The Jersey whore who has become famous overnight has been offered enormous deals from Hustler, Penthouse, is making money from the downloads of her sluttish, normally untalented song.
Why should she get rich for breaking the law. The FBI used Spitzer's dalliances with her to break him. But there are laws against her prostitution and now she looks like she'll make a fortune off her notoriety. Aren't there laws against this?
Frankly, I oppose laws against prostitution. It is a behavior, like drug abuse, that can ruin people, but so can drinking alcohol or gambling. We have too many crimes on the books.
But since it is a crime and since this woman was used by the Bush admin FBI to bring down a Democratic leader with presidential potential, I don't want to see the woman rewarded. I want to see her receive equal justice.
Failure to give her the full attention of the law, failure to prevent her from being massively rewarded, will create a precedent for future gotcha setups by rogue government agencies that have been taken over by partisan leaderships.
I should be clear. Spitzer was an ass and a fool to do what he did to his family, his career. But that's just part of the picture.
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Update: After reading 30+ comments, mostly disagreeing with me, here's where I lay this out a bit more, having had some more time to think about it.
The TV news had just announced that Hustler and Penthouse were in a bidding war, exceeding a million dollars. My posting above was almost a kneejerk reaction to it, certainly only partly formed. So here's a longer take on it.
I see Spitzer as a tragic hero-- one who has taken on and beaten some of the most powerful corporate tyrants and criminals, who has incurred their enmity and revenge. This girl who was a pawn has the potential to become a celebrity, a star.
No, I'm no Simon, from American Idol, though I've run a record company. But I don't want girls to think that if they're lucky, they can live in fancy NY city digs, make tens of thousands a week, become millionaires, if they become .... whores. Oh. You don't like that word, not nice enough. How about boy toys, pay for play boy bling, love kittens... whatever. She sells her body to a guy old enough to be her father-- perhaps not as despicable as a general who lies for his commander in chief, like Colin Powell, or Bush appointees who de-regulate or ignore regulations in industries where failure to regulate leads to death or environmental damage. These people are also whores. I used the word whore because it IS an ugly word, and that is what the young lady is.
But Bill Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky led to a generation that was enamored with and fascinated with oral sex. Not necessarily a terrible thing, but clearly an unintended consequence of the mediaization and publicizing of the circumstances of Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky.
I don't want to see a new generation grow up romanticizing and glorifying the success and fame of Eliot Spitzer's whore. Already, I'm sure that the body workers who serviced the other numbers on the list on which Spitzer was number nine, are disappointed that THEY have not been so "lucky" to be THE ONE to get all the attention. I expect soon enough, other women who serviced Spitzer will come forward, trying to jump on the Penthouse, Hustler, celibrity gravy train.
I would rather the narrative be that this women was a victim, that she was used by Spitzer and the FBI and the pimps who sold her services and that she was a loser in the deal, that selling her body, her self esteem, her integrity was a losing proposition. That's the message I'd like to see become the predominant narrative that unfolds from this story.
Yes, I do agree that prostitution should not be a crime. Prostitutes should register, get checked regularly for health and there should never be circumstances where sex slaves, like today's MSNBC is exploiting for it's titillating nature, as a tie in to this Spitzer story, are abused against their will.
I don't want teenagers, glued to their TVs following the latest personal failings and crises of Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, to see Miss Ashley Alexandra Dupre as a heroic, inspiring role model.
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