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When the news of (former) New York governor Eliot Spitzer's indiscretions and involvement in a prostitution ring broke out, I shook my head and wondered how the American people wound up with another crooked politician in a position of power.
How do we always get duped into voting for these types, the ones who proclaim they will crack down on drug rings, prostitution rings and other criminal activity, only to be involved in it themselves?
The blogosphere has been on fire about the Spitzer scandal, offering varying points of view.
The KC Blue Blog writes:
We would laugh at this, as it is borderline tabloid journalism, but now that the media has even gone so far as to track down the escort in the Spitzer case, it has become a little frightening. Look, we are not defending Spitzer at all, as we feel especially bad for his family. However, we find it very concerning that in today's media the well-being of someone who can't defend themself isn't even a concern. We aren't defending the escort either (whom we will leave nameless) as she chose a terrible career; but how fair is wrecklessly placing her life in danger?
Rich Noyes of NewsBusters writes:
My colleague Brent Baker has painstakingly documented how the big three broadcast networks have gone out of their way to avoid labeling scandal-scarred New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a “Democrat.” An examination of the fifteen ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows through Wednesday night finds Spitzer was called a Democrat just 20% of the time — twice on CBS, once on ABC, and never on NBC. So how do the networks treat Republicans involved in sex scandals? Always, always as Republicans, and as problems for their party.
Right Wing Vitriol writes:
It's always disheartening to see an elected official with such a worthwhile track record dig himself into a fiery, fiery pit of his own hypocrisy. We Republicans speak from experience.
From Outside the Beltway:
Aside from a general sense that chief executive officers ought to obey the laws they’re charged with enforcing and that married men ought to be faithful to their wives, I really don’t care much about this story. The interesting angle, really, is the hypocrisy bit.
Rabbi Michael Lerner writes:
The cross-the-political-spectrum attacks on Elliot Spitzer and the intensity of the demands that he resign his office show just how far the Right-wing sexual moralizing has been able to trump any other kind of ethical reasoning in American society.
Going to a prostitute is legal in some states and some countries around the world, and is often the very arrangement that saves families from splitting up whose sexual energies have diminished but whose love is intact. It’s not uncommon for men (and now increasingly women as well) who have achieved great power in our society by adopting an outer show of ruthless pursuit of power and influence (even, as in Spitzer’s case, if the power is aimed at pursuing laudable ends) to feel a deep emptiness and loneliness that is not addressed by friends or spouse, and hence to seek some kind of outside connection no matter how superficial that is not bound by previous rules and roles.
The media has been having a field day (or three) dishing up headlines about Spitzer's behavior, and the coverage has increased with the recent discovery of "Kristen", a prostitute involved, known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre on her MySpace page. When I visited this site, I couldn't understand how this beautiful girl with such great musical talent and ambition ended up in a prostitution ring. Then I read her description of herself and her upbringing.
From Ashley's MySpace profile:
I am all about my music, and my music is all about me… It flows from what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen and how I feel. I live in New York and am on top of the world. Been here since 2004 and I love this city, I love my life here. But, my path has not been easy. When I was 17, I left home. It was my decision and I’ve never looked back. Left my hometown. Left a broken family. Left abuse. Left an older brother who had already split. Left and learned what it was like to have everything, and lose it, again
