Playgirl calling ex-Gov. Spitzer: Get 'yer chin up: The Swamp

Posted March 20, 2008 8:15 AM

by Andrew Malcolm

You gotta love New York, at least when you're not there. It's been such an entertaining place to watch the last 10 days.

What with the ex-prosecutor who went after prostitutes legally before he went after them individually on his way to adding ex-governor to his resume. And Kristen, the New Jersey girl who went wild in Miami before her price went way up for Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who in generous appreciation of a friend and major donor used his name as a hotel pseudonym for the illicit liaisons.

And as if making a serial movie called "Guvs Gone Wild," the ex-governor's replacement, a blind African American Democrat named David Paterson -- who accidentally ascended to the Empire State's political leadership and thrilled his inaugural audience with a calming, good-natured speech -- admitted to a newspaper reporter that he'd had an affair during his 16-year marriage, and then his wife, Michelle, confessed that she had too.

And then one day into his term the new governor said that, well, actually, he'd had several affairs, some more recently than he'd originally indicated, and one of them was with a female state employee but he hadn't knowingly used any state funds in his gallivanting.

Perhaps weirdest of all, Albany's routinely rancorous Republican leadership dismissed it all as Paterson's personal business.

And now today Playgirl, seemingly seriously, offered money and pubic publicity to the unemployed ex-governor to join its glossy pages of naked hunks and show off his huge chin. "Seriously," the magazine's website announced today, "get in touch with us. We're ready to make you a very attractive offer."

It's going to be hard to top all that in this election year. Maybe if Oprah ran off with Ron Paul?

Nah, not even that would do it.

(Photo of Gov. Spitzer by Alan Raia / Newsday)

Andrew Malcolm writes for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times political blog

Comments

So affairs are no big deal anymore on either side?

Sounds like France to me. Imagine a former President's funeral where the former mistress is in attendance

Posted by: RomanB | March 20, 2008 9:38 AM

"get yer chin up..."??? I thought thats what he would have said to her!

Posted by: Steve Hussein S | March 20, 2008 10:18 AM

This countries citizens have a big laugh when a prominent politician is brought down. I don't. The Republicans had the FBI and the Republican Attorney General to probe all Democratic Elected Governorships. They convicted the Democratic Governor of Alabama a few years ago. A Repulican took his place. They are probing Illinois Blagoevich. Yes, they got Spitzer. This is pay back for Nixon's impeachement back in the 70's. The even tried to get Bill Clinton the republican led congress. This is why the Democratics when they gained control of the Senate got the other Attorney General fired. Politics is corrupt my friend. And if George Bush didn't like Mayor Daley that much he would have had the Mayor of this city too but he let him off the hook because of respect for the Mayor and his family and legacy "Papa Daley" and the power this family has had over the generations. I'm not kidding.

Posted by: American First | March 20, 2008 10:23 AM

My French wife always wonders why extra-marital affairs are such a big deal in the US - not that she'd have that opinion if it were me, mind you - but she maintains that she'd feel much more secure if she knew that the guy with his finger on the nuclear button was not some sexually repressed maniac, better a relaxed human being. I told her to ignore the current US election prospects, then. There isn't a relaxed human being even close to the horizon anymore.

Posted by: Dr. Duncan Druhl | March 20, 2008 11:19 AM

The NY Daily News is reporting that new Gov. David Paterson, Spitzer's successor, is now admitting that he used campaign funds to pay for a tryst with one of his mistresses, a lady that works in (and I didn't make this up) Paterson's Office of "Intergovernmental Affairs". Campaign law violation, anyone?

The tryst was (appropriately) charged to "constituent services".

"A Daily News review found that in a handful of other campaign expenditures, Paterson may have used campaign funds to cover personal expenses and misstated their purpose in public disclosure forms."

Throw the crook (and bum) out.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/20/2008-03-20_gov_paterson_says_he_may_have_used_campa.html

Posted by: Bruce | March 20, 2008 11:45 AM

Do any women really read PlayGirl? I don't think a lot of women really get off on naked pictures. I think gay men are keeping that thing in print.

Posted by: Jeff | March 20, 2008 1:07 PM

I hope the story of Playgirl making that offer is true! Spitzer deserves that kind of predatorial treatment.

On a psychological note, I've heard two convincing perspectives on why he did what he did:

1. He subconsciously tried to sabotage himself because he's had a change of heart about his political aspirations...

2. A majority of men who pursue power do so to get laid. They want access to lots of women and this is the way.

Anyway...I sure hope Silda is getting checked out by the gyno. This guy is pretty reckless and disgusting...

Posted by: Sue | March 20, 2008 6:06 PM

Let me pray, and I am not a praying man;