Posted by
T. Thomas on Saturday, March 15, 2008 12:36:39 PM
The cautionary tale of Eliot Spitzer isn't a tale of the wages of sin. It's about power. As a Kipling fable, it would be about a bull elephant of the herd collecting female trophies to magnify his dominance over other males. Spitzer could have gone for a nice $800 whore, or even a $1,500 one and had a fine time. That's a high end night in anybody's book.
Instead, he fell for a pitch from a company that marketed its wares not so much for sex, but to stroke the infinite vanity of arrogant men of power. Such exclusivity, such prices like those of fine antique wines, made Spitzer feel magnificent and godlike, a Nero among men, hence the name of this sly enterprise. The girl he hired was there for sex certainly, but sex was a side dish. She was really there to reinforce his own gilded image of himself; to bask in the wonder that was Eliot Spitzer.
Let's look at the product he selected. Miss Dupre is a girl of no particular beauty (her big nosed pictures are all over the net today), and of no special breeding or talent (her insipid writing and vapid music are also available for observation and ridicule). It takes a certain amount of intellect and sophistication to be a courtesan, that is a woman who specializes in pleasing the more, shall we say, sophisticated tastes of well-heeled men. This one probably just bounced around pleasantly with youthful enthusiasm. It seems obvious this south Jersey high school dropout offered no "unique" gifts of sensuality. Her price was not a function of her skills, but of her unavailability to others.
Spitzer selected her because almost no other man could afford her. Her rarified "price" appealed to his engorged ego more than his gonads. And it was his arrogant view of his own untouchability that allowed him to midjudge his vulnerability and brought him down in a tawdry and quotidien sex scandal.
The admonitions of Proverbs do not pertain, nor do the warnings of Leviticus. If you want Biblical reference more in line with the facts of the case, consult Kings and Chronicles. This is not a tale of flesh and desire, it is a story of pride and hubris.