What’s the big deal? Eliot Spitzer had sex with a call girl. Read the New York Times, and you would think this was something unusual, something shocking. Read the Wall Street Journal and you would think none of the traders and financiers, now gloating that their tormentor had been humbled, had ever paid for sex.
Yes, paying for sex is tawdry. Yes, it is sad that women still practice the world’s oldest profession. Yes, it must be hard for Spitzer’s wife to stand by his side, to read the prurient yet moralizing media feeling ever so sorry for her. But why do the rest of us care?
The press cares because sex sells, because tut tutting at the improprieties of their betters lets them write about sex, about high priced hookers, lets readers imagine what $5000 an hour will get them.
Wall Street cares because it allows them to ignore their own venality and corruption, successfully prosecuted by Spitzer now that "Mr. Clean" is shown to have his own dirty laundry. Let us not be fooled though. There is a big difference between ripping off the public (their crime) and overpaying for meaningless sex (his).
Eliot Spitzer is the first governor of New York to resign since Nelson Rockefeller, who of course died of a heart attack while having sex with a call girl. Why do we act as though we are shocked?