Leaving aside the hypocrisy and the foolishness of using prostitutes while being such a public person,

-- gym042

That sentiment has been voiced a few times in this thread, and in general with issues like this one hit the news. I don't believe it is all that unusual for someone in a position of power or authority, or involved on law enforcement in one way or another, to have paid for a prostitute. I'm sure that the client list of high finance call girl organizations are loaded with such people. I'm sure that many regular every day policemen have imbibed in the act of paying for prostitutes. It just isn't so unusual that one should be singled out as more "foolish" than a great many other people who are in positions similar to Spitzer's who have been, are now, or will be involved with prostitutes

The corporate media is happier than the proverbial pigs in shit about stories like this.

Our celebrity infotainwhores and self-appointed Moral Arbiters* absolutely revel in supercilious sanctimony and melodramatic moral outrage.

Agree or disagree with the merits-- the serious, rational, dispassionate analysis provided by Glenn is atypical, though much welcomed by his appreciative readers. But to the extent that this contretemps develops "legs" (shapely, smooth, wide-stanced oiled legs), those legs will run on the low road. It's the kind of thing that will generate a tsunami of cheap shots, from late-night teevee monologues to a plethora of articles on blogs like the trash-tabloid Huffington Post.

It will be the usual two-pronged assault: pearl-clutching, severe High Dudgeon from the New York Times and Beltway media elite, and jeering snark from the pop culture segment.

And unlike the reprehensible Vitters and Craigs, who are essentially tolerated and supported by their colleagues, my guess is that Spitzer will be hung out to dry, and left twisting slowly in the wind.

I'm especially looking forward to the press conference by Hillary Clinton-- with her soul mate Holy Joe Lieberman at her side to radiate pious disapproval.

* I am objectively pro-Ironic Capitals.

i am not an attorney and our discussions were admittedly all over cocktails, but yes, my answer implied that we believe that if you bring enough "props" to convincingly portray evidence that the prostitution transaction was for the purposes of pornography (e.g., camera, photographic release) you would probably not avoid arrest but had a reasonable chance to win in court.

it seems as though you posed the question to cleverly show the problems with the laws, what's your legal interpretation?

But there's still the absurdity: I pay a woman to have sex with me, I've broken the law. But if I pay a woman to have sex with me and videotape it and sell it to people, I've broken no law, nor has the woman. I don't know why all prostitutes and their clients don't carry cameras around with them to pretend that is what they are doing.

Your distinction doesn't hold water. Should women who have sex with strangers for money be divided based on whether the man is a paid actor or a regular person? You are taking an anti-feminist point of view. If women can sell the right to penetrate their vagina, shouldn't they have the right to sell that to both actors and regular folk? It's their body.

I am not defending forced prostitution, any more than I would defend forced labor elsewhere -- or forced porn, for that matter.

Spitzer misbehaved, should be punished fairly, blahblahblah.

And, yes, it seems odd that if only one party is paid for the sex it's a crime. But if both are paid, it's porn; as long as someone is watching. Or not watching. (If 2 people schtup in the forest and no one is there to watch, is it still porn? Deep philosophical questions.)

But talking conspiracy theory here for a moment, couldn't this possibly be the first case of blanket wiretapping being misused for political purposes? Not the Fed wiretapping; that was surely with a warrant, and everything done by the letter. But could the first off, pre-Fed, have come from driftnet wiretapping? The very kind described in the WSJ today?

There are many different ways to crosscheck all the different things that would turn up in massive wiretapping operation. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to crosscheck all the calls made to known brothels or such with all democratic politicians. Something is sure to pop up. So to speak.

This is just the beginning of this whole affair. And I'm probably wrong, but I just want to introduce the concept.

Was at least reasonably proportioned..

As a young man I looked more like an Area 51 alien, huge head, extreme ectomorph body.. Buying a new helmet is still a royal pain to find one that doesn't take my ears off trying to get it on.

I do have big hands though ;-)

Actually a lot of het men are intimidated by seeing young, attractive and umm.. well endowed men in pr0n..

There's a clear difference between prositution and pornography. The customer never has sex with anyone in the film. They don't pay for sex.

...for giving words to exactly what I was thinking, and wishing that someone would publicly say.

"Salon.com: Telling it like it is since 1995." In this instance, at least, the ad rings true.

Agree about Diamond Age relative to Snow Crash, however, we have to part ways when it comes to Jesus the Christ. I follow the Middle way in all things, including the Middle way itself.

“We take a somewhat different view of hypocrisy,” Finkle-McGraw continued. “In the late-twentieth-century Weltanschauung, a hypocrite was someone who espoused high moral views as part of a planned campaign of deception-he never held these beliefs sincerely and routinely violated them in privacy. Of course, most hypocrites are not like that. Most of the time it’s a spirit-is-willing, flesh-is-weak sort of thing.”

predictable,disappointing and selective morality...In some states would not Glenn's sexual behavior be a crime??

It is foolish in the extreme to indulge in such an illegal act when you know full well that you are a target..

If Spitzer didn't know he would be a target for the right he's nowhere near as smart as a lot of people seem to think he is.