Redstate

Posted at 10:10pm on Mar. 16, 2008 Missing The Boat: The Strange Case Of Martha Nussbaum

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Comes now the philosopher Martha Nussbaum to inform us that the fact that Eliot Spitzer had to resign as Governor of the State of New York is A Very Bad Thing and proof that we Americans are insufferable prudes who still have a long way to go before we can be considered sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

This is all so very tiresome. At the outset, let us remind ourselves that as Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted prostitution rings. If recent reports are to be believed and Spitzer has been soliciting prostitution for as many as 6 years (spending nearly $80,000 in the process), that means that Spitzer was soliciting prostitutes even as he was busting the rings and looking like Mr. Clean in anticipation for his gubernatorial run in 2006 in the process. As Governor, Spitzer signed into law legislation that increased the penalties on people soliciting prostitution. Spitzer's hypocrisy is, of course, both nothing short of astonishing and utterly inescapable and yet, Nussbaum does not even address it.

What Nussbaum does engage in is the well-worn practice of warning us that our behavior in circumstances such as these leaves ever so much to be desired because the Europeans just don't approve, darlings. This constant effort to make the Europeans look like sexual sophisticates when compared to their supposedly dumber and less-worldly American cousins is more than a little grating because contrary to popular belief--and Nussbaum's fevered imaginings--the Europeans are actually rather prudish about sex. Remember the Profumo Affair? John Profumo didn't get to keep his job after his dalliances became a matter of public knowledge. Like Profumo, Spitzer compromised himself through his solicitation of prostitution and made himself vulnerable to blackmail. And as in the Spitzer matter, the public reacted with anger and disgust towards the news of Profumo's activities.

Want more evidence that the Europeans are significantly more prudish than Nussbaum gives them credit for? Ask how well John Major's government fared in the wake of the many sex scandals that befell it. I don't recall Tony Blair as having lost the election of 1997 to Major and the repeated revelations of sex scandals affecting Tory politicians in the run-up to the 1997 election were one of the most important factors contributing to the fall of the Major government.

Lest anyone think that this European prudishness is confined to Britain, consider the case of France. Extramarital affairs amongst French politicians are only tolerated if they are kept quiet and out of the news. Once they get into the news, the French public can be as disapproving as any Puritan colony out there. Indeed, the revelation of romantic affairs significantly more honorable than the solicitation of prostitution can land French politicians in hot water with a puritanical public. Nicolas Sarkozy divorced his previous wife, met and fell in love with Carla Bruni and married her swiftly after their romance commenced. The French reacted to this high-profile marriage--a marriage, not a visit to the red light district--with much tut-tutting and caused Sarkozy's once-high approval ratings to plummet precipitously.

Finally, Nussbaum seeks to change the debate from "Should Eliot Spitzer have been forced to resign and potentially face prosecution?" to "Should prostitution be illegal in the first place?". The latter makes for an interesting public policy question and Nussbaum puts forth arguments to explain why the selling of one's body for sex should not be such a big deal. One can, of course, debate these issues--and Heaven knows that we have, ad nauseam--but none of this changes the fact that there are laws against prostitution, that Eliot Spitzer broke those laws, that he had made a name for himself as Attorney General and as Governor in fighting prostitution both on the supply and on the demand sides and that thanks to his indiscretions, he has robbed himself of the moral authority to run the State of New York and has exposed himself to legal prosecution in the process.

This is yet another instance where evidently, we have to remind Spitzer defenders that no one is responsible for this sorry state of affairs save Eliot Spitzer. If you want to write an angry blog post, devote it to denouncing the soon-to-be-ex-Governor of the State of New York. He deserves it. And then some.

Posted in Law | Silly Excuse-Mongering | Spitzenfreude | Sptizmas — Comments (15)/ Email this page » / Read More »