Do you know who I am? No? Good--send over a hooker.

The Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has been caught with his pants down, and pointy-headed Democrats have declared the whole thing boring beyond belief, asking why anyone should care about or even notice such a mundane turn of events.

We hear a clip of James Carville mocking shock, affecting his best blasé tone, feigning wonder at how, in this day and age, we neandertals who lack his penetrating sophistication could possibly hold adultery against anyone. What are we, Puritans? A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.

Similarly, Alan Dershowitz pooh-poohs the hoopla. The Europeans wouldn't even run a story on it, he says. They're laughing at us! What's the big deal about a man having sex with someone who isn't his wife?

The answer is that he is not just a man, and it's not just adultery. He's a public official, the Governor of New York, and his antics are a crime--one he has sent others to prison for. He could have been anything he wanted to be, and if he had chosen to be a pig farmer, or the owner of a chain of laundromats, or an editor at a newspaper, his crime might have been met with the shrugs of indifference Carville and his ilk suggest we adopt.

But when you become a governor, there's a certain understanding. No longer can you wag your baboon ass in public, drink yourself silly with your old high school buddies down at the Bowl-o-Rama--or pick up floozies on the streetcorner. There's a decorum to be followed, particularly when it comes to illegal activities, and if you don't want to follow it, stay out of politics. It's one thing to have an affair. It's quite another to pay for sex with a top dollar whore, which is still illegal in his jurisdiction. The role of a leader is leastways to remain law-abiding.

Had the secret held awhile, he could have been blackmailed. Not necessarily slinking around leaving bags of gold coins under sewer grates, but possibly finding himself beholden to unprincipled lawmakers, forced to pursue ventures contrary to the public interest. What top executive has the right to put himself in that position without expecting censure from the community when they learn the truth?

There's nothing surprising about Democrats taking the side of criminals, especially when those criminals are Democrats. It's amusing to imagine how they would have reacted if the governor had been a Republican. Dershowitz probably wouldn't have been heard from; Carville would have squealed like a hog about Republican hypocrisy; CNN, whose initial story didn't identify the governor's political affiliation until the 32nd paragraph, would have made sure that detail made the first six paragraphs and the headline.

Our society retains some covenance, so it looks like Spitzer will have step down. If it was 'just a mistake', it's one a politician at that level shouldn't be making.