Eliot’s Exit
Nathan Greene
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By Emily Geiger
There have been conflicting reports this morning regarding New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s future career plans. The first headline I read said that Mrs. Spitzer was telling him not to resign (and from the look on her face the other day at her husband’s half-hearted confessional press conference, I didn’t believe that one).
The latest headline I read said that Gov. Spitzer would be resigning this morning. I believe that is the right course of action for many reasons. First, the guy has broken the law. Yes, soliciting a prostitute is illegal (as it should be). Facilitating the travel of a prostitute across state lines is even more illegal (as it should be). And laundering money to pay for your prostitutes is also illegal (as it should be). Given that Spitzer has participated in all these illegalities, he has no credibility left, and he needs to go.
More importantly, he needs to resign for the sake of his family. GOP legislators in the state have already said that if he doesn’t resign, they will begin the process of impeachment (and rightfully so). If this guy cares at all about his wife and three teenaged daughters, he will spare them the embarrassment of having the details of his illicit sex life sprawled across the headlines for the next few years.
Contrary to what I heard a lot of liberal pundits saying yesterday, this was not a victimless crime (just ask the wife and daughters if you have any doubt about that). While sex was involved in this situation, the resignation is not about him cheating on his wife. If he had flown to one of those Nevada counties where prostitution is legal, we’d all think he was a slimeball, but I doubt he’d be facing impeachment. That’s the difference between JFK, who we all know was an infamous playboy, and the likes of Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer. Clinton and Spitzer weren’t just disrespecting their wives and daughters, they were engaging in actual crimes (i.e. perjury, money laundering, etc.) for which anyone else would suffer criminal consequences. And the liberal response to this: this is a GOP witch hunt that’s all about sex. No, it’s about treating (powerful) people who commit crimes the same as other (not so powerful) people who commit crimes. It’s a little thing called equal protection. Liberals should look into it sometime.
This is about what is legal and what is illegal. It’s about time that a politician caught in his own stupidity and immorality did the right thing. Resign now and spare us all gory details.
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