Free Republic

Once-hooker-happy Eliot Spitzer made his TV talk-show debut last night -- interviewing a guest who, like him, allegedly patronized prostitutes. Spitzer -- who resigned in disgrace as New York governor in 2008 after being exposed as a john with a frequent hankering for hookers -- conducted the bizarre interview along with his TV partner, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, for their CNN show, "Parker Spitzer." One of the unlikely pair's guests was Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin -- who allegedly once shared Spitzer's infamous passion for call girls. Sorkin -- who penned the TV series "The West Wing," the flick "A Few...

Nobody doubts that Andrew Cuomo is a thumb-in-your-eye political brawler -- not that there's anything wrong with that. And for Eliot Spitzer to be feigning shock about it in public is a little rich, don't you think? Spitzer, the disgraced ex-governor kicking off a career as TV yakker, this week tossed a brickbat at Cuomo: "The problem Andrew has is that everybody knows that behind the scenes he is the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there," he said. Dirty? Nasty? From Spitzer? Chutzpah Hall of Fame, we say! Spitzer's basic problem with Cuomo isn't hard to figure out, of course....

Some may wonder if it is the political equivalent of the pot calling the kettle black. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, now a television commentator, took a swipe on Thursday at his former Albany rival, Andrew M. Cuomo, saying Mr. Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for New York governor, was “the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there.” Of course, as governor, Mr. Spitzer was the self-described “steamroller” who rubbed some lawmakers the wrong way with his own hardball tactics. Mr. Spitzer, whose CNN talk show, “Parker Spitzer,” is scheduled to make its debut in October, made the comment while being interviewed on...

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he will back Democrat Andrew Cuomo come November, but it sure didn’t sound like much of an endorsement. “Everybody knows that behind the scenes that he’s the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there,” Spitzer said of Cuomo Thursday.

The state Commission on Public Integrity, which last year fined former top Eliot Spitzer aide Darren Dopp the maximum fine of $10,000 for his role in the Troopergate scheme, today notes that a judge backed up their decision despite Dopp's efforts to fight it. "Yesterday, after a thorough review, a judge upheld the Commission's decision to fine Darren Dopp $10,000 for his central role in the Troopergate matter. In March 2008, a different judge rejected Mr. Dopp's unfounded effort to prevent the Commission's hearing that resulted in this fine," CPI Executive Director Barry Ginsburg said in a statement. "This case...

When F. Scott Fitzgerald observed that there are no second acts in American life, he obviously couldn't have had before him the example of Eliot Spitzer and his adoring media. Once dubbed the Crusader of the Year and the Sherriff of Wall Street, Spitzer was to the mainstream media the embodiment of an exciting new kind of Democrat, a tough-as-nails moderate who might revive the party nationally under the banner of what Fred Siegel and Michael Goodwin have dubbed "Spitzerism." Although Spitzer's escapades with high-priced call girls brought his career crashing down in 2008, the financial crisis that began to...

The Al Gore police report is disturbing. To be specific, it's 67 pages of the quite graphically disturbing, as posted here by Red State. You are reading the news of this police report -- originally filed in October of 2006 -- only because the National Enquirer scooped the story. In June of 2010. You did not read it in the Portland Tribune, which has been on this story since 2007 and failed to tell its readers until the Enquirer broke the story. The Tribune's explanation for this is to be found here. Then there's the interesting news that Kathleen Parker,...

As has been speculated for about a week now, Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker will be paired up as co-hosts of a new 8pmET “spirited, nightly roundtable discussion program” on CNN. The Crossfire-like show replaces Campbell Brown’s program – which she announced she was leaving last month. Let’s take a look at the key players. Spitzer was a surprise regular guest on Dylan Ratigan’s new MSNBC show starting almost one year ago today. Over this past year he’s risen through the ranks at MSNBC and began anchoring occasionally a couple months ago during news hours. He also, of course, is...

Eliot Spitzer has found a new woman. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker is the "leading candidate" to share a new 8 p.m. show on CNN with the former governor, according to sources close to the talks. Parker, 58, is probably best known for a column she wrote in September, 2008 calling Sarah Palin "out of her league" and urging her to get off the Republican ticket. The show -- which will air opposite Bill O'Reilly's ratings juggernaut show on Fox News Channel -- will be an updated version of CNN's old "Crossfire" program.

The appointment by New York Governor David Paterson of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to the vacant senate seat of Hillary Clinton raises serious questions surrounding the illegal dirty tricks employed to elect Gillibrand to Congress in the first place. In 2006 Governor George Pataki's Chief of Staff Zenia Mucha illegally obtained New York State Police records regarding a domestic dispute between then Congressman John Sweeney and his wife. The records were obtained by former State Police captain Daniel Wiese, who functioned as a dirty tricks operative for Pataki and later Governor Eliot Spitzer. Wiese was also the operative who pressured State...

ALBANY – Eliot Spitzer may be open to launching a new TV career but returning to the political world as a statewide candidate should be off the table. That’s the finding of a new Marist College poll that found 66 percent of New York voters don’t want the disgraced ex-love gov to run for statewide office this year. That’s a worse number for Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace in March, 2008, in a high-priced hooker scandal, than just last month, when a Marist survey found 58 percent of voters opposed to his seeking statewide office. “Eliot Spitzer’s attempt to reconnect...

CNN's Campbell Brown has resigned. The following are statements from both CNN President Jon Klein and a heartfelt letter from Brown explaining her reasons for leaving. STATEMENT FROM JON KLEIN, PRESIDENT OF CNN/U.S. "Today is about Campbell. We want to wish her well as she begins the next phase of her life. We respect her decision to leave. We will announce our programming plans in the coming weeks." An Excerpt From Brown's Statement "Simply put, the ratings for my program are not where I would like them to be. It is largely for this reason that I am stepping down...

He questions whether the candidate has the will to stand up to powerful interests. He faults him for failing to aggressively take on Wall Street. And he is not sure that he will vote for him for governor this fall, saying he wants to see “who else will be in the race.” In an unusually candid and sometimes biting assessment of his successor as attorney general, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer portrayed Andrew M. Cuomo as a man whose decisions have often been driven by political considerations and whose worldview has largely been shaped by the culture of Albany. During an...

According to a new documentary, disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer wasn't brought down by his penchant for high-priced call girls. He wasn't brought down by committing questionable, if not illegal, bank transactions to pay for the call girls. He wasn't brought down by his misuse of the New York State Police for political purposes. No, in the world of "Untitled Eliot Spitzer Film" director Alex Gibney, "Spitzer's takedown of financial industry bigwigs... paved the way for his downfall." According to the New York Post: Gibney made no apology for his pro-Spitzer take and the audience, which included Police Commissioner...

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer in March 2008. It was a routine transaction with an unusual request: Eliot Spitzer, then governor of New York state, had asked a Manhattan bank to remove his name and account information from a $5,000 wire transfer to a company called QAT Consulting Group. The request, if granted, would have violated the Code of Federal Regulations. It also triggered a mandatory bank investigation into the transaction and generated a suspicious activity report, or SAR, that has never been released by the government.It was Aug. 6, 2007, and Spitzer, in his inaugural year as governor,...

Deep inside the famous Orion Nebula, a colony of very young stars have been imaged by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Although the observatory ran out of liquid helium coolant in May 2009, two modules inside its Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) remain fully operational, capturing wonderfully detailed pictures of Orion's star-forming region currently exploding with stellar life.

A new book by former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s ex-best-friend offers to fill a gap that has frustrated analysts of Spitzer’s aborted career: A grand unified theory of Spitzer’s spectacular fall, which ended with his resignation and disgrace nearly two years ago. Lloyd Constantine, a Spitzer mentor who became a close friend and top deputy, believes that Spitzer’s “compulsion” to use prostitutes began to twist his friend’s character during 2006, the year he was elected. Spitzer came to office knowing he was doomed, according to Constantine, and acted irrationally from the moment he arrived - his time in Albany...

New York Governor David Paterson attempted to suppress an investigation into an aide’s alleged beating of said aide’s girlfriend, and lied to an ethics panel about the free tickets he scored to the World Series. In this, he follows Eliot Spitzer, whom he succeeded after Spitzer attempted to convince a banker to contravene federal banking laws (that is actually why he had to resign, not because he hired a prostitute, but since prosecutors decided for unclear reasons not to indict him, that part is forgotten). Paterson, in his sure-to-fail attempt to hold on to power for a few more months,...

John Angelillo / Landov Eliot Spitzer may be mulling a return to politics, but the madam who allegedly supplied the ex-governor with call girls is starting her campaign first. Kristin Davis tells Tracy Quan why she's running for New York governor. Plus, other sex workers who've run for office.Kristin Davis, the New York madam who was arrested for running an escort agency during the Eliot Spitzer scandal, says she supplied him with call girls for five years—when he was attorney general and when he was governor of New York.Now she's campaigning as an independent for his former job and...

Kristin Davis announced her candidacy for governor at a Midtown Manhattan hotel Monday morning. March 1, 2010 (DNAinfo/Heather Grossmann)By Heather GrossmannDNAinfo News EditorMIDTOWN EAST — New York’s gubernatorial race heated up Monday when "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis announced her candidacy.In front of a poster emblazoned with a naked woman silhouette, a marijuana leaf and a "P2" symbol, representing her pro-prostitution, pro-marijuana platform, the infamous provider of Eliot Spitzer's escorts said she's running as an independent and an "advocate of real reform."“Eliot Spitzer is symptomatic of the type of career politician who has brought this state to the brink of disaster,” Davis...