CARROLL: Deflecting blame
By Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published March 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
'In Europe," declared Alan Dershowitz upon hearing of Eliot Spitzer's disgrace, "this wouldn't even make the back pages of the newspaper. It's a uniquely American story. We're a uniquely, you know, pandering society and hypocritical society, when it comes to sex."
Leave it to Dershowitz to fault America for Spitzer's predicament.
How would the Harvard law professor actually know that we're a uniquely hypocritical society? How would such a distinction be verified?
Unless Dershowitz has redefined the word "hypocritical," his meaning at least is clear: Those professing dismay over Spitzer's behavior are insincere. Whatever people say in public, nobody really deplores what he did. Americans understand that powerful married men routinely betray their families and buy sex. And that powerful former prosecutors will break the laws they once self-righteously enforced. But Americans are trained to feign outrage - the Puritan legacy and all that - if the powerful men are caught.
If Dershowitz really believes such twaddle, he needs to expand his circle of friends. Americans may not be terribly surprised by Spitzer's behavior, but many do in fact believe that ethical people strive to be faithful to their families and the law. A hypocrite, on the other hand, doesn't actually believe in the taboo he publicly salutes. He sees nothing wrong with the behavior he denounces.
Many Americans may have different values than many Europeans, but that hardly makes either Americans or Europeans hypocritical about sex.
In any case, are Europeans quite as jaded by erotic adventures as Dershowitz would have us believe? Yes, former French President Francois Mitterrand famously kept his mistress and their daughter in an annex to the Elysee Palace, and they appeared at his funeral in 1996 along with his wife. But the French today have not exactly taken a shine to the escapades of President Nicolas Sarkozy, as opinion polls repeatedly confirm.
"Many French were offended when Sarkozy, 53, divorced his wife of 11 years in October and then started romancing Italian model-turned-singer Carla Bruni, 40," according to USA Today. "They married last month. It was like 'staging Desperate Housewives' at the presidential palace, the French daily Le Monde said."
Leave it to Le Monde to drag in an American TV show when searching for a suitably derogatory analogy. Perhaps the newspaper's editors and Dershowitz should compare notes.
A baffling explanation
It wasn't a comedy act, but it had the feel of one when Denver police Chief Gerry Whitman and Chief Deputy District Attorney Lamar Simms appeared before Denver school principals last month to explain the law on reporting child abuse and improper sexual conduct. They made such a hash of the description that they confused rather than clarified the law.
To be fair, however, the two weren't equally at fault. Whitman seemed to know what he was talking about, confirming that the statute says principals can report to social service authorities or to the cops. Incredibly, though, the video of the event shows Simms repeatedly misstating the law, claiming that the requirement that school officials report "to the county department or local law enforcement agency" actually meant reporting only to local law enforcement.
His explanation was baffling. "Denver is unique. Denver is a city, a county and a judicial district. . . . what we expect because we are unique is that you report to the Denver Police Department."
What we expect? What the law expects is what matters.
Simms represents an office that is pursuing a charge against Skinner Middle School Principal Nicole Veltze for failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a female student who was touched inappropriately by two classmates, even though Veltze followed district policy and made no attempt to sweep the incident under a rug. She considered it sexual harassment; the DA disagrees. Fair enough. But rather than make an example of her for no good purpose, DA Mitch Morrissey might have found someone to explain to the district how his office would like principals to distinguish between harassment and assault.
Maybe even Simms could do it, once someone explains to him the meaning of "or."
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.
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March 12, 2008
9:39 a.m.
Suggest removal
jestbill writes:
So far, no one speaking on this topic has bothered to make any connection between Spitzer's supposed illegal activity and his performance of his job.
Are we to expect that the mayor would step down if he got a parking ticket? Two? Speeding? DUI? Where to draw the line.
Spitzer's real sin was to be so strongly and professionally in favor of Truth, Justice and all for everyone else while breaking the law on his own time.
March 12, 2008
9:56 a.m.
Suggest removal
keeemosabe writes:
Speaking of hypocrisy, Spitzer has resigned. And Republicans Larry Carig and Vitter remain in office and Vitter is applauded for returning and Craig us urged to fight the charges. All have convicted Spitzer in the press, but grounds to drop charges could be found in a case of selective prosecution. But he did the honorable thing to resign. Why haven't the above Republicans? And wher is Vince Carrol's outrage? Answer: it's not there because he is a Republican stooge.
March 13, 2008
10:15 a.m.
Suggest removal
Spencer writes:
Prostitution should be legalized
March 13, 2008
1:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
HankRearden writes:
Spencer
It already is. See Al Gore - Climate Change. Bill Ritter - Unions. Bill Clinton and pardons. Any politician and earmarks. It just sexual prostitution that is illegal.
March 15, 2008
8:26 p.m.
Suggest removal
snowbelly writes:
It was the felonies involved with money laundering and intrastate trafficking that made this case notorious. Now this young woman doesn't want to be remembered as a "monstor , but merely as a person who was forced into prostitution by abusive parents.Spitzer was just forced into this by an abusive wife.I was forced into this by an abusive housecat.