Client 9: Spitzer Snoozer
Gibney falls back on trite story tells to reinforce his points of view. The jazzy soundtrack gives way to the chestnut “Love for Sale” as the escort service enters the narrative. And when it’s time to dump on the bankers Spitzer targeted, we see reams of money being printed as if it were the devil’s handiwork.
The film hints that prostitution is a perfectly acceptable line of work for the right go-getter. We hear one escort say her Johns treat her better than any boyfriend or date she ever had. Another swears her fellow escorts are whip-smart and know exactly what they’re doing. At the end of the day they’re providing an invaluable service — allowing married men to have a sexual release without making them resort to cheap affairs.
When ABC’s Diane Sawyer asks Spitzer’s now famous escort Ashley Dupre some tough questions, the documentary tsk-tsks Sawyer for assuming the moral high ground.
Why, let’s give these girls a medal and call it a day.
Gibney seems oddly intrigued by details of the case that would only matter to Dupre fanatics. Did you know her original song on MySpace got seven million hits after the news of Spitzer’s affair hit the news cycle? We even see a clip of her singing on Fox News during an interview with Geraldo Rivera.
And here‘s more compelling material about how Spitzer acted during his escort trysts from one of the girls at the service: “He was hiding. He didn’t want anyone to know who he was.”
The unnecessary details don’t end with the escort service. Here’s one of Spitzer’s former co-workers describing the governor’s wife, Silda.
“She was amazing to work with … one of the nicest people,” a Spitzer aide confesses.
Yawn.
The film alleges that Spitzer’s escort woes came to light thanks to the many powerful enemies he made along the way. Gibney doesn’t paint a convincing case here. Instead, he uses speculation and other tricks to put the pieces together. But so what? Any powerful politician is going to have enemies — or ideological foes eager to see them fall. Folks like former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg and veteran New York politician Joe Bruno were all too happy to see Spitzer’s disgraceful exit.
Gibney gets Spitzer on the record for the movie, but he clearly doesn’t ask the questions any thoughtful interviewer would. Let’s trot out a few quick ones any freshman journalism student could whip up during a coffee break:
What were you thinking while you were committing these acts? Didn’t you realize your entire career could evaporate at any moment? Do you have a self-destructive streak? How have you tried to heal your marriage? Do you think prostitution should be legalized? Did you at any point tell yourself, “No more. I have to stop this before things spiral out of control”? Are you considering a second chapter to your political career?
Instead, Spitzer coughs up airy platitudes about his fall from grace like, “It goes back to the days of Greek mythology. … It’s not a new story.”
Long story short — Spitzer made enemies with his combative style and gave them a huge opening with his unchecked libido. Sounds like he was ill equipped to be governor, let alone president.
Client 9 plays the “it’s only sex” card in the waning moments, lumping Spitzer in with fellow sinners like President Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Newt Gingrich. It’s such a sloppy argument that Gibney seems embarrassed to even bring it up, so he gives it precious little screen time and hands the dirty work over to performance artist Karen Finley.
The only truth Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer shares is that one of the most salacious political stories of the past decade can be rendered a bore in the wrong hands.
Who really cares about Spitzer??? I wouldn’t wast my time. And how a guy like that gets a show on CNN is a mystery to me. Just shows you that you can put anything on Cable TV these days.
Seems like this documentary maker is entitled to associate membership in JournoList and its spinoff Cabalist. Given the will, there is no limit to the massaging that will make a lefty look good. I look forward to his film on George Soros, the former Nazi collaborator.
Dis you really mean former?
That was supposed to be; Did you really mean former?
“Client 9 registers when it details the financial shenanigans Spitzer disrupted both as New York’s attorney general and, later, its governor. Gibney patiently breaks them down in a way even the financially illiterate can grasp and puts a human face on the damage they did.”
It was mostly a witch hunt, he wrongly accused innocent people for his own political gain, he is an evil man, a man that ruined far more lives than he supposedly helped, may Spitzer burn in hell
Client 9 registers when it details the financial shenanigans Spitzer disrupted both as New York’s attorney general and, later, its governor. Gibney patiently breaks them down in a way even the financially illiterate can grasp and puts a human face on the damage they did.
And I’m sure it was presented with as much objectivity and lack of bias as Spitzer’s investigations were.
The “Sheriff of Wall Street?” Puh-leez! Spitzer was the Joe McCarthy, the Cotton Mather of Wall Street. The Master of theatricality, thunderously denouncing his victims without a shred of actual evidence, and then quietly dropping charges when it became apparent he had squat.
Would AIG have suffered catastrophe had Hank Greenberg not been run off? It certainly would have had a better chance.
Spitzer was staying at a hotel in Washington DC when he called that New York escort service to send him an escort. She traveled from NY to Washington via Amtrak.
Legally, that meant that Spitzer had paid for interstate sex trafficking, which is a felony. That’s why the FBI investigated Spitzer–and why Spitzer resigned rather than face jail for that felony.
If the documentary didn’t make that clear, then it’s nothing but a Democrat polemic.
If he was better looking he could have got chicks for free and been the next Kennedy. Maybe he would’ve instituted a gov’t run whorehouse in the District of Columbia like they have in Istanbul. If Spitzer had not been outed there might have been men on Mars by 2020, with paid escorts to ease the way natch.
It’s funny to hear that The New York Times is praising a documentary that accuses, without evidence, Republicans of leaking the details of Spitzer’s dealings with prostitutes, since the story was broken … by The New York Times. Perhaps the Arts & Leisure section people should have a little chat with the folks on the Times’ Metropolitan desk about the facts as put forward in “Clint 9″, so at least both departments can get their stories straight.
Spitzer was going to be our first Jewish president?
I assume the director is from New York City, because you’d have to be either from there or from California to be that clueless. “Flyover country” would have never voted for the guy. Not because he’s Jewish, but because he’s an abrasive asshole. I know the NYC-LA axis hates it, but we get to vote, too.
I wonder why Gibney didn’t mention that Spitzer was shaking down the Wall Street guys he was investigating for contributions to Spitzer’s campaign for governor.
Spitzer the Spritzer gives the lie to the “dead girl, live boy” canard. Of course, he’s neither as charming and brazen as the Big Rock from Little Rock nor as lost in narcissistic obliviousness as Father Edwards of the Coiffe. In short he lacks the capacity for pathological self-delusion that seems to mark recent presidential papibili.
Nice, detailed review. Good work, Christian.
I am thankful this little Fascist Spitzer was caught w/ his pants down, he was destined to be a threat on the National level. Great review Mr. Toto, it is most valuable to never let these frauds get away with their lying.
Put it all on record and drive it to the top of internet searches by tagging ‘spitzer, kennedy, dead whores, clinton, scumbags’.
The Film asks many questions, and attempts to answer them. It would be so much simpler, and save so much time, to give them here: 1) Spitzer is a whore-dog, 2) because he is a whore-dog, 3) you know he is a whore-dog, 4) well, you know,that’s what whore-dogs do and finally- 5)the Left loves Liberal Whore-Dogs. Because they have no morals or standards, they can violate no morals or standards.