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 6 of 25)
76. Based upon information gained from news blog on AOL, this whole Spitzer thing began with a bank reporting large "cash transfers" between several bank accounts. This is required under law, not just post 9/11 but prior to. They transfers were going to an account whose owner(s) were under investigation for being in an international prostitution ring. Subsequently warrants were issued to obtain recordings on transactions between the owner of the originating account and the operators for the receiving account. So we are not just dealing with a "simple" case of an individual "buying" sex. We get into transferring funds , possibly across state lines for something that is illegal in most states. Whether it should be legal in all is another matter. The investigation did not set out to target Spitzer. He just happened to get involved with the wrong people, much to his regret. Now he is stuck because he was a prosecutor and none of the defenses offered on this blog can be claimed by him and he knows it. How he handles it is up to him, but to sort of borrow a line from the hearing scene in Flight Of The Intruder: " I think it is a safe bet to say that your position as a
is over"
M2D5 at 11:41AM on Mar 11th 2008
77. Hi Botts! How's your universe going?
The only problem with your very insightful statement there is, what is a certain percentage of the populace decides that it's them against us? Stakes out their "side" and starts attacking us? Do we "turn the other cheek?" Do they not force us into being the "other side" in the conflict that they started? I have never chosen a side. I have just found my positions and thoughts attacked by a certain group that identifies itself as one "side" and me as being a part of the "other side." And they despise me for being what I am! How to meet such hubris with love? It's beyond me.
So I am thus forced to take a side. No? Teach me, sensei...
Godless Heathen Brian at 11:43AM on Mar 11th 2008
78. Prostitution should not be a crime.
The victims Mr D'Souza writes of ( wife, children, state) would be no less victimized were gov. Spitzer having a legal affair with a 'non-professional' woman.
I fail to see victims in prostitution, if legalized and regulated.
Perhaps the french have more issues on their plate than who's screwing whom. This is no reason to bash the french( there's plenty of GOOD reasons).
mac at 11:44AM on Mar 11th 2008
79. And Governor Spitzer has just announced that he will resign.
Good.
I'm glad that he didn't pull a Craig and stay on to tar the entire party. At least he had that much sense.
What a jerkoff. Good riddance.
Figures he's a Hillary supporter.
Godless Heathen Brian at 11:47AM on Mar 11th 2008
80. And brian, I have been to three therapists, two psychologists, and one PTSD expert. If you don't have a PhD in psychology then don't you dare think that you can begin to understand how my screwed up brain works. At least Rita had the decency to admit she didn't and couldn't understand.
For those unfamiliar with me, my sister and I were raped in Iowa by three men. I lived. She didn't. One of the guys was executed by Texas. One is serving life with possibility of parole when he's 65. One got off on the charges and according to an E-mail I got 2 years back has found God and feels ashamed and yadda yadda yadda. Since that trauma I was homeless for two years as a runaway, then did illegal porn to get off the street, got the mother of all breaks from a DA and Judge, and went to nevada to work in the legal porn and prositution business while getting my degree. Along the way I tried to kill myself twice and another person once, was raped a second time, and fended off a third. Met a beautiful woman trying to get into the sex business, talked her out of it, later moved in with her, and would marry her in a heartbeat.
And some how all that has boiled down into the wierd ass liberal I am now.
Somber at 11:48AM on Mar 11th 2008
81. botts,
where is the comment about my wife?
brian at 11:53AM on Mar 11th 2008
82. G H Brian,
When you feel forced to take the other side you are letting "them" control you. Certainly you can turn the other cheek. (But be unlike G W Bush which turned the other cheek - the southern one)
Jerry Brown at 11:49AM on Mar 11th 2008
83. Agreed- the whole "With us or against us" thing is getting old.
Strados at 11:51AM on Mar 11th 2008
84. I'm glad he is. I don't think he should lose his job for it, but it's nice that he admits he's lost the trust of his constituents and is going to be resigning. Hopefully he'll be able to patch things up with his wife.
I never begrudge anyone their happiness so long as it doesn't hurt some one else.
Somber at 11:51AM on Mar 11th 2008
85. Somber:
We could use a few more weird ass liberals like you. The fact that you have survived such a past is testament to the will to live.
Linda at 11:53AM on Mar 11th 2008
86. Spitzer's wife is probably wondering if her husband liked the Clintons so much because he felt that he had so much in common with them. With one of them, at least.
And now Mrs. Spitzer has a lot in common with the other one...
Godless Heathen Brian at 11:54AM on Mar 11th 2008
87. Just a couple of brief notes: Spitzer's wife didn't "have" to stand by his side; she chose to do so for whatever reason. And as for his kids finding out that their parent is somewhat less than he portrayed himself to be, that is called "growing up".
The most important thing here is that Mr. Law and Order apparently broke a federal law. If he did, he should resign and be prosecuted to the fullest extent of that law especially since he would have done as much to anybody else when he was Attorney General.
As to the subject of European "degeneracy", let's not forget that Dinesh D'Souza is the guy who last year took his wife on a tour of the "red light" district in Amsterdam.
emelpe at 11:59AM on Mar 11th 2008
88. Somber, you're about a thousand percent more interesting than the average person. It's a testament to what you've been through. I'm not trying to say that it was worth it, because nothing is worth what happened to you and your sister, but you are certainly a strong and intelligent and interesting person because of it.
I don't know if you've noticed, but I'd bet that you have, that people tend to grow most through personal pain. It's like that retarded saying that you see in gymnasiums "No Pain, No Gain."
You've certainly had much "gain," as far as I can see. I wish you hadn't had all that pain, though.
If there really is a God, He has a fucking sick sense of humor.
Of course, that's one of the proofs that there isn't a God...
Godless Heathen Brian at 12:02PM on Mar 11th 2008
89. 67. Dani; help me to understand. Prostitution, as long as it's for big bucks, is o.k.? But the guy who pays for it is a "schmuck" and the prostitute is exploiting his "weakness"? And all those 'hookers on the street' are just working their way up through the minor leagues?
fanmanaf1 at 11:25AM on Mar 11th 2008
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No one is working their way up. It all comes down to choice, did these women choose their profession to improve their standard of living, or did they have no other alternative to survive?
And yes, he is a shmuck for choosing to pay thousands of dollars because he can't control his urges, or find someone who would sleep with him for free.
dani at 12:10PM on Mar 11th 2008
90. somber
i am with rita but i have heard of awoman who had a similar past as yours and her relationship with jesus helped her to heal and she found she had a ministry helping young girls who were abused similarly. you could be such a powerful witness for God
brian at 12:02PM on Mar 11th 2008