The Corrupt Party Is Well Attended
If the Democrats are smart (and this is a big if), we should be able to make the resignation of Eliot Spitzer work for us. People The idea of the Republicans as a corrupt party is already and constantly in the public consciousness, what with people like Vitter and Craig and Foley and etc. etc. etc., not to mention any of the non-fucking-related scandals that have gone on. So, while some GOPs will probably try to use this incident to say "see, the Demoncrat party is corrupt too, look at this filthy filthy filandering New York lieberal!", we have the convenient fact that he was forced to resign promptly, while Senators Craig and Vitter can still be found on Capital Hill - if they're not in bathrooms or brothels, respectively. But of course this is one of those things that assumes the party has a little more backbone than they tend to show.
For the record, I don't care if any politicians are using prostitutes - provided they don't spend their on-the-record lives denouncing prostitution, just like I don't care if a Senator likes to do it in the can, as long he isn't an outspoken homophobe. Eliot Spitzer was a hypocrite for busting prostitution rings as Atty. Gen. and then patronizing them as Gov., so I think it's right for him to have resigned.
For the record, I don't care if any politicians are using prostitutes - provided they don't spend their on-the-record lives denouncing prostitution, just like I don't care if a Senator likes to do it in the can, as long he isn't an outspoken homophobe. Eliot Spitzer was a hypocrite for busting prostitution rings as Atty. Gen. and then patronizing them as Gov., so I think it's right for him to have resigned.
Labels: politics
posted by Mephisto at 9:56 AM
3 Comments:
Yeah, but then there's Bill Clinton, whose scandal only marginally affected his position as president, not to mention the fact that he's trying to move back into the white house as we speak. Of course, I agree that this sort of thing should have very little impact on politics, but it seems like that's an easy (and potentially catastrophic) counter-example to your argument.
Now, if republicans are the political pro's that they've proven themselves to be in the past, they'll probably find sneaky ways to use this as a reminder of the Monica scandal, and possibly turn it into Hillary's scandal. Don't underestimate them. They're damn good at misdirection. Look at how they turned Osama Bin Laden into Saddam Hussein.
That is a fair point, but I would counter with:
1. Bill Clinton's impeachment wasn't able to stick in a GOP-run congress
2. Bill Clinton's sex act was not a criminal one, nor was he ever a champion of any particular marriage issues. Yes he lied about it, which makes the whole thing a question of privacy/personal freedoms.
Also, I heard tell of an old gent at the VA actually blaming Hillary for the Spitzer scandal, because she is a New York politician and should thus have control over the Governor. Yup.
Prostitution isn't black and white. It's only recently that the Federal government has been recognizing some prostitution rings as sex trafficking. A LOT of people who are smuggled into the United States become victims of sex trafficking. They become indentured servants and they have to pay their debt by prostitution. These people (older, minors, etc.) become part of prostitution rings... and the news is being rather vague as to what kind of prostitution rings Spitzer was busting, I mean, you really have to dig around to find that he was busting men for sex tourism. I find it unlikely that the rings he was going after were completely composed of consenting adults. I guess it's hypocritical that he and some groups were working towards busting men for patronizing prostitutes..... but at least he was going about paying for a woman who wasn't essentially a slave. It's like saying someone who likes animals is hypocritical because they eat meat that has been humanely raised and slaughtered. At least they're supporting the way it should be done and not eating at McDonalds.
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