US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions on Monday about the sex scandal engulfing Eliot Spitzer, her home state governor and political ally.
"I don't have any comment on that. Obviously I am sending my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family," Clinton said, opening her first campaign swing through Pennsylvania, which holds its presidential primary on April 22.
Spitzer apologized on Monday after he was accused of paying for sex with a call girl. Authorities say he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging a tryst with the woman at a Washington hotel room.
It was a blow to Clinton, who recently intensified her criticism of rival Barack Obama's relationship with Antoin Rezko, a political patron on trial in federal court in Obama's hometown of Chicago for alleged fraud and corruption.
While not personally close, Clinton and Spitzer have been friendly colleagues ever since the former first lady first ran for a US Senate in New York in 2000.
Her aides said Clinton deeply respected Spitzer's work during his two terms as state attorney general, during which he became a national crusader against corporate corruption and Wall Street investment excesses.
Spitzer faced pressure to resign yesterday as well as questions about whether he would be prosecuted.
A New York Times report said he hired a US$1,000-an-hour prostitute and was caught on a wiretap at least six times on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 arranging to meet her.
Spitzer, a married 48-year-old who investigated prostitution as attorney general, apologized for what he described as a "private matter," but said nothing about resigning.
He neither confirmed nor denied the report.
Spitzer was slow to endorse Clinton's White House bid and has not been among her more forceful surrogates. But he is one of her all-important superdelegates, elected officials and party leaders who could play a decisive role in determining who becomes the presidential nominee.
If Spitzer resigns, he would not be replaced as a superdelegate, meaning Clinton would lose one, according to the Democratic National Committee. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson would become governor and he is already a superdelegate supporting Clinton.
Clinton declined to say whether she believed Spitzer could survive the scandal.
The New York Times said in an editorial that Spitzer's insistence it was a "private matter" displayed arrogance.
"He did not just betray his family in a private matter. He betrayed the public and it is hard to see how he will recover from this mess and go on to lead the reformist agenda on which he was elected to office," the paper said.
News of the scandal rocked Wall Street, where brokers resented Spitzer's high-profile inquiries into financial cases when he was the state's chief prosecutor.
The Wall Street Journal said Spitzer had shown his lack of restraint in overly aggressive tactics as attorney general, making "extraordinary threats" to entire firms and to those who criticized his pursuit of high-profile Wall Street figures.
"The stupendously deluded belief that the sitting Governor of New York could purchase the services of prostitutes was merely the last act of a man unable to admit either the existence of, or need for, limits," the Journal wrote in an editorial about what it said was almost a Shakespearean fall.
"Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined," the paper said.
Indirectly, Spitzer caused Clinton a significant political headache late last year when he proposed a plan to provide illegal immigrants with drivers' licenses.
During a debate, Clinton tripped over a question about whether she supported the proposal, prompting criticism that she was being evasive.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS