Someone needs to look closely at how this all came down. Was it really a routine investigation into suspicious money transfers that led to these revelations? Call me cynical, but I suspect that this is more political monkey business on the part of the Justice Department, the FBI and the IRS, together with the collusion of the banking industry. Spitzer made himself into an attractive target. He was the most high-profile Democratic governor in the country, and was the nemesis of Wall Street. Is it too much of a stretch to wonder if his accounts and transactions were being subjected to more than ordinary scrutiny?

Jim Williams

Park Falls, WI

Personally, I do not care if he paid for sex, although I feel for his family's pain. What I care about is that he is a man too ignorant to follow rules he has created. If he has that little self control and awareness of what he is doing, he should not be in a position of power.

M. Cook

Detroit, MI

Scheer's hatred of Wall Street clouds his thinking. To say that what Spitzer does in his private life doesn't matter is plain nonsense. It isn't "just about sex." Among other things, it's about being involved in activites that the governor himself went after while attorney general. Spitzer is a shameful disgrace, and Scheer is too biased to see that.

Charles Jackson

Atlanta, GA

I wrote before to excuse a man for his wrongdoings as a human being weak in his response to flesh and desire. I saw his statement on CNBC Europe and can only support him. If he included extramarital sex in his moral high ground, then he should resign. I hope he continues to fight the Wall Street loonies. I still think America needs to separate the private from the public, as long as that doesn't damage society. As you have stated, we do nothing about a morally criminal president. We have become so fixated on what is legal that we have forgotten to contemplate and scrutinize what is moral.

Javier Ortiz

Düsseldorf, Germany

We have the right to expect those we elect to the highest office in our cities, states and nation to maintain high ethical standards. The argument that a politician's personal life is none of our business is fair to a point, but this is not exactly your next-door neighbor, who may be a truck driver carrying on with someone behind his wife's back. The line is crossed when you are using paid employees, (security staff) to safeguard your liaisons with a prostitute, when prostitutes cross state lines, which is a violation of the Mann Act, and when you try to put others in prison for violating the same laws you have feel you have no problem violating.

There are other, more important issues--such as the war in Iraq, our faltering economy, healthcare, immigration and the environment--but lying and deceiving one's spouse is not an isolated incident. If you are dishonest and deceptive in one part of your life, you will be dishonest in other parts of your life, and I find it difficult to believe that a politician who cheats on their wife is a paragon of virtue when attending to the business of the city, state or nation they are governing. I remember people I knew in college who repeatedly cheated in exams and when they went into the business world, no matter what profession they were in, they did not suddenly become honest; they cheated and skirted the lines of legality many years later.

Serving in the highest office of your state does require honesty and integrity better than the average Joe. It is a privilege, not a right, to govern others, and we should demand nothing less than a high standard of ethics and morality for those we elect to lead us. It's very sad that there are those among us who incorrectly believe that if we require honesty and integrity from elected officials, then we won't be able to have anyone be our mayors, governors or President. Let me dispel that myth here. You can be extremely qualified, competent and an excellent elected official who can serve the people wonderfully without violating laws or morals.

Mark Jeffery Koch

Cherry Hill , NJ

Scheer's outrage that criminals like Bush and Cheney are not in trouble and minor-felon Spitzer is reveals Scheer's childish outrage that all evildoers are not punished. In the real world only some get what they deserve, while those sinned against can only hope for pie in the sky after they die. Those looking for more often fall for messiahs and charlatans.

Possibly Spitzer could have done good in office, but he is also the type of personality which could do a lot of harm. This is not a Republic of Virtue, it is hardly even a republic.

Norman Ravitch

Savannah, GA

Has Mr. Scheer ever been paid for sex? I have, multiple times over. If Mr. Scheer wasn't just a liberal creep who feels that "early Scripture" pretty much covers all this territory anyway, I'd offer Mr. Scheer some services myself, he's obviously in need of it. The reason "we" care? If for no other reason, we at least owe that much to the latest bitch-de-jour, "Kirsten." No matter how manipulative, conniving, duplicitous, immoral, amoral, corrupted and/or uncaring this wisp of the Beltway madness may be, the hypocrisy lays at the feet of a judgmental-wanna be like Spitzer, who believes having his cake and eating it too is the only way for him... in fact, only for men like him and them only. Almost shocks the imagination if it wasn't so completely unsurprising.

Scheer moans about our lack of caring for all of Bush's crimes. Maybe if Mr. Scheer could actually wield his pen in a meaningful way--you know, intelligently, forthrightly & with gravitas--someone might pay attention. But as long as Mr. Scheer simply hacks his way through life--which, as anyone who has read him for the last fifteen to twenty years knows, is exactly what he is doing--well, what can one say? Does one need to tell him how to do his own business as well? Of which he is clearly in need of a thoroughly radical makeover? I'd give Mr. Scheer my number except I'm out of "the business," as the girls somewhat wistfully call it in their quieter moments... heck, it's more fun when an actual lover cooks you oatmeal for breakfast on her own free will, rather than make it with a high-priced beauty with an axe to grind and not quite enough bills to pay the lumberjack.

Moan all you want, Mr. Scheer, but if you had an ounce of creative talent or a pound of honest flesh, you could have brought down the Bushies a long time ago. Anyone could have. You don't possess these things. You have neither of these qualities. You have failed. Basically, you didn't have it in ya. You still don't. You're a Wanna-be and wanna-bes like you always "want to be." Sort of like Mr. Spitzer and no doubt our fair "Kirsten" as well. Pity the poor Mr. Spitzer? No. Pity the poor Mr. Scheer. Maybe next time he'll get his own Rolodex. He'll always be able to start with the letter "K."

Sherlock Debs

San Diego, CA

From Argentina, thanks for being so clear about the media. I`m saying you that as journalist. I'll keep reading you on ine. Bye,

Eduardo de Miguel

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is the first time I've disagreed with a Scheer piece. If Clinton had resigned, he would have spared the nation immense torment, deprived the MSM of its months-long wallow, disarmed the GOP, disabled the right wing, allowed Al Gore to run as a presidential incumbent. More than arguably this would, at the least, have kept the US from invading Iraq and spared thousands of US lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, trillions in US treasure, and all the GOP sabotaging of the US Constitution. The nation, its people and the Democratic party paid enormously, and will continue to pay, for Bill Clinton's selfish, narcissistic behavior. There's little reason for the people of NYS and the Democratic Party to pay now for Spitzer's self-indulgence: he can afford to pay all his bills.

R.H. Weber

Geneva, Switzerland