This week Americans have been rocked, according to the New York Times, by Governor Eliot Spitzer’s patronage of a high-end prostitution ring. Just for my own entertainment, I’ve made a few simple changes to the paper’s report, imagining what it might be like if the public reacted as viscerally to Bush’s recent veto of a Bill opposing CIA torture tactics. Oh, if only torture were as reprehensible as infidelity.

Bush Is Linked to Torture Ring

(With thanks and apologies to Danny Hakim and William K Rashbaum, writing for the New York Times.)

ALBANY WASHINGTON— Gov Eliot Spitzer President George W Bush was a client of a high-end prostitution ring broken up last week by federal authorities, according to law-enforcement officials actively supported CIA torture tactics on Saturday, a development that threatened to end his career and turned the state’s political world upside down.

[…]

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong,” the governor president said. “I apologise first and most importantly to my family. I apologise to the public to whom I promised better.

“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

[…]

The news was met with disbelief and shock in Albany Washington, 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 LT Wright, a Democratic assemblyman from Harlem. “Everybody is stunned. Everybody is absolutely stunned.”

Mr Spitzer President Bush has not been charged with a crime. But one law enforcement official who has been briefed on the case said that Mr Spitzer’s the president’s lawyers would probably meet soon with federal prosecutors to discuss any possible legal exposure.

[…]

By 10.30am on Monday morning, it was clear in Albany Washington that something was wrong. Mr Spitzer’s President Bush’s office abruptly cancelled a speech to a family planning conference, about a half-hour before he was scheduled to ascend the podium.

[…]

Mr Spitzer’s President Bush’s family and his top assistants debated Monday morning at Mr Spitzer’s apartment the White House about whether he should step down, a person who spoke to the governor president said. Silda Wall Spitzer Laura Bush, who was among them, told her husband that he should not resign in haste; as did Lloyd Constantine, a senior adviser and a long-time friend of the governor president. But most of his others saw no way for him to survive.

[…]

“Every year you say you’ve seen it all, but you haven’t,” said Matthew Mataraso, a lobbyist who started his career at the Capitol in 1962 as a lawyer for a Republican assemblyman. “It’s a shame. It’s awful. This is why people lose faith in government. But I guess it shows that he’s human like everybody else.”

Anthony Casale, a lobbyist and a former assemblyman who came to the Capitol on Monday for the scheduled Assembly session, was in disbelief. “Literally, if ever a situation finds anybody in politics speechless, it’s something like this,” he said.

Republicans Democrats were quick to pounce, with the state party and a top lawmaker calling for him to resign.

Mr Spitzer’s fellow Democrats President Bush’s fellow Republicans were muted in their response.

[…]

In one such the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case in 2004, Mr Spitzer President Bush spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

[…]

“We’ve discovered these abuses; they’re abhorrent abuses. They do not reflect — the actions of these few people do not reflect the hearts of the American people. The American people are just as appalled at what they have seen on TV as the Iraqi citizens have. The Iraqi citizens must understand that. And, therefore, there will be a full investigation, and justice will be served. And we will do to ourselves what we expect of others.

“And when we say, you’ve got human rights abuses, take care of the problem, we will do the same thing. We’re taking care of the problem. And it’s — it is unpleasant for Americans to see that some citizens, some soldiers have acted this way, because it does — again, I keep repeating, but it’s true — it doesn’t reflect how we think. This is not America. America is a country of justice and law and freedom and treating people with respect.”

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Arthur Attwell

Arthur Attwell

Arthur Attwell is a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, co-founder of Electric Book Works and Bettercare, and founder of Paperight. He lives in Cape Town. On Twitter at @arthurattwell.

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