Are you joking? A guy who spends thousands of dollars for a perfectly amicable rendez-vous with a woman is a misogynist? Give me a break. Take my word for it, Spitzer likes women plenty. When he told the madam it was "wonderful" that he was going to see Kristen, that's probably exactly what he meant. I can practically hear his mouth watering. So stop being so paranoid and take a compliment already.

Here's what women like Ellen Tarlin seem not to understand about men:

(Heterosexual) men like to have sex with women, preferably lots of women, and they can experience plenty of fondness and affection for those women without in any way wanting to be bound to them forever, get married, raise children, or any of that stuff.

Whereas Tarlin seems to think that it's all or nothing, that if a man doesn't want to spend the rest of his life with a woman, or at least give her lip service about his deep feelings for her, as Clinton did with Lewinsky, it means he somehow hates her, or something bizarre like that.

There are plenty of women I've had sex with, including women I've only known for very short periods of time, who I have very fond memories of and plenty of affection for. But I don't want to be bound to them for life. And that doesn't make me a misogynist. On the contrary. I love women so much, I can't imagine loving only one . . . And I think that's how it often is, no matter how much men may go through the motions of marriage, monogomay, and telling women the things they want to hear.

Yes, spot on. And experience says that there are plenty of women who enjoy having uncommitted relationships with attractive men too. They are not soliciting prostitutes at the same rate as men, but that has to do with broader societal issues than with gendered ideas of sex and commitment.

I could have sworn Tarlin pointed out she didn't think men who visit prostitutes were misogynistic. She even empathized with/approved of them and their "needs."

What she finds reprehensible is Spitzer's particular actions. And as we know, Spitzer's situation is not that praiseworthy--a governor/former AG known for prosecuting pimp rings not only steps out on his wife but did it with a woman four years older than his teen daughter. (In fact, somehat resembles her--WTF?)

yes spitzer is a hypocrite for putting others in jail for prostitution. most men prefer to have a variety of women,thus muslims and mormons have multiple wives. one reason for the spectacular growth of the muslim religion back in the 7th-8th century was that it gave men the opportunity to have more than one wife.

Check your history. Arab men had more than one wife before Mohammed.

In fact, Mohammed BETTERED the lives of women. If the husband refused to have sex with his wife for three months, she could get a divorce. He was required to give each wife the same amount of attention, money, and sex. She was allowed to have her own money and possessions. (Something that Western Europe didn't give to all women until the twentieth century.)

Now, I'll be the first to admit that what was a radical improvement of women's conditions in the seventh century is now incredibly backward and regressive.

The amazing expasion of Islam is due to taking a bunch of tribes who were busy fighting amongst each other and getting them to fight the rest of the world. Of course, the dysfunctional governments of the Byzantine and Persian Empires coupled with a strategic location for trade helped immensely too.