Eliot Spitzer's Choices (JM)

So by now you've probably all head about the Eliot Spitzer prostitute sex ring scandal. So I will just add a few thoughts:

1) Is there anyone in the world happier than Rupert Murdoch right now? They probably have a staff of 20 working on tomorrow's puntastic headline (my guess is Spitzer Swallows... though some have suggested that the Post wouldn't go that far, to them I reply, you just don't get the Post, do you?) Anyway, this will dominate the news for the next few weeks, making the primaries all the more interesting. I am not so sure Hillary is thrilled about a prominent Democratic sex scandal involving one of her supporters. A bit too close to home.

2) He should resign. If he doesn't his family will be dragged through hell for the next couple of years. We will all intimately know his favorite prostitute and his sexual proclivities. Moreover, nothing will get done in the legislature and chances are they will try to impeach him. Bad news for the Democrats all around. His only chance to have a bounce back political career is to apologize, resign and be reformed four or five years from now.

3) He shouldn't have to resign. Despite why he should resign, it is sad that we live in a world where that is necessary. Sexual mores and practices are just not terribly important in the grand scheme of good leadership. But upon thinking about this, my one real concern is the effect such nonchalance would have on sexual trafficking. There's little doubt that these were incredibly high-end call girls, whose lives were pretty okay (and hopefully fully consensual). However, a lot of prostitution is not this way, people who engage in such activities because of either wretched poverty or even worse, due to almost basic slavery. I still think that legalization and regulation is on the whole safer than the black market. But given the illegality of this action, the fact that he has and does prosecute people for this very crime and its effect on women in our society perhaps he ought to resign.