How Is Spitzer Different From Bill Clinton?
In regard to Eliot Spitzer, I keep thinking about Bill Clinton and Halle Berry's ex-husband, and I'm wondering which actions are forgivable/excusable and which are not. If someone is a sex addict, as Halle Berry's ex-husband supposedly is, we treat it as a medical problem and we say it is not their fault.
I am more inclined to forgive Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky thing than I am to forgive Eliot Spitzer, and I'm trying to figure out why. With Bill Clinton, here was this cute flirty young woman who was thrown in his path, who threw herself in his path, who came onto him and went after him and god knows that women are his weakness, and so, well, he gave in to his weakness. Of course, this was many years ago, so maybe I am forgetting some of the facts. But to me, Bill's problem is that he likes women too much. (I should clarify that when I say "forgive," I mean as a constituent, not as a wife. As a wife, I would be out of there faster than you could say ... well, just about anything.)
Whereas what Spitzer did feels more like an act of misogyny. Again, I am trying to figure out why. I think I can understand it more for a man to say, "I met this woman, I thought she was cute, I developed a crush on her." But Spitzer went straight to the brothel. This was demeaning to himself, to his wife, to his daughters, and to the working girls, and to women everywhere, not to mention to the people he is supposed to govern and represent. Maybe I'm not being fair. I'm trying to figure it out.
What Spitzer did feels, to me, like a hostile act of anger. What Clinton did feels like an act of weakness. But again, maybe the years have softened my feelings about the Lewinsky affair.
Also, I don't feel like every man who goes to a prostitute is a misogynist. There are men who actually cannot get laid in any other way and so really do go simply for the female "companionship." I am less inclined to judge them for this.
Nonetheless, Spitzer has problems, which is what led him to behave this way. Maybe his problem isn't as serious as sex addiction but a "lesser "dysfunction or pathology. How much do we hold him accountable for it, and how much do we forgive because he needs help?