Abstract
Client #9, Elvis impersonations, and a bad sense of geography highlight this chapter dealing with three governors who behaved badly. Two governors—Spitzer and Sanford—were guilty of sexual transgression and the third—Blagojevich—took the idea of “pay to play” to the highest level, trying to sell the US Senate seat just vacated by President Obama to the highest bidder. All three qualify as scandals, but perhaps Spitzer and Blagojevich get much more credit for contributing to pop culture than Sanford and his poor attempt at covering up his affair.
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Notes
- 1.
At least the scandal that brought him down was simple.
- 2.
Koppell had been appointed by the state legislature to fill out the remainder of the term of Robert Abrams who, after losing a bid for the US Senate in 1992, resigned in late 1993.
- 3.
This was Elliot Broidy , a major fund-raiser for the Republican Party, who would later be involved in the Donald Trump /Stormy Daniels controversy by using Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen to make a hush money payment to a Playboy model with whom he had an affair.
- 4.
This quote was also reported by Lloyd Constantine in his book (2010) as “Listen, I’m a fucking steamroller, and I’ll roll over you and anybody else.” Constantine reported that the line was delivered to Tedisco when he complained to the governor about being left out of discussions for an ethics bill.
- 5.
This became known in New York politics as Troopergate , which should not be confused with a scandal with the same name involving Sarah Palin’s use of the State Police in Alaska.
- 6.
There was even one dubious story about how Spitzer preferred to engage in sex with the escorts while still wearing his socks, giving the events the additional potential nickname of “the black sox scandal” recalling the name of the scandal involving the throwing of the World Series by the Chicago White Sox in 1919. The dubious nature stems from the story’s source, longtime Republican political operative, Roger Stone .
- 7.
The full title of Peter Elkind’s (2010) book is: Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer .
- 8.
Dupre was the stage name of Ashley DiPietro, who was suing her stepfather’s last name, but had been born Ashley Youman’s.
- 9.
Constantine (2010) asserts that Spitzer had a different take on the mood of the Assembly. Spitzer, he notes, told him that Silver couldn’t control the chamber , but given the battle over the Comptroller vacancy it was not likely that Silver would have been motivated to control the chamber on Spitzer’s behalf.
- 10.
The rationale was the exigency created by the potential vote of the US Senate on the Affordable Care Act while the seat was vacant. Part of the argument was that it would be a shame to not have the seat held for so long by one of the nation’s most ardent supporters of healthcare reform being vacant when a vote on that subject might take place.
- 11.
This process was going on at the same time as the one in Illinois .
- 12.
According to The New York Times (Davey 2008), jokes were frequently made about Blagojevich requiring staffers to always have a hairbrush handy, likening the brush to a president’s “nuclear football.”
- 13.
See Chapter 1 for an explanation.
- 14.
Eventually, Vrdolyak lost much of his influence in the City Council and later, after electoral defeats as a Democrat, he switched parties and became a Republican .
- 15.
The conviction also included a prohibition from ever serving in elective office in Illinois .
- 16.
Though he got this ranking from the libertarian think tank, Sanford was also rated by Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (in the same year—2009) as one of the 11 worst governors in the country for their concerns about ethics issues during his administration.
- 17.
Allegedly, this occurred only once, but the investigation into whether or not he had revealed other questionable uses of public resources for private purposes.
- 18.
His wife, Jenny, was front and center in the news quite a bit right after his affair was discovered.
- 19.
Which he lost to Scott Stringer and the may have been fueled by the presence of Anthony Weiner in the mayoral race and the new sexual impropriety accusations against him serving as a reminder to voters of Spitzer’s own prior bad behavior.
- 20.
As opposed to “supermarket tabloids” like The National Enquirer or Star.
- 21.
Using the search terms “New York tabloid headlines about Spitzer .”
- 22.
“Rough Sox” is a reference to Spitzer’s alleged desire for rough sex and keeping his socks on while engaged with the escorts .
- 23.
Here, The News is playing off the bestselling book title The Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander and by coincidence one of the leaders of the prostitution ring in the scandal had the same last name—Hollander.
- 24.
In total.
- 25.
Martin and Lewis were a comedy team appearing in concert-style performances, night clubs, on television , and in movies. Dean Martin was also known for his talent as a musical performer, perhaps best known for his rendition of That’s Amore . When the act split up Martin became known for running with the group of performers called “the Rat Pack ” that included Frank Sinatra and formed the nucleus of the cast of the original Ocean’s 11 movie from 1960. Jerry Lewis had a successful movie career of his own and was, perhaps, best known as the host of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s annual Labor Day Telethon.
- 26.
Or, in this case it might be more like telling your spouse you’re going with a work buddy and getting caught on the kiss cam.
References
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Twombly, J. (2019). Governors Gone Wild: Buying Sex, Selling Senate Seats, and Hiking the Appalachian Trail. In: Political Scandal and American Pop Culture. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01340-0_5
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