You know, in all the years I was a prosecutor, I was offered gifts, money...but the thought of taking these things had never even occurred to me. Not once. The theory is that when you are an attorney, you take an oath of office and you have to conduct yourself in an ethical manner toward all people. You also swear to uphold the law. When you are a prosecutor, I would argue the bar is raised significantly higher still. There are some things you simply should not do. You shouldn't drink and drive; you shouldn't do drugs, buy or sell them...and you shouldn't go racing about with a hoochie even if she is worth the $4300 you paid for her to do something other than what you get at home, I would hope.

Was he the governor of NY when this happened? Doesn't matter. He prosecuted and "went after" people who ran prostitution rings. He got convictions on the pimps, hookers and johns alike, I have no doubt. Yet there he was taking advantage of the very same business deals he had condemned. It is so very Caesarian I can't even stand it.

And hey, I quite frankly don't care one way or the other whether prostitution is legalized. The fact is that today, in New York and Washington D.C., it is not legal and Mr. Spitzer knew this when he did what he did. In short, he committed a criminal act and became...a criminal. Plain and simple. Not a "nice, smart" criminal... a criminal. Not a "wasn't he a great AG" criminal...a criminal. And not a "wasn't he tough on crime so let's cut him some slack" criminal...a criminal. And that entitles him to the exact same rights and treatment as any other damned criminal. He is not special because of what he did before he committed a criminal act. In fact, theoretically, if and when he is charged; tried; then convicted - his past will come into play at sentencing. That's it. It should never dictate whether the prosecution should occur in the first place.

I cannot believe the issue of whether he should consider resigning even came up. He is mandated by his own ethics as an an attorney to resign. I cannot fathom how people could even begin to question his lack of integrity as perhaps not being "quite so bad"; and the use that as a justification for him to remain in office. 

If we accept this sort of activity by someone, no matter how powerful, wealthy, or well placed in society, as far as I am concerned, we have lost our humanity. And if that is the case, why do we bother to have attorneys swear to uphold an oath? Elliot Spitzer, you really must step down. We don't need an apology because you were busted. Now it is time to leave. Let the lieutenant governor step into your place as he is deserving of doing. Get a couple of scruples back and leave office.

IRONIC UPDATE

As it turns out, Mr. Spitzer was busted for paying for a hooker by way of wire transfers or wire transactions through his bank that were "red flagged" because they looked suspicious. Ironically, the very same system that resulted in his monetary activities being red flagged was the very same system he had insisted be installed in all New York banks to detect unusual financial activity while he was the AG. As a direct result of his being an elected official both as governor, and probably part of the time he served as AG, his accounts received more scrutiny.

Somehow the media missed the fact that johns are prosecuted for...drum roll...solicitation, which is usually a misdemeanor. Federally, no, there they are looking at Mann Act and the wire activity. So now apparently he has not yet decided whether to resign and is weighing options through, surprise, the biggest law firm in the country. Oh geez, Nike principle...just DO it and resign.