Rich people buy expensive cars. Often VERY expensive cars. Some of them don’t really know enough about cars or drive enough to really be able to appreciate any difference between, say, a Honda Civic with all the fixings and a custom Italian job. Why pay the thousands of dollars in difference?
Because they can. And because they imagine there must be some difference in value for the premium.
The problem is that it is not “perfectly innocent” to pay call girls. That’s illegal. And it’s also a problem to conceal thousands of cash and transfer them between shell companies in furtherance of an illegal act, and then when you cross state lines you are conspiring to commit a Mann Act violation.
Now, I can agree with you that the Mann Act is a silly relic of last century. I can also agree that consenting adults should legally be able to transact for sex. Until these laws are repealed, though, a person with a public duty to enforce these laws should at a minimum be obeying them.
I also think that just because it is legal that doesn’t make it acceptable. If the Governor drank cheap whiskey all day while using racial slurs on his webcam, that would certainly be legal, but I’m sure that no one would think it proper. The man does have a wife and three kids, which nobody seems to care about.
The final straw for me is that this man is in a position of power and trust. Sure he was AG and responsible for enforcing prostitution laws, but he could have done what the last 400 NY AGs did and turn a blind eye to it, but he went in with both barrels blazing. For the sake of NY, he needs to resign; he has no mandate anymore.
I think he’ll resign today after negotiating his way out of any substantive crimminal charges. He was failing as governor before this, now he will be completely ineffective.
Since the comment you were responding to was basically saying that it shouldn’t be a crime, doesn’t the underlined above kinda nullify your whole argument here? 
As for Spitzer getting his dick wet? Who the fuck cares, don’t we have better things to worry about?
Especially since the taped conversation between the hooker and her booker indicate he had a reputation for wanting “unsafe” sex.
I don’t think his comparison of dating to prostitution is valid regardless of the legal status of prostitution.
Rather simple realy, he broke the law and could potentially be compromised as Govenor via blackmail. It’s an utterly stupid act by Spitzer and he should resign. It’s particularly galling given the venom at which he attacked a number of figures on Wall St. (none of whom went to jail) with his “holier-than-thou” crusade against all and sundry.
This is NO different than any bible-thumper being caught in a similar situation. Being a secular hypocrite is no better.
I’ve got no problem with prostitution, in general. Most likely, women charging $5,500 - $31,000 per hour are consenting adults engaging in the business of their own free will.
I do have a problem when it moves down to the area where “they make it up on volume”. There just aren’t that many willing women. And the lengths that the pimps and coyotes go through to boost supply (in order to keep costs down and volume up) are vile and disgusting. So while the willing hooker is penalized, laws against prostitution, if enforced properly, enable LE to go after the scum who traffic young women and force them into high-volume, low/no pay prostitution.
In conclusion, I believe that Gov. Spitzer was involved in a (mostly) victimless crime…mostly because his wife and daughters are the real victims of his infidelity. But I’m not ready to repeal prostitution laws, as these laws give LE the opportunity to try and get the girls out of the life they have not willingly chosen.
If you can get $5500 an hour for sex, the real crime would be not doing it.
I wish we were at the days where these things don’t matter.
It DOES matter in this case because he took an anti-prostitution stance earlier. Pretty much what jtgain said.
That was his job. It wasn’t a personal “stance,” it was his job to enforce the law.
Some of us can multitask. I can worry about a half dozen things at once on a good day.
True, but my understanding of it was that it was a bigger issue for him.
I certainly could be wrong.
If that’s the case and he didn’t attack prostitution more fervently than someone else in his position, then hell. Keep him in office. It’s between him and his wife.
“$5500 an hour for sex” That’s what I find completely ridiculous in this matter. There isn’t anyone on the planet that’s worth that. The fact that there are people in positions of public responsibility that are willing to pay that kind of money for sex isn’t very reassuring.
DtC, saying it over and over doesn’t make it true. I don’t know what his stance was, and a quick google isn’t turning up details of the cases prosecuted. All I know is that like another previous AG, Spitzer liked it in front of the camera, and would likely have decried the activity if he thought it would sway potential voters.
Now, when you return with any statement clarifying Gov. Spitzer’s personal “stance”, then you can do a happy dance and chant “I told you so”. Until then, your conjecture is the same as anyone elses.
ETA: Sorry, my slight dig at Mr. Giuliani was incorrect. He was never NYS AG.
Hi, I’m Elendil’s Heir! Pleased to meet you.
Spitzer will be gone in a day or two, I suspect. Just don’t think he can ride out this firestorm.
I voted for him and supported him, but that was when he was the “law and order” candidate. Illegally structuring financial transactions to maintain a running tab with an international prostitution ring pretty much undoes that, and I hope he resigns today.
Judging by the number of news vans and state troopers out in front of the capitol building right now, I’d say something is going to be announced.
It doesn’t matter one bit whether his personal position differs from the actions he’s taken as AG and Governor. He’s made his career as a crusader, one witch hunt after another, now to be caught literally with his pants down he’s completely without credibility. He’s done.
Who has he “with hunted” againts? He did he prosecute who wasn’t guilty?
Didn’t he make his career by going after white collar criminals and Wall Street scumbags? What’s wrong with that?
But Gov Spitzer spent last night in NYC. At least when I left for work, there was no talk that he had left to go to Albany.