In 2008, Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York. Not because he got caught using his office, as he had his past position of attorney general, to routinely steal people’s wealth and constantly attempt to run people’s lives, but because he’d been caught paying for services from (presumably willing) sex workers.

If that sounds backward, it is. While it’s certainly possible that Spitzer’s extramarital sexual activities violated his agreeements with or obligations to his spouse, they were otherwise nobody’s damn business. But his activities as attorney general and governor were inherently and actively evil and damaging to the commonweal.

I consider it strange to see Spitzer’s attempt to return to his previous life of crime as as a prospective candidate for New York City Comptroller portrayed as redemptive.