Re: Eliot Spitzer, antismoking leader, self-destructs

On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:27:02 -0500, Michael Mattias wrote:

> "Robert" <no@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
> news:03lbt3pivhlcl8o3ccdq9u5iqhg33rkhaf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Zero tolerance, no compromise, no mercy.
>>
>> Bye bye, hypocrite.
> 
> Well, he *has* been working tirelessly for twenty-plus years to keep his

> name at the center of public attention....

This saga prompts a thought...

I was wondering why the Democratic majority in congress has been so tame
and has basically gone along with just about everything George W. Bush has
wanted for the past year. This case may actually offer a clue.

With the massive expansion of monitoring of emails, financial
transactions, credit card records, phone calls, Internet accesses and s
forth by the government since the 9/11 attack, there must
be a huge amount of material available to the administration. 

They could then use that material to pressure all sorts of people to do
their bidding. This sort of thing is not without precedent. J. Edgar
Hoover was able to stay in charge of the FBI for many years when he
should have gone, re****tedly in large measure because he had a dossier on
most of the decision makers in government. Similarly Richard Nixon used
the
IRS to put pressure on his enemies.

There are so many laws and they are so complex that it is just about
physically impossible to avoid some infractions.

Tim