My favorite liberal’s been haranguing me over e-mail about how prostitution is rarely a choice in any meaningful sense and why we need to crack down to keep more wayward girls from broken homes from wandering into “careers” they don’t really want. KP 1, AP 0?

She left a broken home on the Jersey Shore at 17 and came to New York City to work the nightclubs as a rhythm and blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting, and as yet unseen, star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York…

“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the woman said as she told the tiniest tidbits of her story. Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, she spoke softly and with good humor as she added with significant understatement: “This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”…

Ms. Dupre said on by telephone Tuesday night that she was worried about how she would pay her rent since the man she was living with “walked out on me” after she discovered he had fathered two children. She said she was considering working at a friend’s restaurant or, once her apartment lease expires, moving back in with her family in New Jersey “to relax.”…

She left “a broken family” at age 17, having been abused, according to the MySpace page, and has used drugs, “been broke and homeless.”

She’ll be able to re-up with that lease once the Enquirer comes calling. Here’s her MySpace page, which is linked directly by the Times. Exit question equal time: The Today Show took a decidedly more libertarian view of high-priced call girls this morning. What would the breakdown have to be between exploited victims and truly willing volunteers to justify a total ban on the practice? 51/49? 80/20? 99/1?

Update: Jossip says “Extra” leads the bidding for her story at $100,000.

Update: Here’s her bio page on the music site Amie Street. Check out who one of her “fans” is on the lower left.