I don't want to weigh in on prostitution. Getting paid a 1,000 dollars to have sex with someone hardly seems a crime in either direction. As Glen and others mentioned, there is a distinction between slavery/kidnapping and consensual sex for money. Did he get the shaft from the DOJ. Of course, but for me and a lot of people I don't think that's the point. The bottom line is that he DID commit a crime, perhaps even more than one, when the banking irregularities are sorted out. These charges are not trumped up.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Spitzer scandal will have traction with people not for moral reasons but because the average american is hemmed in on all sides by callous laws that they cannot even bend, much less break. If a working class person bounces a check, it can lead to a cascade of fees that will lead to more bounced checks, and can literally make someone's nest egg disappear overnight. This is literally the definition of injustice, transferring the funds from a poor person to a gigantic corporation. Parking tickets, speeding tickets, street cleaning ordinances, and quality of life crimes, car towing, all the dangerous missteps that a person must face in the day to day, with no quarter given. I was once arrested for pissing in an abandoned lot and spent two days in jail before I could find a bailbondsman who would bond me. I'm not kidding. I should have been cited and released, but unfortunately did not have the benefit of counsel.

What I think angers people about these issues is not the morality, its not even the crime, its the legal noose that seems to only tighten around the necks of the poor and working class. There is a different standard for the rich and powerful. And, right or wrong, that's no small thing...

Glenn and others, out of curiosity: Allowing that the DOJ purposefully went after Spitzer with everything but the kitchen sink. Allowing that if there is anything morally wrong about prostitution, it certainly wouldn't apply in this case, where the prostitute involved was gettting paid an exorbitant (1,000 dollars) amount to do the deed. Allowing that there was nothing either unethical or illegal about the wire transfers and banking activity.

Allowing all that. What should be done about Spitzer? He is the governor of NYS, after all. What is the answer to put this issue to rest?

New Jersey will have its first African American governor.

Seriously peoples...there have been a lot of great responses here deserving of discusion in my opinion, but the Battle Against Tina marginalizes all of them. Its just one person, you know, and an intractable argument.

Her points are ridiculous, why address them? Why do so many of the pages in these two Spitzer pieces have her name all over them?

I'm not defending you. My point is that there are other issues to be discussed on the Spitzer topic. This is not a case conducive to bring up the social costs of prostitution or whether it should illegal--high price call girls are really outside of any of that discourse. If Spitzer had been caught with a sex slave from a third world country or a street prostitute, or drug addicted street prostitute, your arguments would be worth examining.

...or should have done, given that he already resigned...that sounds far more interesting...if he shouldn't have resigned, then what should he have done? What could he have done?

"or implying Kstone has a fantasy life involving high class hookers"

What a waste of time that would be. If you're going to bother fantasizing about women, you should start with having them WANT to sleep with you...

Oh, Bamage, if you only knew.

thanks for adding a one of the few sane voices to this thread...

i think its interesting to note just how little the word 'prostitution' does to elucidate the very many socio-economic-political situations in the world that are involved with sexual acts for money. I have known, in my time, several "so-called" sex workers. What they do is legal, they provide a fantasy for a the client, the client gets himself off (on the books at least). Is that prostitution. Should it be, illegal? Lapdance, prostitution? Its legal in my state. What's the difference between a lap dance and a handjob?

From what I understand, straight sex prostitution in this country is not an overwhelming public health issue. But in other countries its a huge vector for communicable diseases--in South Africa something like 10% of the Black-African population has HIV; the problem of children left orphaned from HIV is gigantic there, something we don't really have in this country on that level.

What I am saying is, prostitution is many things even within the same country. Pick your situational prostitution and look for a solution to it, you'll have not much time left over to wonder if Elliot Spitzer violated anybody's rights by paying one thousand dollars to have sex with somebody.

Lapdance...many men have been known to 'complete' right there and then, using it as a safe, relatively inexpensive and legal form of prostitution.

...I mean, sheesh.

Sarcasm has its place, outside of arguments and discussions it can be quite nice to sample. But in electronic missives and internet cage matches, it can be a bit of a problem. I do like Glenn's writing and incredible research, but his weakest skill is in the sarcasm department--its generally clumsy, offensive, unfunny, and mischaracterizing.

And yes, I am also surprised at the endurance this plucky little thread continues to show, now at midnight EST!!!!