Megan, JPod, and Reihan agree: American politics is better off without Eliot Spitzer.
« More Chatter on The Wire | Main | Prostitution, Morality and the Law » Good Riddance12 Mar 2008 12:05 pm Comments (12)
Infidelity still remains a moral norm among Americans. This can be considered a victory for moral norms. Be it Vitter or Gingrich or Clinton or Spitzer. The moral outrage catapults the crime to a special level. If Spitizer (or any other) had merely broken (lets say) a campaign finance measure, no resignation would be proffered. 
Wow - that's a real representative cross section of American punditry
Fitz-- is that double standard a good or a bad thing? I think it's a bad thing. Corruption implicates an official's ability to carry out his duties much more directly than affairs. I think that warrantless wiretapping, or detaining citizens indefinitely without trial, ought to be "scandals" at a much greater level than the Spitzer one. They are instead treated as disagreements or controversies.
Good point, Tiparillo. But what about Bill Bennett? What does he think about this?
If I were Reihan, I'd be pissed to be lumped w/ those two.
Rather bemusing to read that 2X4 McArdle is concerned about the acretion of power under the NYAG. As a security-state "libertarian" she ought to applaud it (except for the fact that it has gotten her pals on Wall St. into trouble). As for Reihan, the benefit must that this delays the legalization of gay marriage in NY State, which will boost middle class wages (or something like that).
Elvis Elvisberg "is that double standard a good or a bad thing? I think it's a bad thing. Corruption implicates an official's ability to carry out his duties much more directly than affairs." It is a "good thing" not because those offenses are less serious but because they lack the moral clarity and of infidelity & prostitution. Those controversies are indeed arguable as they pertain to constitutional protections, national security and public policy. My point was that it is a good thing that infidelity & prostitution are seen by the vast majority of people as clearly moral transgressions.
Good point, Tiparillo. But what about Bill Bennett? What does he think about this? He was in Atlantic City and couldn't be reached.
I couldn’t be more pleased about Spitzer's downfall. His legal proceedings against those whom he regarded as Wall Street malefactors , especially Greenberg and Grasso, proved him to be a grandstander and a cruel tyrant. He deserves zero sympathy. He is basically a liberal Democrat with a mere Princeton degree suffering the illusion that he was above the law. Good riddance.
Ya know, I was going to give Spitzer a pass, then I gleaned from Peter's comment that, Spitzer is a LIBERAL!!! Oh golly I hope he goes to jail. Worse yet, he WENT TO PRINCETON!!!!1 I'm sure he learned that prostitution is A OK in a women's studies course.
What about Jonah Goldberg and Kathryn-Jean Lopez?
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Spitzer's resignation is a victory for white collar criminals everywhere.
Posted by Jack Marsden | March 12, 2008 12:47 PM