Opinion: Catholic League asks 'What Did Spitzer In?'

Like all libertines, he not only destroys himself, he ineluctably destroys those around him.

NEW YORK, NY (Catholic League) - Everyone is pointing out the obvious: Eliot Spitzer is an arrogant man who thought that the same rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to him.

Yes, his hubris is insufferable, but there is something else going on as well.

One would be hard pressed to find a public official anywhere in the nation who entertains a more libertine understanding of sexuality than Eliot Spitzer.

For example, his unbelievable passion for abortion rights led him to declare Crisis Pregnancy Centers the enemy when he was New York Attorney General. He intimidated them, harassed them and used bogus arguments to try to shut them down. But he met resistance, from the Catholic League and others, and had to pull back.

The majority of the residents of New York State--including the majority of those who live in New York City--are opposed to same-sex marriage. Spitzer favors it. He's not satisfied with civil unions--he wants gay marriage.

Spitzer has been working hard to declare abortion a "fundamental right," one so inviolate that it could never be overturned by the courts. He has also warned that no institution could "discriminate" in forbidding abortion services. Though officials in his administration have told us this would not mandate Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, the fact that the issue has been raised is worrisome.

Now he has been involved in a prostitution ring for years (allegedly practicing unsafe sexual acts) and declares his behavior to be "private" in nature (evidently, he believes the laws against prostitution--laws which he previously prosecuted and is now sworn to enforce--do not address public matters).

His comment that politics is not about individuals, but ideas, is similarly bizarre. It's not my persona that matters, he seems to be saying, it's my ideas. Ideas, he adds, that are "progressive."

It is also revealing to note that the group he was scheduled to meet with--before being told that he had an emergency meeting with the Feds--was Family Planning Advocates. This is the lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood.

In other words, in addition to his arrogance, the man is a walking embodiment of the Playboy Philosophy: He is a true libertine. And like all libertines, he not only destroys himself, he ineluctably destroys those around him.

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The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. It is led by its' President, William A. Donohue, Ph.D.