Seriously, this is a scandal? I’m trying to figure out what the scandal is in this case. Now there may be elements that have been hidden from the reporting, but this story seems like an incredible non-story that only has reporting because it involves sex. Apparently we are a nation of pre-teens that are still titillated by the idea of grown men and women engaging in recreational sex.
According to this account, which is attributed to the aggrieved escort, this is a pretty simple story, that involves drinking, sex for cash, and one guys decision not to pay his escort what she expected.
Thing is, in Cartagena, consenting adults can enter into a contract for sexual service. The issue was resolved without any arrest being made, but somehow the story has entered the national discourse. Now there may be more to the story. Illegal drugs for example, or maybe the party and sexual liaisons were paid for using taxpayer dollars, instead of the personal earnings of the party-goers. But so far apparently this is about the fact that doing things that are legal in a foreign country, and are legal in parts of the United States, specifically engaging in a sex for cash agreement, is behavior worthy of dismissal from the Secret Service.
I am sure that there is a written “code of conduct” issued to them, and I doubt that it specifically calls out no sex for money, anywhere, but what it really translates into is “don’t get caught doing anything that looks bad,” and things that look bad do include engaging in prostitution. I rather doubt that simple infidelity without prostitution would be cause for dismissal, and that seems particularly unfair. While I am aware that prostitution has a number of negatives often associated with it (violence, substance abuse, poor worker protections), I don’t see it as being any worse than one night stand behaviors with no cash obligations associated, particularly if the two adults involved are single.
So, what is the scandal? That they got caught doing it? That one of them was a bum and unwilling to pay? That the American People, or at least the American Media, is committed to salacious, nonsensical stories, and politicians are quite willing to go with them?
Or is this a women’s issue? Is this a story that resonates more with women, and elicits their disapproval, and there is a desire, or a need for a cultural shift to eliminate this sort of behavior from those organizations?
Clearly I just don’t get why this is a story. And if it really is one of the above, it really does make me wonder if this is what it felt like to the Romans around the time of Nero.
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