Client 9

As I write this, Eliot Spitzer is still the governor of New York, but I would suspect that this won't be for long. And as liberal-minded as I am about the sort of shenanigans that he was up to, I would add my voice to the chorus: he must resign.

I am one who has known to be drawn to the sexual demimonde, though I certainly won't confess to anything here. But I am unlike Mr. Spitzer in two important aspects: I am single, and I am not a public servant, especially one who made his bones by the vigorous prosecution of the unethical.

Of course prostitution, especially in the rarefied air that The Emperor's Club existed, should be legal. But it currently is not (if Spitzer had hopped a plane to Reno and dipped his wick at the Bunny Ranch, which is a legal brothel, I imagine this would be a different conversation), and the governor of a state can't go breaking laws and expect blanket forgiveness. Adultery, these days, seems to be a forgivable offense for politicians, but I don't think the country is ready to wink and nod at whoremongering. David Vitter, a Republican senator from Louisiana, should have also resigned for his dalliances with a professional (which also involved diapering), as should Larry Craig, who resisted a push off the cliff from members of his own party. For a senator it's easier to lie low and wait a term out. When you're governor of New York, you can't. How can Spitzer possibly ride out another two-plus years with this hanging over his head?

As most commenters on this have pointed out, the saddest figures in these messes are the wives and children. What could Silda Spitzer possibly be thinking as she walked out to face reporters with her errant husband? It's one thing to be loyal, but quite another to look like a Stepford wife while your husband throws himself on the bonfire of public opinion? (Who can forget the way Dina McGreevey stood by with a frozen smile on her face while her husband Jim announced to the world that he was a "gay-American?")

Powerful men have been undone by their gonads since time began, I imagine. Many people will say, "What could he have been thinking?" Well, that's just the point, he wasn't thinking. These kind of urges can be overwhelming and lead one to do things that are preposterously stupid. With most of, though, the fall isn't nearly as far as it is with Spitzer.