Thank You Eliot Spitzer

It's been almost three weeks since my last post, and honestly, I was beginning to wonder if there was ever going to be another post. Sure, the new job has been taking up more of my time, and making finding time for blogging more difficult, but the reality is there is nothing that I felt passionate about writing. And then comes Eliot Spitzer. But not for the reason you think.

For those of you who don't know (and if you're that out of touch how did you even learn to operate a computer?), Eliot (yes, he spells it that way) Spitzer is the governor of New York, and this week he was caught using a prostitute. Now, that's bad enough, but before he was the New York Governor, he was the New York District Attorney, and made a name for himself as a no-nonsense prosecutor, going after, among other things, prostitution rings.

Now those of you on the left (heck, those of you on the right as well), are going to assume that I'm happy about this situation because Spitzer is a democrat. No, my joy, if that's what you want to call this, comes from the reactions of the pundits on the left. And, their reactions come from the fact that Spitzer is a lib, so I guess in a backhanded way my joy does come from the (D) that follows Spitzers name.

This morning on my ride into work, I went right to Air America, and I was surprised to hear Mark Seder, liberal extraordinaire, spouting “Look, this is a bottom of the barrel sex scandal, and he has to go.” Wow, what a surprise, until it soon became apparent that he wasn’t talking about Spitzer, but instead was talking about Larry Craig. What? These are the same people that screamed “double standard” when the Larry Craig, David Vitter, and Mark Foley cases broke.

Now let me side step the discussion for a second, and say that – at the time these events AND now – I think Craig, Vitter and Foley should have resigned following their scandals, I never once said “Yeah, but they should be able to stay in office because Bill Clinton did”, or in anyway have ever supported these guys. Once more, I have never heard Hannity or Limbaugh support these guys. After each of these scandals broke, all the right wingers called for their resignations. Now granted, in some instances they phrased it like “Should he be found to have actually done this, he needs to step down.” In other words, innocent until proven guilty, but if guilty, they’ve got to go.

And honestly, if I had to stand up for any of these guys, it would be Craig. Why? Well, I find his actions immoral and unsavory, but is what he did – even if we believe that what he did is what they accused him of (and I believe it is) – is it illegal? I’m not so sure. Look, basically what Craig supposedly did, was solicit a man for sex. He wasn’t actually having sex in a public bathroom, simply asking for it. Now, if instead he had gone into the airport bar, picked out a patron (man or women), and said “Hey, do you want to have sex?”, that wouldn’t have been illegal, assuming that he didn’t offer money for the sex.

So what Craig did was, in my mind, immoral and unsavory, but not necessarily illegal. However, I still think that Craig should step down, specifically BECAUSE his actions were immoral and unsavory. The problem is, in Spitzer’s case, immoral and unsavory doesn’t necessarily bother the left, when it’s their guy who is the immoral one. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the right isn’t that much more righteous, but look at the leaders on the left: An accused rapist and serial abuser (Clinton), a drunk who killed his mistress (Kennedy), a former member of the KKK (Robert Byrd), a man who had a gay prostitution ring run out of his townhouse (Barney Frank). Yep, the left is a real moral group. (This is the point where my friend Chris points out all the immorality on the right, so to save you some time, I’ll admit (as I already have) that the right ain’t much better.)

So by the time I left work this evening I assumed that clearer heads would prevail, and my friends at Air America would now be judging Spitzer on his actions, not his affiliation. Yeah, right! According to Rachel Maddows (who, as a liberal isn’t too bad – clearly better than Randi Rhodes) Was complaining that she wasn’t so upset by the alleged prostitution, but rather the “actions” that lead to the charges. You see, Maddows is convinced that this is all the doing of the Bush Administration. No, really.

You know, at first it was kind of funny how the left would blame everything – no matter how far-fetched (do you remember the Minnesota bridge collapse?) - on George W. Bush. Apparently Bush is an idiot AND capable of masterminding all sorts of evil plans. Folks, it’s not funny any more. It’s not interesting or compelling (not that it ever was). Really, it’s kind of pathetic. Look, I’m not a big supporter of the left, but at the same time I don’t want you see you turn into any more of a characture than you already are.

In the meantime, pay attention to how the media – especially the left – tries to spin this Spitzer thing to blame the right. Folks, it’s not about the right, it’s not about the left. It’s about a man who did a stupid thing, and whose real punishment is that he has destroyed what appears to be a very nice family. Way to go Eliot…..