Spitzer, whores better than Muslims?

So Spitzer is okay doing business with whores, but not Muslims?

"Eliot Spitzer quits Current TV following sale to Al Jazeera"

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/eliot-spitzer-end-his-show-on-current-tv/

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/01/07/eliot-spitzer-quits-current-tv-following-sale-to-al-jazeera/

Maybe he got offered a job at Fox, as the new Alan Colmes?

He does kinda look like him

Hmm, that's kind of a stretch, Joe.

Spitzer was ashamed to be publicly associated with whores.

So he's a bit of a weasel and a hypocrite, perhaps.

But in that first article, he certainly is careful to make all the right respectful statements about Al Jazeera and to downplay any possible anti-Muslim implications. He sees his current role as more of a partisan advocate than a journalist, and that's why he's leaving, he says. We can believe him or not, but there it is.

Quote :

Mr. Spitzer said his departure was “more of my instigation than theirs, truth be told.” It was not, he said, because of controversy around Al Jazeera.

“I view Al Jazeera as a very serious journalistic outfit,” he said. “They have proven to observers around the world that they are serious and objective. They will have to, at a P.R. level, prove to the American public that that is the case. And I think that over time they will succeed at doing that.”

“For me,” he continued, “journalism has been more a matter of projecting a particular approach to covering policies, to covering issues. It was a continuation of what I tried to do in government. And that doesn’t fit with their vision of what they are going to do.”

Peter Urkowitz wrote:

So he's a bit of a weasel and a hypocrite, perhaps.

I don't see the "perhaps" as easily as you do...

Peter Urkowitz wrote:

Spitzer was ashamed to be publicly associated with whores.

Yeah, but only after he got caught. He was supposedly the top law enforcement official in NY, then he became Governor, all the while having committed crimes himself. Crimes he directly and indirectly prosecuted other people for.

When he says things like, "It [journalism] was a continuation of what I tried to do in government. And that doesn’t fit with their vision of what they are going to do.” It's kinda hard to know what he means given his the ACTUAL things he brought to government.

He just looks like a political hack worried about his future political career, trying to avoid being directly associated with a Muslim business.

Because some people still equate Muslims with terrorists, or homosexuality with pedophilia. Those same people get pissed if you make the similar conclusions about all priests are pedophiles or all NRA members are gun nuts.

I guess i'm just saying Mr. Spitzer lost his credibility as far as I'm concerned. I think laws against marijuana and prostitution are wrong, but I don't think that gives me the right to break them, let alone become a law enforcement official and break them.

People keep trying to cut Spitzer slack, saying he was no different than President Clinton, but Clinton had an affair, with a consenting adult. Spitzer was Attorney General of NY, while he paid for prostitutes, breaking laws he was empowered to enforce in addition to breaking his marriage vows.

I dont know, maybe he has a right to be poitician an try an rehab his image. It just bugs me to see him scurry away from the posibility a rednecked voter might see Fox News say Spitzer worked for terrorists.

Yeah, I see what you're saying, Joe. Certainly, if Spitzer has no credibility left, then it's fair enough to put the worst possible interpretation on anything he does. And from that perspective, abandoning ship as soon as Al Jazeera takes the helm does make him look like a rat!

I guess I've been influenced by occasionally reading Spitzer's blog at Slate:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/spitzer.html

He's not always brilliant, but a lot of stuff he writes there has made sense. It is true that he's pretty relentlessly partisan, but since he's mostly on my side, I've been mostly happy to hear most of what he says. There have been a few times when I did kinda shake my head and think, Spitzer should stay off this topic. I don't remember the exact examples, but they were things like this, issues where he was calling somebody out for a lack of integrity or whatever.

I dunno if i would ever vote for him, though. I would hope I wouldn't have to make that choice. But if it were some important election, down to just him versus, say for example, Rick Santorum, I would have no problem forgiving Spitzer for his past hypocrisy.

Peter Urkowitz wrote:

I dunno if i would ever vote for him, though. I would hope I wouldn't have to make that choice. But if it were some important election, down to just him versus, say for example, Rick Santorum, I would have no problem forgiving Spitzer for his past hypocrisy.

Fair enough. And to be sure, I really don't care about the guy's personal life, that's his own affair (ouch, and crap I wasn't even trying on that one), my only issue is his breaking the law while being a law enforcement official.

And I completely agree, the man is an impassioned, articulate advocate, but he's a flawed vessel now. For me, his motivations are now all suspect. Like you said above...

Peter Urkowitz wrote:

There have been a few times when I did kinda shake my head and think, Spitzer should stay off this topic. I don't remember the exact examples, but they were things like this, issues where he was calling somebody out for a lack of integrity or whatever.

[quote="Joe Lee"

And I completely agree, the man is an impassioned, articulate advocate, but he's a flawed vessel now. For me, his motivations are now all suspect. Like you said above...

[/quote]


This is very much the way I felt about Bill Clinton when all of his indiscretions were coming to light at the end of his presidency. They weren't the most serious allegations for sure, not crimes, I just had expected better of him. Twelve plus years later, I think he's one of our best ex-presidents, due to his humanitarian efforts, second slightly to Jimmy Carter. If Spitzer continues good work without additional falls from grace, years from now he might well find a place again in public office. It's only a 'maybe' though, he's not the silver tongued charmer that Bubba is!

I watched the first episode of Spitzer's show on Current TV. The show began with the controversy over the death of Trayvon Martin. Specifically, Spitzer said "Why won't the local police charge George Zimmerman in Martin's death?" Yet the local police who arrested George Zimmerman actually did request charges from the local prosecutor, and only released Zimmerman after the prosecutor denied their request. Now the average person may not be aware of criminal procedure, but the average Law & Order watcher could tell you that police don't charge criminals, prosecutors do. So I would have hoped that a former attorney general-turned-journalist would have discussed these, but alas he went for the superficial analysis. After five minutes, I was done with the show, and as it turned out, the network.

The guy who replaced Spitzer is very smart. Much more on the ball than Spitzer. He, I believe is a comedian. A friend of Stephanie Miller. He reminds me of Rachel Maddow in that he's young, very smart, very quick and always seems very well prepared. Sometimes moreso than the guests. Sadly Current doesn't have a huge audience. With any luck a real channel will recognize the guys potential.

That's cool. Why do we ever hire politicians for jobs when we should know that comedians would do it better?

Peter Urkowitz wrote:

That's cool. Why do we ever hire politicians for jobs when we should know that comedians would do it better?

Have you met Senator Franken?

Exactly! I understand that Franken is doing a pretty good job.

Very good, yes. Not all that shocking either, I would say. Despite some of his more provacative statements or the titles, his books and his radio show, had shown Franken to be a well read, thoughtful liberal, well versed in the issues and the mechanics of politics, who was friends with Paul Wellstone. Whose seat he would eventually claim for himself.

Isn't it kinda part of their job?

Comedians like Franken, or Stewart, Colbert satirists, editorial cartoonists, anyone who's humor is current event based, politics, they have to be more knowledgable than most or they wouldn't be any good at what they were doing, they woulhave to be Carrot Top or gallagher.