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Martha Stewart laughs out loud

Eliot Spitzer’s “involvement” with the Emperor Club call girl ring is officially the big story of the day, as well as the source of sardonic amusement for everyone ever prosecuted by the former US attorney and soon (probably) to be erstwhile NY governor. Live by ethics, die by ethics, I guess.

Maybe he was just the club’s legal adviser, or majority shareholder, or webmaster, or something. Maybe.

Or maybe he was “Client 9.”

Not a story I expected to read…well, ever. Wow.

Anyone interested in the going rates (or what had been the going rates, anyway) at the Emperor’s Club may satisfy his or her curiosity at The Smoking Gun.

And now Fox News says Spitzer’s gonna resign. I guess they mean today. Not verified yet. Let’s use the Gawker link instead of, eww, touching Fox.

Gawker again, later:

Well, Eliot Spitzer has not resigned as governor of New York. Not yet, at least. But Fox News’ report may still be accurate. The governor’s statement sounds like a farewell. He begins in the past tense, and goes on to say that change is a matter of ideas, rather than individuals. That is to say, even if Spitzer’s political career is over, his ideas will live on. Good luck with that.

I just got finished reading the “Client 9″ portion of the search warrant request filing posted at TPM and linked above and, well, wow.

LEWIS (last name of the defendant) continued that from what she had been told “he” (believed to be a reference to Client-9) “would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe - you know - I mean that . . . very basic things. . . . “Kristen” responded: “I have a way of dealing with that . . . I’d be like listen dude, you really want the sex? . . . You know what I mean.”

Okay, then. But possibly just condom negotiation. Possibly.

We mentioned sardonic amusement at the top of this post. Apropos that:

“There were whoops and yells when it was reported that he might resign. Mr. Spitzer has never been a very popular person down here,” the correspondent Bob Pisani reported from the New York Stock Exchange, relating the hostile feelings between Wall Street and Mr. Spitzer.

Also:

On CNBC, markets reporter Bob Pisani quoted an unnamed trader’s reaction, which spoke for the vast majority on Wall Street. “There is a God,” the trader was quoted as saying.

And welcome, “Eliot Spitzer + Martha Stewart” Google-searchers.

Next day: Good morning. The NYT says that aides expect Spitzer to resign today and for Lieutenant Governor David Patterson to succeed him. Timing uncertain. From the article:

The news was met with disbelief and shock in Albany, a capital accustomed to scandal. Some legislative assistants said they were too stunned to speak, and lawmakers gathered around television sets in hushed offices, trying to make sense of what had happened.

“We’re at a total standstill,” said Keith L. T. Wright, a Democratic assemblyman from Harlem. “Everybody is stunned. Everybody is absolutely stunned.”

Next day + 1: Spitzer still un-resigned; holed up in his Fifth Avenue bunker apartment. NY state government “paralyzed.” Lt. Gov David Patterson is either totally out of the loop regarding Spitzer’s plans…

Asked whether preparations for a transition were under way, the lieutenant governor said: “No one has talked to me about his resignation, and no one has talked to me about a transition.”

…or is working through his staff with Spitzer’s people to ensure that very transition.

Aides to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the state’s lieutenant governor have begun planning for a possible transition after federal prosecutors linked Spitzer to a high-end prostitution ring, a top legislative staffer said Tuesday.

Maybe both possibilities are true: the aides are doing all the talking and no one’s thought to tell Patterson about it.

Meanwhile, in Albany a Spitzer aide denies that state government is - what was that word? oh, right - “paralyzed.”

“People are not standing around the water-cooler talking about what happens next,” Mr. Spitzer’s director of operations, Mr. Francis, said. “They are working hard on the day-to-day issues of governing.”

+1 to Mr. Francis for avoiding the hackneyed phrase, “doing the people’s business.”

Also (from the same Sun article), remember 9/11!

“We were able to get through 9/11; we’re going to get through anything,” the union’s president Randi Weingarten said in an interview. “We’re pretty resilient people.”

Of course, Albany was not actually attacked on 9/11. But the point remains, sort of.

And now this from CNN:

New York Gov. Spitzer to announce his resignation at 11:30 a.m.

That’s Eastern time, presumably.

And…that’s a wrap:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Wednesday that he will step down from the state’s top office, saying he cannot allow his “private failings to disrupt the public’s work.”

“I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me,” he said in a brief news conference announcing his intention to resign, effective Monday. “I will try once again outside of politics to serve the common good.”

Well. These things happen.

At TPM, David Kurtz notes:

Not a good sign when your criminal defense lawyers precede you into your resignation press conference.

Also at TPM, Paul Kiel provides a timeline of the Fed investigation that led to today.

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