Anybody remember dear ole Newt G. serving his wife divorce papers while she was being treated for breast cancer? He jsut couldn't wait for her to get out of the hospital before he dumped her for his sweetheart. Seems to me that both sides of the aisle have a large share of sleezes. And Craig didn't resign as he promised, did he? I bet he's still doing to Bathroom Dance somewhere in DC. I often wonder why our politicians take such incredible risks with sex?

...is, where does a guy making $179,000 a year get $5,000 to blow on a hooker and her expenses?

You yanks are a hoot. Everywhere else we have politicians swinging from chandeliers in dimly lit hotel rooms with unidentified women (and sometimes men), while wearing tutus and doing strange things with bananas. Out here in the grown up world we have a bit of a laugh about it and move on. You guys destroy a perfectly good political career over it. Maybe the hypocrisy angle is a bad look but hypocrisy can be punished at the polls and in the public's opinion. Since when has it been a crime? - especially in an age when hypocrisy seems to be running rampant on so many other more important issues. WMDs and water torture anyone?

I think we have such lowlifes for politicians largely for two reasons:

1) Far and away, hubris. These people lose track of what they owe to others. They focus squarely on themselves and what they perceive as their needs. Politicians must have some deep well of arrogance or self-regard since it's brutal getting elected to anything of importance.

2) Power uniquely clouds one's vision. The more powerful some people become, the less they are able to see their own failings.

Obviously being involved in a sex scandal is enough to destroy someone's political career in America. Meanwhile, lying about WMD's, starting a disastrous war, allowing a major US city to be destroyed by a hurricane and failing to get even the most basic relief to the victims within a week... that's okay.

You people are making it very, very difficult indeed for those of us in the rest of the world to feel bad when something bad happens to you.

Hats off to Cary and headline writers at Salon for my little funny from before, but the Eliot Spitzer story plays into so many of my narratives, it is impossible to resist posting more.

We have too many laws, and the enforcement of them is often so unforgiving that I tend not to have any sympathy for law enforcement people when they themselves become ensnared in the machinery.

On the other hand, I tend to be forgiving generally and so I usually find it in my heart to give a break to a first offender in a victimless crime such as this one.

I liked the image they used over at the Huff Post, showing Eliot Spitzer ready to explode, along with his wife, the look of passive rage she has been cultivating for the past 21 years impossible to cover up. It isn't difficult for me to understand and sympathize with the kinds of fundamental sexual incompatibility that lead people to stray from their marriages. Because he had the resources and the position--and because of his deep sense of commitment to his marriage, probably--Mr. Spitzer chose to get his blow job from a trained professional rather than risk falling in love with a coworker or an intern. I kind of admire that.

Finally, it is sad, politically, because I loved watching him kick Wall Street's ass.

How many times, I wonder, will we continue to see things like this occur -- and still believe the words of politicians, rather than their deeds?

You wrote: "geez louise; You yanks are a hoot. Everywhere else we have politicians swinging from chandeliers in dimly lit hotel rooms with unidentified women (and sometimes men), while wearing tutus and doing strange things with bananas. Out here in the grown up world we have a bit of a laugh about it and move on. You guys destroy a perfectly good political career over it. Maybe the hypocrisy angle is a bad look but hypocrisy can be punished at the polls and in the public's opinion. Since when has it been a crime? - especially in an age when hypocrisy seems to be running rampant on so many other more important issues. WMDs and water torture anyone? -- ozziebear"

Yeah, Ozziebear, you just keep drinking that jingoistically-delicious Koala Koolaid; the only thing you have to be embarassed by is actually having to live in Australia, mate.

Waltz THAT, Matilda!

Q: What do you call a cross between an Australian and a dingo?

A: Nothing; there are some things even a dingo won't screw.

First, the answer:

For MCE007 and those who warn Obama about skeletal closets and houses of glass......

I feel pretty confident that whatever it is Barack does, it ain't hookers. I met his wife at a fundraiser and if he did that she'd KILL him. None of this "standing by your man at the press conference avowing support" for Michelle.

Next, the question:

The men out there are going to have to explain this to me. Why do men do this? You won't hear about Hillary funneling money to a hooker through a wire transfer across from the Dunkin Donuts on Long Island. Janet Napolitano and Kathleen Sibeleus aren't ever going to have to stand there with a husband at a press conference vowing to heal their families. No one is going to find Jennifer Granholm in a john putting one pump-shod foot in the next stall.

Why is it so difficult for men to keep it in their pants? I just don't get it. Forget the wives for a moment, why would they do this to their daughters? And their mothers. And sisters.

Clinton misbehaved with an intern while president. Spitzer hired a prostitute. Bush's actions, based on known false intelligence, has made the U.S. the poster boy for torture and caused the deaths of 4 thousand U.S. military and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Which is (are) the more immoral hurtful act(s).