I admit to a few seconds of schadenfreude when I heard that NY Governor Eliot Spitzer was caught buying prostitution services, and that it will probably end his political career.

But, then, I felt a little uncomfortable by all of the glee expressed on some of the libertarian blogs I read. I don’t really like the idea of anybody suffering because of unjust laws. In fact, I don’t like the idea of anybody suffering at all. Not really.

Of course, it’s hard to argue with Glen Whitman, who wrote that “The only people I think should be prosecuted for victimless crimes are people who have prosecuted others for those crimes.”

Also, I suppose that if somebody had to suffer because of the silly enforcement of this victimless crime law, it’s better that it’s a pompous, abusive, bullying jerk like Spitzer, who has ruined many other people’s lives for his own glory.

I don’t know whether or not New York is likely to get a better or a worse replacement; so it’s not clear to me whether this is a good thing for their political scene.

My pie-in-the-sky hope is that all of this attention will hasten the day that prostitution is legalized.