More on Liars

Elliiot Spitzer, the current (perhaps not for long) governor of New York, has been caught up in a scandal involving a high-class prostitution ring. Apparently (according to some of the ladies of the night), he was a difficult client. The New York Times reports that,

In a wiretapped conversation after the encounter, the prostitute, Kristen, called her booker to inform her that the session had gone well, and that she did not find the client “difficult,” as other prostitutes apparently had, according to the affidavit.

The booker responds that he, in an apparent reference to Client 9, sometimes asks the women “to do things that, like, you might not think were safe.”

Though I personally do not wish to avail myself of the services of a hooker (high class or otherwise), I don't consider myself sufficiently free of "sin" to begin casting stones at Mr. Spitzer for his nighttime behavior. As far as I am concerned, his sex life has nothing to do with me or the political goings-on in New York. What more concerns me is the vast gulf that Mr. Spitzer's apparent hippocracy represents between his own life and that of his political discourse. As the New York Times writes,

Though his signature issue was pursuing Wall Street misdeeds, as attorney general Mr. Spitzer also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. “It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

I don't really know what one does in a case like this. I understand that politics requires that Mr. Spitzer speak with conviction and revulsion when discussing the breakup of a prostitution organization. It must be a hard place to be for him, enjoying the company of prostitutes and working at a job that requires that he prosecute them. I can empathize or sympathize or something like that. Still, I'm so utterly sick and tired of the tremendous disconnect between the word and actions of so many politicians. It's like we're living in a country full of sex addicts who are too scared and repressed to even talk about sex.

Well, it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days. Surely Mr. Spitzer will resign, though he has not yet done so. And hopefully, we'll have a tell-all book to look forward to, giving us the chance to read an autobiographical account of the governor's sex addiction, his fall from grace, and his ultimate redemption.