How the hell do you know what I am thinking and then some and can put it out so clearly and so fast? Damn you are a treasure.

The continuing war on prostitution is just one more idiotic vestige of our puritanical forefathers that has resulted in class and/or religious war on abortion, drugs, gender relationships, atheists, pornography and illegals. When something goes wrong, blame anything or anyone else but yourself. If you can’t beat someone fairly, use any means to justify your ends. And by all means use smokescreens to hide your real intentions.

Our M$M finds the Spitzer story just like the Clinton BJ story perfect in every respect. Perfect for unthinking readers/viewers. Perfect because little research will be needed since the federal indictment contains so much juicy detail. Perfect because a personal choice can be used to make political hay. Perfect because it involves sex. Perfect because it can bring down a governor and now that man can be called a hypocrite. Perfect because we can watch a very embarrassed wife squirm on TV. And hey, his first name is Eliot and we can take out someone who thought he was Elliot Ness.

I like the way human power put it:

“Which is more deserving of attention, a President who has likely been involved in stealing elections, starting illegal wars based on lies that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and guts the Bill of Rights down to the Bill of Right, or a Governor's sexual escapades? Oh, hands down, give me the sex.”

Yes it is hypocritical to prosecute someone for what you yourself are doing. The only way this wouldn't be hypocritical would be if Spitzer started actively encouraging others to prosecute him.

Otherwise he feels that other's should be prosecuted for crimes he commits, but he shouldn't. That's hypocrisy.

I would also ask you to reread the very small portion of the transcript that was released by the feds. A very unflattering and frankly, disturbing picture is emerging about Eliot Spitzer. What makes a john "difficult?" Let's all guess...

I have absolutely no doubt that if you and everyone you know were surreptitiously tape recorded talking about your private sex acts -- and your sex partners were taped talking about what you liked and how you were when having sex -- there would be nothing "unflattering" about any of it at all. It will all be glittery, uplifting, and morally pure.

But that dirty, filthy Eliot Spitzer. Let us all, the pure ones, gather and stone him for his "morally reprehensible" crimes.

Actually, I do think that hiring prostitutes is reprehensible. Far more reprehensible than *being* a prostitute, in fact.

However, this is a personal moral judgment. I don't think that this type of sexual peccadillo, which involved consenting adults, should be anyone's business. I may not approve of hiring prostitutes, but I also think that prostitution should be legalized, regulated, and taxed. This is not the sort of personal failing that should result in calls for resignation.

Mr. Spitzer's hypocrisy, on the other hand, is directly relevant to whether he deserves a position of political power. If anyone is going to call for his resignation, it should be over the hypocrisy issue, not the sex issue.

Is it really hypocritical to prosecute someone for something you do yourself? No, not really. It's called doing your job. You can't pick and choose to enforce only the rules you agree with when you are enforcing the rules.

You have it exactly backward.. It is hypocritical to do that which you prosecute others for.

If you don't believe in the rules you are enforcing you should quit and make it quite clear why you are doing so.

For a minute there I thought I was in the midst of another Clinton Crisis.

While I do tend to agree prostitution should be legalized in some possibly restricted and heavily regulated form, my main problem with this is that it puts Spitzer in a compromised position with some unsavoury characters.

I also take issue with the "victimless crime" idea. While I'm sure there are prostitutes who are women who freely choose to engage in the sex trade out of a rational economic calculation about how to make lots of money (like many women in pornography), a great many prostitutes in the current, illegal system are there unwillingly and coerced through violence, threat of deportation, desperate need or drug addiction to do what they would not do if they could possibly escape.

All of this is actually a huge part of the pragmatic case for legalizing prostitution.

I have no way to know (as yet) if the women Spitzer may have engaged were any such. Seeing as they were higher end, it's possibly likely they weren't but that also makes it likely the brothel owners were mob connected.

So that puts Spitzer at the mercy of some bad people in terms of blackmail. He's a high public official and should avoid being beholden to mobsters. If we can establish this brothel was independent and not connected to the mafia and treated its women well, then I would reevaluate.

I also do think rank hypocrisy is resignation worthy. Which is why I think it is consistent to demand the resignation of Vitter and not Clinton. Bill Clinton is not a moralizer, lecturing to the masses on how best to live their personal lives. Spitzer has professionally prosecuted johns (I understand) and thus I can't see how he can justify remaining in office when revealed to be one such.

That scum like Vitter do not resign should not necessarily mean that left wing figures in similar circumstances should get a pass. Part of believing your side is "better" is to make sure they actually are, and I don't want to fall into the trap of letting the behaviour of right wing figures define what is acceptable. Because there be dragons.

he's made his career going after others for hypocrisy and breaking minor, stupid laws. So now he's caught in one. Too bad.