This morning, I was awakened by my wife, who brought me coffee. As I was rousing from my groggy slumber my clock radio turned itself on, and I heard Mr. Spitzer's resignation speech.
New York governor Eliot Spitzer has resigned, purportedly over a sex scandal. It seems the governor, who spent his career as an attorney general and politician has been visiting high-priced hookers for the past ten or so years. He's right to resign.
After all, prostitution is illegal in New York. It's illegal in Washington D.C. It's also illegal in both places to solicit prosecution. As a former attorney general, Mr. Spitzer knew this, and in fact probably prosecuted people for it.
Democratic calls for his resignation that I've heard have touched on his hypocrisy. Democratic support for Mr. Spitzer has ranged from condemnation of America because of our backward value system to the it's just about sex argument. After all, more enlightened and culturally advanced Europeans think there's nothing wrong with a man acting on his base animal instincts, or cheating on his wife.
The fact remains that what Mr. Spitzer did was illegal. If he hadn't resigned, the New York legislature should have impeached him.
Conservative and Republican reactions have been varied. I first heard about this scandal on the Sean Hannity show a couple of days ago. On that day Sean was talking to J.C. Watts. It seemed to me that they struck the right tone. Eliot Spitzer was a man, subject to the failings of all men. What he did was wrong, and should have a price, but we shouldn't be quick to condemn him. After all, all men have moral failings.
We don't know for a fact that Mr. Spitzer actually engaged the services of a prostitute, but there's a lot of evidence that he did. Mr. Spitzer's apologies to his family and constituents never mentioned what he actually did. His resignation was short and to the point, again never mentioning his specific failing.
As I was listening to his speech I was grateful, because this was yet another scandal that really doesn't need to be all over the news. And then I heard the commentary from Glenn Beck. Frankly it was disgraceful. They replayed his resignation speech, interspersed with mocking commentary by Glenn. The schadenfreude was obvious.
It's always a shame to see a man fall to disgrace, particularly a man in a position of power. Regardless of his politics lives are often destroyed by it. Things aren't going to change in New York because Mr. Spitzer is leaving politics. The Democratic party still has a lock on power in the state. The lieutenant governor is just as liberal as the governor was.
Comparisons have been made between the treatment of Eliot Spitzer and Mark Foley, or Larry Craig. I even considered making one myself. After all, toe-tapping in a public restroom hardly compares with spending a thousand dollars for an hour with a prostitute. I thought better of it though.
The political parties and opposing ideologies are indeed different when it comes to this. Democratic politicians with moral failings that don't quite rise to provable violations of law are often lauded for those failings, while Republican politicians in the same circumstances are often hounded out of office by both parties for it. It doesn't seem fair.
Men, and women elected to public office ought to be held to a high standard. It doesn't matter which party they are from. When they are given the responsibility for crafting and enforcing our laws they should not be above them. If they violate those laws they should and must be removed from power.
But it's not a cause for great rejoicing.
Eliot Spitzer is leaving politics. The public will benefit by this in a small way, because a man who violated the laws he was sworn to uphold is no longer in office. Eliot Spitzer and his family will also benefit, because now that his sin is in the open he has the chance to repent and to repair his relationships.
We should take the opportunity to look to ourselves. Eliot Spitzer succumbed to his moral failings and was caught, but we all have moral failings (maybe not the same ones, but we have them anyway). This is an opportunity for us to consider them and hopefully do something about it.
Originally posted at Perri Nelson's Website. Cross posted at NW Bloggers.
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