Don't Forgive And Don't Forget. Yet.

I've been thinking about Eliot Spitzer lately. He keeps showing up in public and saying smart stuff about important issues. He writes regularly for Slate. Gail Collins of the New York Times urges us to "Forgive and Forget". He's everywhere. I do not begrudge Eliot Spitzer his intelligence or deny his credentials. But I am not comfortable with his rapid and seemingly effortless return to public life.To be clear, I don't care whether he has a thing for hookers. I think prostitution should be legalized. It disgusts me but so does Cheez Wiz and that's perfectly legal. Spitzer's moral breach is not about sex; it's about placing himself above the law. He actively prosecuted a crime he was actively committing. And, though he lost his job in the great PR debacle that followed, he did no time. Right now there are thousands of prostitutes and pimps in jail. But Eliot Spitzer is walking tall.Why?Because he's above it. That's why. He's a master of the universe, immune to the rules that put lesser beings behind bars. This is a troubling condition of our age. This is why, after causing the econopocalyse, no bankers are going to jail. They're above it too.We have a tendency to misplace our magnanimity. We say things like: "let's not get caught up in the blame game," or "let's look forward not backward," or "prosecuting Bush administration officials for torture is just partisan politics."But every time we let a master of the universe walk free, we send a signal to all the aspiring masters of the universe out there: "don't worry, if you're big enough, you'll get away with anything."