by the way -- >> run eliot spitzer? sanford up there?eat. >> that would actually be a funny poll for people. say, listen, of all the politicians you like who have been knocked out by their bizarre sexual behavior, who you would like to have back? >> i would say mark sanford. >> i want to get imogene in. eliot spitzer and mark, we're in business. >> he can't be cast as that anymore. i'm wondering, have the tea party won the bottle but lost the war in the next election for republicans? obama is about getting the independent votes. one of them, the tea partiers. is he claiming that? >> i don't think electoral positioning is about getting the censors. about setting up the, what's appropriate for him debates in 2012. in other words, he doesn't want debt limit. he wants mediscare talks. wants to make sure he's debating -- >> did you just make up a word? >> i'm the one who makes up words. >> no. mediscare is one we use all the time on the right. >> that's good. >> it's frailing. not in the center. it's framing. >> did you hear that? just trying

i found it ironic last night that eliot spitzer was interviewing people talking about these sorts of activities, and that cycle is going on and on. if you want to play a drinking game, you know, who wants to take bets of when we're going to have the first appearance of gloria allred? it's inevitable. i'm getting off the point a little bit here. but at some point i think it was around the time of the o.j. case where you had this confluence of a big public figure, it was a juicy trial, and cable news was just becoming a force. it changed the environment in which we operate, at least criminal system operates. because it's not just cases anymore, it's entertainment. it's a whole media frenzy on big cases. and i don't think that's a very good thing, but that is the environment in which we operate. and lawyers have to deal with that now. >> a very good point. we have some questions from the audience. i'm going to ask the first one for paulette. in taking tony's essence, who he is as a trial lawyer, how does you tell that story in the book? paulette's book is for sale in the lobby and also

nuremberg who now works at bank of america explain the martin act the martin act that that's what eliot spitzer was famous for that's what he went after he unless they can rebut it it's very wide sweeping it's basically saying you know if you've committed any form of fraud. we're going to charge you with this and make it a criminal and then i can tell you that it's now the new york attorney general who is extremely active in his investigation and i've seen some of the evidence that he's collected from a documentary filmmaker who has just finished a movie called the confidence games name is nick verbinski it's about the fraud instead of bear stearns and he has hours whistleblower tapes and it tapes the newly . he is looking at now. additionally what's more interesting is one of our whistleblowers his name is matt bando and he's in my at the atlantic story and he's in nick's moving man actually agreed to testify against bear stearns in a few weeks before he went out and does that position. he also was a lawyer j.p. morgan said you have to have a lawyer because you work for us and there is a sever

he strongly recommended it is not about the salacious i mean it's got that you know it's about eliot spitzer but basically the story line of it is he angry with a billionaire who goes on camera brags about it the billionaire hired roger stone. big they got some illegal stuff done people inside the government. releasing information they were supposed to release and they were able to figure out that spitzer was seen hookers and then they turned that into a major very expensive p.r. campaign and brought it down and and then they both bragged in the movie about how you know we took down this guy that was trying to take us down so now we've got schneiderman doing the same thing spitzer was doing or it seems you know trying to take on the billionaires of wall street assuming that he doesn't have hopers in his background. does he have other things to worry about i mean this is what he's raising a really critical question about this attorney general settlement and now none of us have seen the thought on that yet but if you would have passed me a piece of paper and asked me to write it what i would w

when you see someone like eliot spitzer and he has to cover the peck dill lows of a politician caughthere's a resonance there if you had someone with a straight journal iflt bach ground. >> sharpton was supposed to appear at an event but canceled because some of the members criticized the fact he was about to get the gig. what does that tell you about his attitude toward journal listic credibility? >> what we also saw was there were news stories that talked about the connection between the group that he runs and the way it got money from comcast and the way it advocated for approval of comcast taking overrunning nbc universal. did he cancel because people were having a discussion on the list serve or because he didn't want to deal with that larger public controversy. >> lesley stahl said he told her not to criticism president obama on anything because that would aid people who wanted to aid the president. the sharpton spokesman denied this. how do you give this nightly platform to somebody who reportedly claims he is not going to criticize the president? >> well, you know, that is som

look how quickly eliot spitzer renovated himself.or that quick rehabilitation. i think it's just -- wait -- go silent for a while. return with -- with a more sophisticated story. perhaps. and a more thoughtful attitude towards yourself. >> if you were to look at all the stories of humiliation in this book. you did say that you loved to read it. i'm assuming -- >> it makes me sick a little, but -- i'm on the side of the humiliated. it's a project of -- >> your ssolidarity was humilia quietly sickened by observing the humiliation. >> it is, but i learned how, i think, to be more humble in my own life by watching these spectacles and i don't think i engender the spectacles. we're not talking about abu ghraib which is just a whole -- >> that is a national humiliation. >> like liza minnelli i talk about a lot in the book. i i'd like in a way to see had you blow it on the air, but i still love her. >> you are, i think, somebody who speaks for a lot of people when you say that. and it's a pleasure to meet you and it's nice to see the book.