Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Why? Eliot, why?

Cara of Curvature has posted an open letter to Governor Eliot Spitzer that pretty much sums up how many of us are feeling right now. Her whole post is worth reading, but for the lazy I'll quote a few of the best bits here:
Between drafting your own bill to protect a woman’s right to an abortion if Roe v. Wade were overturned, attempting to enshrine the right to also refuse both contraception and abortion, rejecting federal abstinence-only money, and working to increase funding for family planning, I’d say you’ve done a pretty good job by women up until this point. You’ve even shown dedication to lesbians and bisexual women by supporting same-sex marriage...

Beyond my sentiments about men who purchase sex — let’s place all of that aside — I’m angry and sorely disappointed as a voter and a citizen... Even if you didn’t think that it was wrong to cheat on your wife (hey, for all I know you have an open marriage), or to hire a woman for sex, you knew it was wrong to take a risk that would jeopardize far more than your own personal career. It bears repeating that you were Attorney General, for Christ’s sake. You knew what was at stake....

In an election year when the presidency is the Democrats’ to lose, and Republicans have been praying to that misogynist, gay-hating god they’ve invented for a high-profile Dem to do something this ridiculously moronic and easy to manipulate. In an election year when we had a decent shot at taking control of the State Senate — for the first time in over forty years — so that we could actually get some progressive legislation passed.
Eliot - what were you thinking?

5 comments:

Casmall said...

I'll really shocked by this and I don't know what to say. This guy has been such a hero, how could he have stooped to this?

habladora said...

If you really want to bang your head against the wall, read the article that Yahoo! is linking to which purportedly answers that question. It is all about evolution, don't ya know.

Mächtige Maus said...

I asked this question this morning while watching the news (and answered it already with what I assume to be the reason), but I will ask it again. Why is the woman involved with Spitzer splashed all over the news? The identity of an sexual assault victim is supposed to be protected so why is this different? My answer is that probably because it is an illegal profession. Still, I don't see any of the people who actually run this prostitution ring plastered all over the news. I only see "Kristin"'s face and scrolling images of the other options offered on this club's website.

habladora said...

Of course, this latest scandal once again brings up the question about what to do about prostitution. I do think that it is crazy that we usually prosecute the women, but not their patrons. I find your comparison of "Kristin" to a sexual assault victim interesting, but we assume that in her case there was no coercion. Yet, according to a short piece on NPR, some studies do report an average of 12 instances of violence a year for women involved in prostitution. Also mentioned are the different attitudes towards prostitution world wide. Do people feel like prostitution should be legalized, or that we should be prosecuting the patrons rather than the sex workers?

Mächtige Maus said...

I'm going out on a limb here and am interested to see where it gets me. Personally, I think prostitution should be legalized. So should marijuana for that matter, but there's a juicy topic for a different blog.