I laughed -- out of joy or glee or something -- when I read the articles on Elliot Spitzer's successor should he resign. The first article I read noted that the deputy governor of NY is blind. Then a later article described him as black. I thought this was a misprint until I found he was both black and blind.

That's when I laughed until my eyes were wet and felt --dare I say it -- hopeful. How I do love this changing landscape.

I don't care if Spitzer's a Democratic superdelegate and this sting smells awfully fishy. (It is puzzling, however; if the feds decided to mess with the Democratic convention, this would be an excellent way to do it, but Spitzer was pro-Hillary, I think. And what effect would it have on his delegateship, anyway?)

A few years ago Elliot Spitzer as AG moved to block Visa/MC transactions for online gambling as if they were illegal, causing ruination to many legal businesses. I'm speaking of transactions which were not illegal, or if they were NY would be prosecuting individuals for trying to initiate them. They aren't. This was one of the actions that the Republican government emulated, this making things impossible that aren't illegal, thus choking ordinary people who happen to be in an industry which competes with that of the rich friends of the President. Anyway, I've felt since then that Spitzer was an unreasoning puritan, along the lines of those who oppose stem-cell research, global warming protocols, and stuff like that.

But concerning this prostitute stuff -- I knew someone who was a rather elite computer guy and patent attorney, a young vice president of a Fortune 500 company, who was later arrested and convicted for charges related to sex tourism involving an underage girl. Since I knew him well long ago, I kind of knew how he could go ahead and do this. He'd always acted as if he believed that he could act outside the rules for ordinary people with impunity because he was so knowledgeable and talented. I think Spitzer had the same gaze-over-the-crowd arrogance, too.

There is one thing that bothers me a lot, however: If Spitzer is pressured to resign then David Vitter should follow him to the shame yard, too. But since Vitter is safe, then Spitzer should be.