Aren’t you exactly the guy to ask? I sort of appreciate the question from an MSNBC host, who could have been quite kid-glovey with the former governor. It’s Michael Smerconish subbing for Chris Matthews. If we’re going circus politics, let’s go all-out Client No. 9 circus politics with squirm-worthy questions about the legality of prostitution on Day One. Spitzer and Weiner think that’s what New York wants, and that’s what New York shall get!

The answer? Eh, prostitution as in consensual sex between two adults that happens to result in payment, can sound pretty benign (if $80K sounds benign to you), kinda like smoking dope, but because it’s linked to other kinds of crime, it’s not as victimless as it might seem, or something.

Anyway, parse out this moral conundrum in comments.

Meanwhile, when it comes to reporting on political comebacks, please observe two headlines from the Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza today, hours apart.

1. Eliot Spitzer is runnning for office again. And, yes, he can win

2. Why Rick Perry shouldn’t run for president again

In which a guy who has overseen three gubernatorial terms of job growth even in bad economic times for the one of the largest states in the nation and whose sin is some bad debates is dismissed out of hand while a guy who spent $80K on prostitutes while purportedly fighting the scourge of prostitution from his elected office is given a cutesy “He’s baaaaaaack” lead. And, they said I was crazy when I said John Edwards will make a comeback.