Elliott Spitzer Nears Political Death?

To he who has shown no mercy, no mercy shall be shown.

I've always hated Elliott Spitzer. Some time back, I predicted that he would be taken out of the Governor's Mansion in handcuffs. I won't get that, but I'll soon get something nearly as good. There's great speculation that he will soon resign.

If his career comes to an end due to his use of hookers, that will be an injustice. I don't personally think that using hookers should disqualify one for elective office. Use of hookers, or, better still, being a hooker seems to be the ideal background for service in the bi-cameral whorehouse that we have in Albany.

No. what bothers me about Spitzer is not his performance as "Client No. 9 ". Nor is it so much his hot-tempered incompetence in the Governor's Mansion. He wanted to give Drivers Licenses to Illegal Aliens. He stiffed New York City on its fair share of taxes. He illegally spied on State Senator Joe Bruno. Fine. No problem, Elliott, no one expected better of you.

What bothered me the most is Spitzer's 8 year performance as Attorney General of NY State. He went after a lot of financial institutions for wrongdoing. Which is fine--the institutions did bad things and should have been punished.

What bothered me is the manner in which Spitzer and his henchmen in the AG's office went about it. They attacked major NY employers like like AIG, Merrill Lynch and Marsh & McLennan with an argument: you cooperate with us, or we will fucking put you out of business. Yes, they talked like that. In the aftermath of the demise of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, this was a real threat--the corporations all caved without a fight.

Spitzer then went after the employees of these companies. The top managers, like Hank Greenberg of AIG, fought back and hired the best attorneys.

But many low level employees--those who were unable to hire David Boies as their mouthpieces--were left naked and exposed. Many of them were given company lawyers, sniveling types who made it very clear that their interests were aligned with the company and not with any employee. These employees were harshly interrogated by Spitzer's goons. Some were asked to cop a plea , admitting to "crimes" that they did not do. Others were summarily let go by their employers, who sought to protect the corporation by sacrificing a few $60,000 - $80,000 employees to the meat-grinder in order to protect the institution.

One of these was S. She is a black woman whose roots are in North Carolina. At the age of 73, she didn't work at [a financial firm ] because she wanted to--she did it because she needed to. I've known her for fifteen years.

It appears that her name was listed as a "cc" on an e-mail that made brief reference to some questionable thing that her company had done. She didn't know what the reference was, but as it was not relevant to her duties, she did not question it.

Sometime in 2005, she was called into her managers office. There was a company lawyer there. She was told that she was being "let go". She asked why. She said that they could not say. She asked what her severance would be. She was told that there would be no severance package of any kind.

This is a small industry, so word traveled very fast and very far. She was "caught up in the Spitzer investigations". So other firms, themselves deathly afraid of Spitzer, would not consider hiring her. Though charged with no crime, she was blackballed throughout the industry--and at the age of 73, that's a life sentence.

There were many similar cases to those of S. in many New York financial industries. Many innocents suffered along with the guilty - S is not the only one I know of. All of these firings were done with the full knowledge of Spitzer's staff, who could have stopped them by lifting a finger.

So, should Client No. 9 ask for any sympathy and understanding in the coming days, I ask you this- how much sympathy did he and his staff show S?

May Spitzer burn in hell. When he does resign, there will be quite the party at the Captain's Ketch or certain other bars in New York City.