Copyright by John T. Reed

Eliot Spitzer got caught patronizing prostitutes.

That is against the law. Spitzer is the governor of New York which means he is the head of the executive branch of government. That includes law enforcement including prostitution law enforcement. He is also the former attorney general and made a point of prosecuting prostitution businesses when he held that job. So he, more than the vast majority of New Yorkers, needs to refrain from using prostitutes.

Should prostitution be legal?

Many have said that prostitution and using prostitutes should not be against the law. Maybe so. If Spitzer thinks that, that would be a reason for him to ask the legislature to repeal the law against prostitution, not a basis for him to violate the law.

Do I think prostitution should be illegal? I guess not. Victimless crime and all that. Seems like it’s a matter between the prostitute and her customer. I expect that legal prostitutes would result in reduced health and violence danger to both the prostitutes and their customers. Apparently, the choice is not between prostitution or no prostitution. It is between legal and illegal prostitution.

Like prohibition

It’s like prohibition. Such laws just give criminals a monopoly on a popular product or service—which is harmful to society. Ultimately, the people of the U.S. decided that they would rather have legal alcohol consumption than illegal alcohol consumption. And there has not been the slightest indication that the American people as a group regret that decision. Prostitution has long been legal in some Nevada counties and in some foreign countries. As far as I know, there have been no great adverse effects on society in those places.

I find prostitution creepy. I sure as hell would not want a daughter to be a prostitute. (I have three sons.) But there’s no accounting for taste—including taste in careers and sex partners.

Have I ever been to a prostitute? Nope. Never had the pleasure.

European standards

Many claim that Spitzer’s situation would not even make the papers in Europe. Maybe so. But unlike many Americans, I do not suffer from a cultural inferiority complex vis a vis the Europeans. Europe gave us one world war that started over the assassination of an archduke; another that started over punishing the losers of the first world war. Europe signed the Munich Pact. Europe is the Holocaust continent. Europe has a 7% unemployment rate because of its addiction to socialism in spite of all evidence that socialism does not work. The U.S. unemployment rate has generally been below 5% and is now. A large percentage of Italian men live in their mom’s home into their 40s. It has been well said that if two Frenchmen were stranded on a desert island, the first thing they would do is form five polictical parties. They drink warm beer and room temperature water, smoke cigarettes in great numbers, and let their children drink alcohol. Contrary to widespread myth, the latter practice has resulted in a higher percentage of teenage drinking problems in Europe than in the U.S. I could go on, but you get the idea.

I am not interested in adopting European standards on anything including sex.

Spitzer’s arrogance

Much has been made of Spitzer’s arrogance and self-righteousness and the hypocrisy inherent in his prostitute habit. Actually, he was no more arrogant the day before he got caught than he was the day New Yorkers chose him to be their governor or attorney general. Lots of famous people are arrogant from Steve Jobs, whom Jack Welch named the best CEO in America to Donald Trump to 1960s president John F. Kennedy to Bill Bennett to James Carville to Senators Kennedy and Byrd, etc., etc. If you want to complain about someone’s arrogance, do it when he is on top.

If hypocrisy is now a crime, I am glad to hear it. But I wonder if there are enough courts to handle all the cases. Plus, do the two major parties have time to find three non-hypocrites to replace Hillary, Obama, and McCain before election day?

Sex is a private matter?

When politicians get in trouble for having sex with someone to whom they are not married, many say, “It’s just sex. I don’t care what they do in private.” and all that.

I do care. So should everyone else. Probably most of the people who say that do so because they are themselves serial adulterers. Most recently, we heard that about John McCain’s New York Times story.

Private?

First. it’s not private if we are talking about it, is it?

Promise

Second, Spitzer and the rest of these guys made a solemn, public vow of physical intimacy exclusivity when they got married. They made a similar solemn, public vow when they were sworn into office. The marriage vow is the most important of the two. If the individual in question did not mean the marriage vow, why should we believe they meant the oath-of-office vow?

Third, the arithmetic of the decision of an official like Spitzer to use prostitutes is so wrong that you have to wonder about the man’s intelligence and/or sanity. The guy had the world by the tail. He was governor of New York after having been attorney general of New York. His future run for president of the United States—perhaps successful—seemed inevitable. As far as we know, he has a beautiful faithful wife and three lovely teenage daughters. How in the name of God did he figure that an hour with a prostitute was worth risking all of what he had?

Of course we ask ourselves the same question every time some high official gets caught in some sex scandal. Except for Bill Clinton, of course. He is allowed to do this stuff over and over and get completely away with it both with regard to his wife and daughter and with regard to keeping his high office.

Republicans have complained about the double standard where they are held to a higher sexual standard than the Democrats—citing in the Spitzer incident the reluctance of media to identify him as a Democrat while showing no such reluctance to reveal Republican sex scandal perps as Republicans. Actually, it’s a triple standard: Republicans, Democrats, and Bill Clinton who is allowed to get away with anything from rape to serial adultery and sexual harassment to pardoning criminals who contributed to him to accepting bribes disguised as his wife’s commodities profits and so on.

‘It’s a tragedy’

Virtually every commentator has said this is tragic or a tragedy.

Will I say that? No. I do not traffic in clichés. But I do find it interesting that it was not a tragedy when Bill Clinton did it to Hillary and Chelsea. Why is that?

McCain’s comment

McCain declined to comment about the McCain situation. What a great guy! Refusing to get down in the mud. Taking the high road.

Or was McCain reluctant to get into this because of his own many admitted infidelities during his first marriage after he returned from being a war hero in Vietnam.

Hillary’s advice to Mrs. Spitzer

Stand by your man—at least if you have any political aspirations of your own.

Blackmail

One of the criticisms of Spitzer is that by using a prostitute, he opened himself up to blackmailing.

Not necessarily. For one thing, this is an accusation that was long used as a reason to deny gays important positions and military service.

You are not subject to blackmail unless you agree to pay blackmail. The target of blackmail can simply just say no rather than paying blackmail in the form of cash or favors. There is no indication that Spitzer paid blackmail or even was asked to. Essentially, wait until blackmail is actually paid before you worry about blackmail.

Furthermore, the evidence so far is that the hookers in this story were paragons of discretion and promise keeping in this scandal. They promised not to out Spitzer—which would be bad for their business with other prominent leading citizens—and they kept their promise. It was Spitzer’s lack of discretion, not hooker blackmail that outted him.

Rush Limbaugh’s parody

The day after the scandal broke, Rush Limbaugh already had a hilarious parody song which features Bill Clinton (Paul Shanklin does the voice) singing to the tune of Love Potion Number 9. The Spitzer parody song, however, is Love Client Number 9. Among the lines are

He should have given her an intership
I could have taught him how to bite his lip

I presume that you can hear Limbaugh’s parodies on the Internet at Libmbaugh’s Web site http://www.rushlimbaugh.com, but I could not figure out how when I tried to get the URL for you.

John T. Reed