The XX Factor: What women really think.

And Spitzer Gets a Column?

Since Spitzergate broke, I've been pretty ho-hum about the whole thing. Men cheat. Men have sex with prostitutes. Such is the nature of the universe. But when the guy who ran the escort service that Spitzer patronized got 2½ years in prison last Friday, I couldn't help but think: And Spitzer got a Slate column? As the kids say, WTF?

Mark Brener, a 63-year-old former tax specialist, was convicted on prostitution and money laundering counts. In court, Brener asked for leniency, and his lawyer suggested Brener's crime had no victims, although, that's a claim I'd refute. As the judge put it: “It may go on all the time and be the world’s second oldest profession. It’s certainly my view that a number of people are significantly hurt by this.” I suppose I have less of a problem with Brener's conviction—it wasn't like he was sitting around baking chocolate chip cookies—than the vast discrepency between Brener's sentence and Spitzer's never having been charged. With anything.

Obviously, I'm no legal eagle. I'm not even exactly sure exactly why this contrast so bothers me. Any of you legal birds interested in weighing in with your thoughts? I guess I thought all's fair in adultery and prostitution. Apparently not. That the pimp is punished more harshly than the governor who partook doesn't seem like the best policy to me.