Satirist Jon Swift thinks Eliot Spitzer should stop apologizing and say what he needs to say to save his career. And what is that, you ask?
[He] should become the first sitting governor in American history to say the words, "At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is. And so, my truth is that I am a whoremonger-American."....
Many of our founding fathers, men like Benjamin Franklin, for example, were whoremonger-Americans. In more recent times a number of great political men have patronized prostitutes, men like Jerry Springer, Rep. Joe Waggonner, Rep. Allan Howe, Rep. Fred Richmond, Dick Morris and most recently Louisiana Senator David Vitter, and these are just the ones who got caught. Many of these men have been forced to live in shame for who they are and their political careers have been ruined. But is that fair?
In this era of loosening sexual morality is whoremongering really the worst sin? Is it more of a sin than homosexuality? Is it more of a sin than committing adultery for free?...
For men like Eliot Spitzer and David Vitter, it may be impossible to find a woman who is willing to sleep with them unless they pay for it, and in the case of Spitzer, unless he pays a lot. (In fact, the picture that accompanies this post may give a clue as to why Spitzer may have needed to pay for sex.) But isn't it possible that for Spitzer and Vitter, men who have dedicated their lives to upholding virtue and morality, patronizing prostitutes is a way of rejecting the sexual immorality of the present and returning to the traditional mores of the past when there were rules about who successful men could sleep with?
Of course, like most conservatives, I deplore the loosening sexual mores of our time. I would like to return to the 1950s when men who wanted extramarital sex had to pay for it at great personal risk....they may be unable or unwilling to cheat on their wives the way men like John McCain, Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and many other politicians have. While these politicians lured decent women into committing adultery, Spitzer and Vitter instead committed adultery with women who were already fallen and they did so at great financial cost and risk to their careers. Whether because of necessity or a deep-seated belief in traditional values, Spitzer and Vitter have rejected the free-sex, anything goes sexual mores of our era and lived by the sexual code of another time, a simpler, better time. Maybe Vitter and Spitzer could not have found women who wanted to sleep with them for free, but the fact is they went ahead and paid for it....
[A]s I have said before, hypocrisy is not necessarily a bad thing. Ted Haggard recognized that that having meth-fueled sex with a gay prostitute was wrong, which is far superior to having meth-fueled sex with a gay prostitute and thinking it was a good thing. Spitzer and Vitter recognize more than anyone how terrible it is that the loose sexual mores of our time have driven them to seek the succor of prostitutes. They know first-hand what it is like to be the victims of the sexual immorality that is all around us and because of that they have made it their life's work to try to prevent other men from making the same mistakes they have. Shouldn't that count for something? [READ MORE....]
Comments