VIDEO-Client 9

Most people are familiar with the story of Eliot Spitzer and his ignominious end as the governor of New York after it was revealed that he had paid for sex with high priced call girls. What they are not familiar with is what led up to that end or why it happened. Client 9 is a documentary that answers those questions.

Eliot Spitzer was the fire eating District Attorney in New York City who took that office to unprecedented heights by going after big Wall Street players for real crimes. Spitzer made the SEC look bad. He made Wall Street look worse. He also had a style that gained him few friends and many enemies. Those enemies would be the ones that would undo Spitzer later when Eliot rode a political wave to become governor and a very likely contender to be the first Jewish president of the United States.

Basically, Spitzer had one weakness. He got into paying for sex. Unlike having an affair, paying for sex allows no emotional involvement or connection. Spitzer explains this in the film. Yes, the guy actually appears in the film and makes no excuses for his conduct. By the end of the documentary, Spitzer looks like a real hero while everyone else in New York turns out to be slimebags. Spitzer didn't play their game, but he had a chink in his armor which the slimebags exploited. It is blatant.

Compared to Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, Anthony Weiner, or John Edwards, the Spitzer scandal is small potatoes. Little is said from Spitzer's wife, and she seems very forgiving. Spitzer seems to have a newfound appreciation for her in the film.

Spitzer's biggest vice isn't the prostitutes but the hypocrisy. As a DA, he went after prostitution. You figure the guy would be sympathetic and maybe become more libertarian on the issue. But he doesn't.

On a sidenote, Ashley Dupre was not Spitzer's main girl. Their encounter was a one nighter. Dupre was just an opportunist who has been riding the instant fame ever since into a Playboy shoot and a newspaper column. Spitzer's main girl would not appear on camera and an actress read the interview responses this woman gave. This woman who we do not know or meet is the only person in the whole sordid affair who shows one bit of integrity. If there is a hero here, it is that woman. Unlike the rest of the slime including Spitzer and Dupre, she simply did her job and never took advantage of her client for her own gain.

I highly recommend this documentary. It opens the lid on the cesspool that is New York.

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