You may have heard something about this whole Elliot Spitzer thing out there. The thing that occurs to me is that it probably would be pretty easy to go to a contemporary translation of Oedipus Rex and change it into Spitzer Rex. I don’t have time to try my hand it myself, so you can have that idea for free. If someone makes such a version and/or finds one out there, let me know.
Anyway, besides good posts from Deb Hawhee here (I would never cheat on my wife, but beyond that, I too wonder why all these political spouses, including our own local Mrs. Kirkpatrick, so willingly stand by their man) and here from Alex Halavais, I also found myself somewhat amused with this piece by Erica Jong I found on Huffington, “Morals to Be Drawn From Spitzer’s ‘Case’.” It is far from the best piece of writing I’ve seen on the Internets– actually, it reads more like Jong dictating thoughts off the top of her head than anything resembling coherent paragraphs– but she does have some good/amusing points, especially in the ten rules/commandments that start the piece. For example: “If you are famous for closing prostitution “rings,” don’t frequent them;” “Pay hookers in cash;” “Don’t yell at investment bankers on the phone;” and, one that I’ve cleaned up slightly for this space, while in office, don’t sleep with someone other than your spouse, “unless you are in French politics.”