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We can debate the relative morality of prostitution until the cows come home. Illegal does not necessarily equal Wrong.
There is a term "Equal Justice Under The Law" - perhaps you've heard of it?
Mr. Spitzer, sworn to uphold the law, broke it. Mr. Clinton, having taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, lied under oath.
In both cases, regardless of the reason for it, they lied and violated laws, rendering their word worthless when it comes to any future oaths they might ever take. It's called dishonesty.
Spitzer is a hypocrite whose form of crusading justice has resulted in the incarceration of many people who probably felt that they were really doing nothing "wrong" when they broke the laws that resulted in their arrest and prosecution.
Messers. Bush and Cheney probably thought they were doing nothing wrong when they compelled the telcos to wiretap without a warrant.
If you don't like the a law, our form of government allows you to publicly petition or lobby to have it changed. There is also an American tradition of civil disobedience, where you publicly and explicitly break a law in order to emphasize its injustice.
Once people in power decide arbitrarily which laws to obey and which to ignore, and do so surreptitiously, we are faced with a situation whereby there is no real respect for law by the people sworn to uphold it.
When you are empowered with enforcing and representing the word of law, you cannot choose to violate those same laws with impunity and expect to be taken seriously by intelligent people.
We don't live in a perfect world, and politicians lie and break the law every day.
However, if we are to continue to move towards the ideals established by our founding fathers, the law cannot tolerate dishonesty on the part of those people empowered to create and enforce it.
A lawyer is merely a politician in larval form...
