Governor of NY linked to prostitution ring

[Ismenia]

Opps. Sorry about not providing links. I assume everyone had heard about it. Here is the one about the threesome

Former N.J. Gov. McGreevey Confirms Reports of Three-Way Sex With Wife and Aide

[Gromgor]

The sexual activities of my elected officials have no bearing on the carrying out of their assigned duties. Prostitution should be legalized so it can be better monitored rather than being a refuge for the drug-ridden and desperate. Homosexuality does not a bad politician make....

I think that covers most of my opinions regarding all the recent crap I've seen about NY Governors

[Marah]

Originally posted by Gromgor
The sexual activities of my elected officials have no bearing on the carrying out of their assigned duties.

Look, if someone wants to have an open marriage and both spouses agree, I don't really have an issue with their sex life affecting their political abilities. What I -do- have a problem with is people who make a VOW in front of friends and family to be faithful to a spouse, and they break that vow. If they are so willing to break that vow which is supposed to be forever, how much more are they going to break promises to their constituents?

[Grantref]

The sexual activities of my elected officials have no bearing on the carrying out of their assigned duties. Prostitution should be legalized so it can be better monitored rather than being a refuge for the drug-ridden and desperate. Homosexuality does not a bad politician make....

No, but the context of those activities may be such that they emperil his position. Ari pointed out in another thread about one of these situations (I forget whether it was about Larry Craig or someone else) that engaging in these kinds of activities in secret makes one vulnerable to blackmail, which in turn can be damaging to the security and well-being of the nation, state, or whatever constituency a politician was elected to serve, if a special interest uses blackmail to prevent or encourage government action so to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.

My beef with Spitzer, besides feeling a bit of betrayal (I didn't vote for him, having left NY by the time he ran for governer, but I was a big fan of his in the AG position) isn't exactly hypocrisy. It's the moral position of his public, official actions while AG and governer.

I don't have a beef with him for enjoying the services of a prostitute in and of itself. But it's pretty much clear that, whatever noises he may make to the contrary, he doesn't believe prostitution to be a tremendous sin. So, everyone he prosecuted as AG, everyone he declined to pardon as governor, every crackdown on prostitution led or participated in by him, was, in essence, locking people up in prison not for doing something he thought was a tremendously important social evil, but rather for personal political gain. As Bacchus from Erosblog put it:

“Sorry, chaps, nothing personal, it’s not that I disagree with anything you did, it’s just that I’m on the fast track to the Governor’s mansion, and it will be easier for me to get there if you suffer. So, suffer, peons!”

Alignment: Lawful Evil.

[Gromgor]

I think anybody who has expectations of politicians to be moral models devoid of blackmail potential completely misses the point that even this guy, that many people liked, is going to let you down.

As for taking a vow, yeah, I don't hold much stock in those things anymore. And without trying to really stir up too much crap every single person who is divorced (or has been) or seperated (yes, yes, I know there are very good reasons) is being hypocritical if they try to hold their politicians to what is meant to be a non-permanent position (as opposed to marriage).

The vows will be broken. The politicians will be corrupt. But is he good at his job? Even if he does those things that he locks people up for (in which case I fully agree he should be locked up).

This guy has no future but people treat him as though somehow he is anything other than every single politician. So what if he stepped on faces climbing his way to the top. That is the nature of politics. To expect anything more or less is to be a fool.

[Gromgor]

Originally posted by Grantref



I don't have a beef with him for enjoying the services of a prostitute in and of itself. But it's pretty much clear that, whatever noises he may make to the contrary, he doesn't believe prostitution to be a tremendous sin.

The trend for powerful people to engage in self-destructive actions has a basis deep in psychology. Read reports sometimes detailing the confessions of such individuals. Often times they're sying to themselves, "Why are you doing this? This is dumb. You shouldn't be here." They are literally thinking that, but they have an impulse that is often uncontrollable. Now whether you believe that such impulses are controllable or not (and I have no background in psychology and I have no readily available medical material backing that, I just used to watch a lot of discovery/history channel/national geographic/etc.) those statements are very often repeated during questioning by police.

Maybe they do it because they have an uncontrollable urge, in which case they need help, and it's not as much a conscious decision of "I'm going to go pay for what I could probably just get my secretary to do".

There is something far deeper involved than just "Can I stick my light saber in your vajayjay for $20?"

[Ismenia]

Originally posted by Aristotle
How is legalizing it and monitoring it a worse idea than the current reality of prostitution?

Right now, the fact that it is illegal is why it can so easily be used as a form of human slavery. It is also why there are so many children forced into prostitution. Legalizing it would make that a lot more difficult since the whole economy of prostitution would be monitored.

I have to agree with Ari here. I much rather see prostution legalized than the state it is in right now. There will be prostitution regardless. You might as regulate it, so the women aren't vicitimized. It might not be "morally" right for some, but it isn't right the way they are victimized either.