According to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, speaking on Anderson Cooper's CNN show Monday night, Eliot Spitzer should not resign nor should he be prosecuted because prostitution is a "victimless crime."
Dershowitz gave us the usual nonsense about how Europeans would regard all this as no big deal, but what does this prove other than the fact that many Europeans have reached the nadir of moral debauchery? Yes, we all know that in France the discovery that a politician has a mistress or even patronizes prostitutes can raise their poll ratings. Is this really an area in which we wish to emulate French degeneracy?
I'm more interested in Dershowitz's claim that Spitzer is guilty of a crime that doesn't have any victims. Is this really true? Let's make a list of all of Spitzer's victims.
His wife: Spitzer's wife of 20 years not only has to cope with the public knowledge that her high-profile husband frequents prostitutes, but she also has to stand alongside him while Spitzer makes a press statement on his sexual and legal offenses. Converting your wife into a political prop--what could be more humiliating?
His daughters: For years the girls could think of their dad as a champion of legal and moral rectitude, fighting Wall Street crooks, shutting down prostitution dens, and so on. Now these innocent children must endure the knowledge that their father is far from what he portrayed himself to be. Spitzer has made shipwreck of his family and disgraced his children in public. What are his daughters going to say when they next see their friends?
New York citizens: Isn't there something outrageous when a high public official, and in this case a former attorney general, somehow gets the idea that he is above the law? That he can break the law with impunity? Why should other New Yorkers be held accountable to the law but not Spitzer? Spitzer of all people has worked to emphasize the idea that no one is above the law. So if Spitzer gets away with this, he will have screwed more than the $4000 hooker.
Alan Dershowitz: There is something about Democratic malfeasance (Barney Frank's relationship with a male prostitute, Clinton sex scandals, the latest Spitzer prostitution scandal) that causes liberal Harvard professors who agree with the politics of the culprits to lose their normal good sense. Whether Dershowitz thinks the law in question is a good one or a bad one is irrelevant here. Laws are made to be followed, and it's odd when law professors think that this doesn't apply to laws about sex. Clearly Alan Dershowitz's legal and moral intelligence has become the latest victim.
Reader Comments ( Page 24 of 25)
346. If I were a man that liked to use prostitutes and I were elected Governor, I'd pass legislation that improved the lot of prostitutes, and work toward making it legal. It's called not being a hypocrite.
It really pisses me off when they are publically against what they privately indulge in.
Godless Heathen Brian at 2:59PM on Mar 12th 2008
347. Shannie; and yet Numbers 5 says that a husband can force his wife to submit to an abortion.
I don't think the bible will help settle the abortion issue...
... but abortion certainly helps settle the "bible is full of crap" issue.
Ryan Anderson at 3:06PM on Mar 12th 2008
348. Brian, you rock! You must have the greatest life.
You are lucky to have found your true soul mate.
And yes, years of using hookers is pretty horrendous. I would be devastated. But, there are some marriages where one partner is pretty much asexual, and the other has carte blanche to partake with others.
Linda at 3:06PM on Mar 12th 2008
349. 340. skdvvdks,
I'm sorry... was there a point to that? Obviously, the fact that prostitution is illegal hasn't slowed it down one bit. Do you think that if it all of a sudden becomes legal everywhere, husbands will flock to brothels in droves? If you are loyal, loving, and totally devoted to wife and family, then you won't go to a prostitute.
K at 2:44PM on Mar 12th 2008
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This brings up another point. Many times it's the man getting married for all the wrong reasons.
Take my friend Mike.
He married this woman, Donna. She's a harpy shrew of the highest magnitude. And he knows it. Knew it going in. He used to joke about it. She's selfish, hated all his friends, myself included, and bossy. And a face like a horse, but that's not the point.
He loves his marriage. All he wanted was children. They have three now. And a minivan. Yech.
However, he doesn't love her. He married her for her DRIVE, which he felt that he lacked, and so now his musiness is doing better. But, it was doing okay before. And he married her to have a family, as in kids. He loves kids. He's a doting father. And he married her because his mother's just like her, a pusher and a driver of men. He wanted structure. He got tons of it. She even answers his cell phone.
She doesn't love him either, as far as I can see. She treats him like an errant child.
Now, Mike and I have talked. I ask him if he's happy. He never answers yes.
Would he cheat on her?
I know him.
In a heartbeat.
I bet he already has. If there were a legal brothel around, Mike would have a frequent fucker card.
So it often happens that people get married for all the wrong reasons. Both men and women.
Don't always think the apparently injured party is completely innocent. You're not in the marriage.
Godless Heathen Brian at 3:12PM on Mar 12th 2008
350. Just thought I would offer up Colbert's take on the situation...
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?ml_video=163796
dani at 3:21PM on Mar 12th 2008
351. I should emphasize that while Mike would cheat on his wife, he'd NEVER divorce her. He likes living with a cattle prod on his nads.
Makes no sense to me either.
Godless Heathen Brian at 3:25PM on Mar 12th 2008
352. And yes, years of using hookers is pretty horrendous. I would be devastated. But, there are some marriages where one partner is pretty much asexual, and the other has carte blanche to partake with others.
Linda at 3:06PM on Mar 12th 2008
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Absolutely, and in those cases it's all a different dynamic. Then, I would think that the fact that she was using a clean, professional service might be a consolation rather than a negative.
I can't relate to that meself. We're like rabbits. But I can see that in some cases it might be the way to go. Like if I were a eunuch or something, and my wife really adored me, but had a high sex drive (as she does!) I suppose we might come to some such arrangement... Not something I'd care to think about, though. :-)
Godless Heathen Brian at 3:35PM on Mar 12th 2008
353. 348. Brian, you rock! You must have the greatest life.
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Thank you, I do now.
Not always though. I'm a pretty sensitive person, and I've dated a LOT of women, and been married three times before this one. This one is four. The "soap opera" story that I told recently was number two. Number one was a lot like Mike's wife, only bitchier. I've had my heart broken in mhy life so many times that it thinks it's it's natural state. Of course, all that heartnreak has given me a strength of a sort. And I never lost hope for love. I'm proud of myself for that.
As to the dating thing, I lost count years ago, but I'd say that I've been with over two hundred women. Yeah. Easily. And no STDs or unwanted children. So I really need to write a book I guess.
Godless Heathen Brian at 3:42PM on Mar 12th 2008
354. Linda - nonsense? Do a little homework - read any recent news story for information about what Spitzer's "unsafe" sex requests were (pretty much every news story out there includes this fact):
"In the court papers, an Emperors Club employee was quoted as telling Kristen that Client 9 — Spitzer, according to investigators — "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe," and Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that. ... I'd be, like, listen, dude, you really want the sex?" A law enforcement official said Tuesdsay the discussion had to do with Spitzer's preference not to wear a condom and the call-girl's insistence that he use one.
So I ask you, having unprotected sex with a prostitute when you are presumably also having sex with your wife is a victimless crime? Are you personally screening these women after every john or "client" they sleep with to make sure they are clean? We all know that it can take awhile for some STDs manifest themselves.....forgive my cynicism here, but a whore making $4 grand for sex could probably be persuaded not to demand that a condom be used - clearly, they are in this business for the money. You think every whore Spitzer bedded insisted that he wear a condom? Sorry to say, but you're a little naive. And let's consider the fact that here's a very wealthy man. Might a few of these women (who again, are in this for the money) actually have allowed him not wear a condom, gotten pregnant purposely, and perhaps in a few years, we will see a paternity suits - or 8 - coming his way? What a great way to get rich quick and be set for life, especially for the kinds of women who are engaged in "the business." You may think it's far- fetched - but women are master manipulators. We've all read the stories about famous athletes who this happens to.
Will Frances at 3:44PM on Mar 12th 2008
355. I was looking for all the wrong things in a wife. It took me all those relationships to realize that I needed to look for inner beauty more than the outer. And for someone that focused on me as much as I focused on her. I never wanted what I wasn't prepared to give. But I had a lot of trouble finding someone that thought like I did. Most pf the people I dated were pretty shallow individuals. However, some of them were doctors, research scientists, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and intellectuals. Interestingly enough, the shallow ones were incapable of love on my level due to being so shallow, and the complex ones were all too into themselves to love anybody else intensely.
I'm complicated, so it was pretty hard to find someone to match.
I know it when I have it, as I do now, however.
Godless Heathen Brian at 3:49PM on Mar 12th 2008
356. In legal brothels STD's are tested for religiously (every week on sunday. Go fig) and even a maybe would get you pulled until it was proved negative. Even a rumor of HIV is death in the adult industry. And the more money a prostitute can demand the more likely they are to use a condom. Because the second they don't and get pregnant or an STD then they are dumped on the curb. The sex rings need to maintain their reputation for clean girl, and would you take an extra thousand knowing that it could end your entire career? I wouldn't.
The real problem with STD's and prositutes comes from the 'pimp' style of prostitution in with the woman has no control at all in the arrangements... and are usually addicted to meth or some other 'candy'.
Somber at 3:55PM on Mar 12th 2008
357. Real love is a psychosis. But it's the only beneficial psychosis there is. Modern people recognize it as psychotic and irrational, and so avoid it's depths, only sticking their toe in. So they never get to really experience it.
If you believe that you love someone, you do. Love is nothing more than that. Believing that you care for someone, and believing it so much that you come to care about them more than you do yourself. It's all belief. And contrary to a belief in God, there's no downside to believing in love, unless of course, you find yourself dating or married to someone that doesn't. If you both believe in love, then you both are capable of it. If you analyze the belief, it falls apart. So don't. And above all, never convince yourself that you love someone. If you need to convince yourself, it isn't love. You either feel it, or you don't. You can't ever force it.
Godless Heathen Brian at 4:02PM on Mar 12th 2008
358. Most pf the people I dated were pretty shallow individuals. However, some of them were doctors, research scientists, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and intellectuals.
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Apparently I dated the doctor twice.
Godless Heathen Brian at 4:06PM on Mar 12th 2008
359. So I ask you, having unprotected sex with a prostitute when you are presumably also having sex with your wife is a victimless crime?
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As much as having unprotected sex with the hot little slut you met at the club while you're presumably also having sex with your wife is, yes. In other words, it's dangerous and wrong, but not illegal. Or it shouldn't be.
Godless Heathen Brian at 4:15PM on Mar 12th 2008
360. "Sorry to say, but you're a little naive" Will
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Who the fuck are you to call me naive? Where is your experience with high priced call girls? At least I've met some and done some reading.
I'll bet it's a lot safer than my cheating boyfriend who gave me a STD that almost killed me.
Bottom line: it's none of our fucking business. Read Somber's posts. She's been there.
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Brian, your story moves me. Thanks for that.
It took my brother 3 marriages to find the right one. She's the only one who can stand up to him. And is the best cook. And is a knockout. He's got his soulmate.
Once I stopped worrying and looking for a mate, my life changed for the better. I miss the chemical high of love, but I sure as hell don't miss the lows. I am centered and focused as a singleton.
That's just me.
Linda at 4:22PM on Mar 12th 2008