Get Your Kicks Above the Waistline Sunshine

I see that Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias was forced to resign after prosecutors revealed he utilized a call girl. (He says for massage only. Whatever.)

While there is always some juicy hypocrisy when an official from an Administration pledged to celibacy (and Tobias' work with international AIDS prevention required that he push the celibacy party line) gets caught getting a little somethin' somethin with a professional somethin'er the larger picture is just a cautionary tale.

More pointedly, Tobias is now a pariah, we will have a high profile and expensive prosecution that portends to involve the disclosure of all sorts of names from the allged madame's black book (or blue blackberry as the case may be). These men will suffer similar embarassment and damage to their career and family life. Worse, their friends and acquaintances will involuntraily picture them en flagrante. Never a good thing. And the societal benefit to all this is what exactly? (And no, the ability of some folks to feel morally superior does not count as a societal benefit.)

Don't get me wrong. Tobias appears to be the worst kind of corporate hack appointed to push some very sketchy diplomatic initiatives. At the same time, I am not sure he needs to be sacrificed at the uniquely American alter of sexual puritanism. Maybe it is just time to say the heart wants what the heart wants and consenting adults can consent to, and pay for, whatever they want without fear of public embarassment. That would put an end to the periodic public convulsions of self righteousness and hypocrisy.


Wait... that makes too much sense.