeping maids - all pay off now.
  2. Spitzer's own hubris and brilliance (corollary buds really) will bring on an epidemic of that most infectious breed of single minded cell, enemae amoeba - when former acquaintances and even friends suddenly rethink the years together, concluding they were onto you from the beginning pal....something in our culture breeds 'kick them when they are down' and people who actually liked you feel the need to opine on how unethical, dishonest, weak, sex crazed you (always) were. Harvard Law School alums will be among the finest opiners on Spitzer's mental health.
  3. The news cycle - this one has weeks written all over it because of new disclosures, particularly from clients, patrons, management of the bordello in question; Spitzer has a few folks out there who would pay good money to have made this happen, they are only too happy now to lend fuel and fodder to this conflagration.
  4. What happens in Albany stays in Albany - not this time. Now the NY state capital is going to be on everyone's radar scope and you can bet they are going to enjoy the attention.
  5. The Republican and Democratic infighting has always been fierce in this jumped up capital of no where-on-the Hudson, but now watch for proclamations and indignations, Olympic style.

Predictions:

 

Eliot Spitzer needs to be put on suicide watch, and this is serious if either tax evasion or felony for interstate commerce charges are brought with vigor.

 

Dick Grasso's life gets easier, as does Ken Langone's. Not sure if their issues go away, but prosecutorial zeal will be modified to the extent the benefactor's name is associated.

 

Hillary gets some contamination not only for Spitzer's endorsement but her attempt to sanitize things by removing any trace of him from her website at the moment he was outed. This also brings up the specter of Monica again....no one is saying it, everyone is thinking it.....and one thing about our former First Lady, she's been tested, as she likes to point out.

 

 

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Tags: spitzer (3) irs (4) mayflowergate (2)



Leave a comment

 Tom Breckenridge, Denver News said:
Mayflowergate, that is a keeper.
March 11, 2008 3:53 PM
 Leave a comment


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