Most sensible article yet on Spitzer scandal

Since the Eliot Spitzer scandal broke, I've been shaking my head furiously at people's failure to understand it -- the idea that he wouldn't fool around because his wife was hot or unless he was getting the most tantric sex ever. Those things have nothing at all to do with it, as my new intellectual BFF, a former booking agent for high-priced Manhattan call girls, explains.

It is not about sex; it is about power. And the simple act of ordering up an anonymously pretty 22 year-old girl to do your bidding in the salubrious confines of a luxury hotel suite is an act of power.

My insights into the whoring culture were gained when I lived in Asia and discovered that almost all the men were paying for sex. Going to Thailand and getting laid was the thing to do and even men, who would have never dreamed of using prostitutes in their home countries, went along with it.

Lots of expatriate white women spent tremendous amounts of time and energy trying to figure out the sexual secrets they were sure the exotic Asian women must possess to seduce the foreign men. There were tales of women covered in scented oil who body surfed back and forth over their paying customers driving them mad with lust. And all I could think when I heard these stories was that this was not a practical activity for the average bedroom set-up -- it could only take place in a specially equipped all vinyl room with a dedicated clean-up crew.

Even back then, I just wanted to scream: "Don't you all get it?"

The only secret the sex workers had was knowing that the man with the money had the power and they were there to do his bidding and nothing else.

These kinds of stories are always all about power.