comment #1

Dave says ...

Then I sincerely hope you don't find yourself in a committed, caring relationship, Jeff.

The wandering heart is a natural human instinct. EVERYONE suffers it, no matter how in love or how married. What you do to act on it, or restrain it, tells everyone-- including you-- volumes about your character.

I expect no one to be an angel, whether they be weak or powerful. The question is, what do they do when no one is looking? What behavior can they live with when they no they'll never get caught?

comment #2

Dave says ...

"know" not "no".

comment #3

Doug Pratt says ...

some men would claim that hiring a prostitute and studiously practicing safe sex is not cheating, because they are fulfilling a physical urge while remaining emotionally committed to their spouse, unless, of course, they're using the rent money.

comment #4

Gaydos says ...

Spitzer was a courageous white knight crusader for ethics and his egregious lapses of judgement, his cavalier attitude toward morality and the law(s) has led to his disgrace.

Bill and Hillary were, until recently, paragons of equality, liberal leaders who fought against those who would use racism and scurrilous personal attacks to win political victories.

I would argue what they've done in the past few weeks, while legal, is far more disgraceful than Spitzer's dalliances with rented talent. It's a complete betrayal of the principles and beliefs that they've based their careers upon, that their followers have worked so tirelessly on their behalfs for decades to preserve and advance.

Time to follow Eliot into private practice (he hopes), Hill. At least you know no one is going to be taking away YOUR lawyering license.

comment #5

MAGGA says ...

I totally relate to you, Jeffrey, and I'm 27. My ex-girlfriend recently told me I only apreciate things when they are a challenge to obtain, never later. harsh, and maybe true. The big problem with whatshisname is that he appears to pass moral judgement, not only in person, which is human nature, but through legislation. He deserves everything thet's happened except getting to fuck that, or any, woman

comment #6

erniesouchak says ...

Sorry, but if there's a guy on earth who isn't hormonally driven, I haven't met him yet.

comment #7

le corbeau says ...

Spitzer was a courageous white knight crusader for ethics and his egregious lapses of judgement, his cavalier attitude toward morality and the law(s) has led to his disgrace.

And I am Marie of Roumania.

Robert Tracinski has a good piece on why Spitzer was all of a piece:

"Spitzer's professional life, rather than being better than his personal life, was worse. If in his personal life he paid money for attractive young women to create the illusion of his own supreme importance, in his professional life he achieved this illusion by abusing the power of the state, acting as a bully who threatened to "steamroller" over other people's lives and careers.

"Spitzer's "crusading" career as New York's attorney general is a catalog of abuses of prosecutorial power. He tried cases in the media instead of the courts by releasing embarrassing documents at press conferences and leaking carefully selected facts to sympathetic reporters. This is slander under the color of law, an attempt to ruin a target's reputation without actually have to prove the allegations against him. Spitzer smeared his victims by digging into their personal lives and spreading rumors about their infidelity (another disgusting irony of this affair). He blackmailed businesses into paying massive fines by threatening to file corporate indictments that would cripple a firm's ability to operate, even if it were eventually acquitted. He threatened respectable businessmen with the prospect of being hauled off in handcuffs in front of their families.

"He did everything he could, in short, to bully the rest of the world into a solicitous state of submission—the state of terrorized subjects groveling before a tyrannical emperor."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/eliot_spitzers_emperors_club.html

On the other hand, David Brooks makes him almost sympathetic, at least the -pathetic part:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/opinion/14brooks.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

comment #8

Gaydos says ...

Wow, Mgmax, nice right wing hit job. Here's what you didn't mention about his record as Attorney General, courtesy of his wiki entry, which isn't too hard to locate:

Don't get me wrong, I know that his personality disorder infected every aspect of his life and work, but please at least note for the record that Spitzer...

".. joined the Manhattan district attorney's office, headed by Robert M. Morgenthau, to pursue organized crime. In 1992, he launched a successful investigation that brought down the Gambino family's control over Manhattan's garment and trucking industries...As attorney general, Spitzer took cases relating to corporate white collar crime, securities fraud, internet fraud and environmental protection. He most notably pursued cases against companies involved in computer chip price fixing, investment bank stock price inflation, and the 2003 mutual fund scandal. He also sued Richard Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, claiming he had failed to fully inform the board of directors of his deferred compensation package, which exceeded $140 million."

Yeah, a real scumbug, if you're a crooked Wall Street baron or Mafioso.

It's this record that led to his winning the Governorship of New York BY THE LARGEST PLURALITY IN HISTORY. And you still think nobody believed the guy was a white knight after all the good deeds he did as Attorney General.

And I am Prince Morty of Romania.