Internal Revenue Service (IRS) watch-post in Long Island. The official version has the IRS man noting Spitzer's name, then passing the information up the food chain to the Justice Department, and the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Instead of the banks being curious on their own, what if the feds told the banks to report all of Spitzer's wire transfers to them? It seems likely, and if so, we have here in outline a sting operation which raises another pressing question: who exactly was it who put Spitzer in touch with Emperors Club in the first place? Who was it who first steered the feds in Spitzer's direction?

Relevant here are remarks on CNBC last night, following Spitzer's resignation, by Ken Langone. The billionaire venture capitalist was a New York Stock Exchange board member whom Spitzer had gone after when he was attorney general. Langone later proclaimed he was launching "a holy war" against Spitzer.

CNBC: "Would you say that you were surprised by this news?"

Langone: "Not at all... I know for sure he went himself to a post office and bought $2,800 worth of mail orders to send to the hooker... I know somebody who was standing in back of him in line..."

As a 20-year veteran of Wall Street emailed me a propos of Langone's remarks: "Spitzer's enemies on Wall Street probably hired private eyes to follow him. I know this to be standard operating procedure against Wall Street enemies."

Once the wheels were set in motion, it seems, we had the unedifying spectacle of the full resources of the state devoted to exposing Spitzer’s various rendezvous with call-girls, primarily the comely 22-year-old 'Kristen'.

Spitzer's role as the sole target in this recruitment of investigative and prosecutorial manpower since July 2007 is evidenced by the malicious insertion in the prosecutor's indictment of a hint from the phone taps about his sexual preferences (reminiscent of Kenneth Starr's detailed disclosures about the minutiae of physical transactions