Will Another Shoe Drop?

Spicy as New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s travails are, and lovely as it is to witness a pontificating, preachy reformer dangle from his own petard, still, one wonders, is this all there is? Will a second shoe drop with even more resounding echoes? Is this scandal, after all, about money laundering? The New York Times reported this morning (“Revelations Began in Routine Tax Inquiry”): “The criminal investigation that discovered the tryst began last year in a nondescript office building opposite a Dunkin’ Donuts on Long Island, according to law enforcement officials...there, in the Hauppauge offices of the Internal Revenue Service, investigators conducting a routine examination of suspicious financial transactions reported to them by banks found several unusual movements of cash involving the governor of New York, several officials said.” Yes, of course, I love it that affidavits reveal “Mr. Clean” Spitzer, the moral scourge of Wall Street, the crusader for all that’s good and decent and pure in this fine land, the Democrat’s holier-than-thou icon of moral rectitude was paying a hooker named Kristin four thousand bucks and change for unspecified delights. I think it’s wonderful bordering on delicious that he was called Client 9 by the tryst providers and the investigators. And yes, I’m delighted to find out that not only had the Gov paid for the services of hookers from the “Emperor’s Club VIP” previously, but those other hookers advised Madam Temeka Rachelle Lewis...er...Booking Agent Lewis that Client 9 asked them to do things that might not be considered “safe”. Oh yum!!!! And even though I suppose I have to feel sorry for Mrs. Spitzer, as I felt sorry for Governor James McGreevey’s clueless wife, yet, I do wonder, along with CNN’s Jack Cafferty: Just exactly how do these guys get their wives to stand up with them when they make their horrendous announcements? Cafferty said that he agreed with the guy who claimed, “My wife would be standing over my bleeding body with a shotgun saying, 'How do you reload this thing?'" My sentiments, exactly. What’s with these politician’s wives? Is it for the children, as Mrs. McGreevey said on Larry King last night? Please! Spitzer’s daughters are 17, 15, and 13. From what are they going to be protected if Mrs. Spitzer stands by her asshole husband? Is it for the good of The Party? Crap! Is it because these women love their philandering lying hypocrite husbands? Fah! Is it because a bunch of guys said they should? There you go. Anyway, all that titillating stuff aside, are Spitzer and the other nine guys who paid The Emperor’s Club for services (there were 10 in all) up to their necks in money laundering? And I don't mean penny-ante money laundering to hide fees to hookers, but money laundering on a huge scale. Eventually, will bigger fish get caught and will Dubai and the other Arab Emirates be involved? Will Saudi Arabia’s name come up? I cannot wait to find out.