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Big Trouble for a Little Beaver Near Big Beaver?

As Josh Marshall sez, “uh-oh:

Stabenow’s husband caught in Troy prostitution sting, police report says

Thomas L. Athans was stopped Feb. 26 by undercover officers investigating a possible prostitution ring in a room at the Residence Inn near Big Beaver and Interstate 75. Athans paid a 20-year-old prostitute $150 for sex in a Troy hotel but was not arrested, according to police reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Detroit News. The police report said officers observed Athans enter a room under surveillance and leave 15 minutes later. Detectives followed and stopped Athans’ silver 2002 Cadillac DeVille on Interstate 75 near Square Lake Road.

Out of curiosity, can we take it as a sign of the relative health of our economy in New York State that our sex-starved politicians (and presumably, their significants, though that’s yet to be confirmed) pay several times the going rate in Michigan?  Even if you factor in fractions of an hour (fifteen minutes?!?), that’s still only $600 an hour.

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Governors Gone Wild for Girls Gone Wild

Well, I’ll be damned:

‘Girls Gone Wild’ Founder: Spitzer Call Girl in Video – 13WHAM.com

Joe Francis said his staff checked the archives and there she was as an 18-year-old, in a series of nude videos featuring same-sex encounters. Turns out Dupre visited Miami in 2003 to celebrate her 18th birthday and ended up spending a week on the “Girls Gone Wild” tour bus.

This Duprey girl needs to get her fine ass to The Bunny Ranch and start bankrolling the dough.

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Massa Jettison’s Spitzer Money / Jon Power’s Spitzer Reaction

Rochester Turning has filed a report from the latest Eric Massa press call. They’re reporting that Mr. Massa has decided to give the money he got from Spitzer away to charity rather than keeping it. Below is the relevant text of the post, with some minor formatting:

rochesterturning.com: turning the tide upstate

Q, Jill Terreri, D&C: Why were you compelled to donate the money he gave to you?

A: I want to sever all ties with Eliot Spitzer and myself. I am not going to return the money to him so he can continue using it for whatever purpose he is using his money. We donated the money to battered women in Steuben County to put it to some good use.

Mr. Massa is definitely one of those guys who would make this sort of decision on his own, purely on integrity. But does it concern him at all that the NRCC has already made calls for Democratic candidates to release Spitzer’s “dirty money?” This action may come across to voters as a capitulation to Republican pressure, though his opponent Randy Kuhl has thus far not made the same demands. And what about other candidates, are they likely to follow suit?  Jared Smith at Massa for Congress was good enough to pass along my questions.

The Massa camp reiterated Eric Massa’s “disgust” for Eliot Spitzer’s actions, and said he shared those feelings with all New Yorkers.  They further responded responded that, indeed, their decision to donate the money to The Net Domestic Abuse Program in Steuben County was Mr. Massa’s own decision and not based on any outside pressure. They pointed out that Randy Kuhl is among those Republican politicians who have not returned the money taken from the indicted Tom DeLay, so NRCC pressure does not seem to concern them much.  As for pressure on Democratic candidates, the Massa campaign responded that they can only speak for and act on their own behalf.

I also spoke with Jon Powers‘ campaign manager, John Gerken. He indicated that Mr. Powers supported calls for Spitzer to resign as the best way to resolve the issue for voters in the state. When I asked about Eric Massa’s decision to donate Spitzer’s money, Mr. Gerken said that Jon Powers has not accepted any money from Eliot Spitzer.

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Spitz Quitz

Eliot Spitzer is going to be making an announcement at 11:30am this morning, in just a few scant minutes.  13WHAM.com will be streaming the video live, so those of you at work, now is the time to goof off for the good of our state.  Also, Evan Dawson follows up on the blog with reaction from Joe Morelle.  Joe wants (as I think we all do) a statement from our new governor, David Patterson, post haste.

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Paterson Making Calls?

Liutenent Governor Patterson on 13WHAM.comDown there at the bottom of a discussion of Patterson’s prospects of becoming governor, there is a fairly obvious hint that this is precisely what’s about to happen:

If Spitzer steps down, Paterson would move up – 13WHAM.com

Tuesday morning, Assemblyman Republican leader James Tedisco said he got a call from Paterson. Tedisco had been at odds with the Democratic Spitzer, but, Tedisco said Paterson asked if he would consider a fresh start.

It’s pretty obvious that Spitzer needs to step down, but to this moment, it has been less obvious that he would.  This phone call makes it seem like this may already be happening.  Indeed, speculation has been that Spitzer intended to use his stepping down as a part of a plea bargaining deal that would eliminate the need for him to be indicted.

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Client 9 from Outer Space: Morning Roundup

After all the craziness happened yesterday afternoon, it seems like a good idea to pull the pieces of the Spitzer Strumpet Scandal and add my own thoughts. Things moved fast through the blog community and elsewhere, and there’s a lot of ground to cover. I’m sure I’ll miss some stuff, so don’t be afraid to hit me with corrections in the comments. But be warned: this is a very long roundup!

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Spitz Pays for Girls Who Swallow

And he pays quite a bit.  According to the New York Sun (h/t TAP), these girls charged as much as $5,500 an hour.  Here’s a question: wouldn’t a guy who can afford that much be better served spending that money on a trip to the Bunny Ranch, where it’s legal?  There’s apt to be less FBI agents tapping the phones out there. . .

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Spitzer Busted for Solicitation of Prostitution

H/t to TalkingPointsMemo.com, from whence I find the story.  Well, if we have any defense against the coming onslaught of Republican cries of foul play in the Governor’s Mansion, it may only be that we can hope these girls were at least of age and probably not found in public bathrooms.  The same cannot be said of all Republican scandals:

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring – New York Times

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved. But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.