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Spitzer: Why is Prostitution Illegal Anyway?

By Matt Cooper

The New York Governor's link to a prostitution ring is the most stunning political moment in a long time Last year, David Vitter, the Republican United States Senator from Louisiana was haunted by similar charges and he managed to survive them after holding a press conference with his family. But Spitzer is a larger figure in American life and a paragon of law enforcement. His Albany antics, from his temper to his aides Nixonian attacks on Republicans, had sent his once incredibly political career reeling. This will likely end it.

But it's worth stepping back and asking a perennial question: Should prostitution be legal? The question is as old as the world's oldest profession. There's no easy answer. Society doesn't want to encourage prostitution because it's a bad path for the women (or men) who engage in it. But it exists and the choice, as with illegal drugs, is whether to allow a black market to flourish and the crime associated with it or to try and live with it and regulate it. The experience of the Netherlands, with its open sex shops, isn't exactly inspiring but neither is what we have. It's worth asking though whether we want to really keep criminalizing this kind of behavior?

Of course, criminal or not, visiting a prostitute is not exactly a great career move for a married politician so it doesn't really matter if he lives in Albany or Amsterdam. Either way, he's a married hypocrite.

If the charges prove true, you have to wonder what went through Spitzer's mind--why he would risk so much, why the more time-honored route of an extramarital affair wasn't what he chose instead and, of course, whether he can possibly recover. He's going to be the governor until 2011. What in earth is the rest of this term going to be like, assuming he can stay in office? Is New York State about to have an African-American Governor and did Hillary Clinton just lose another superdelegate.

Related Links
Spitzer's Mixed Signals
Wall Street on Spitzer
Spit-Take on Wall Street

Full post as published by Portfolio.com: Capital on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).