I’m shocked at you Melissa. How can you revoke Hillary’s Clinton’s feminist card so easily? Have you considered that, like many third wave feminists, she has rejected essentialist understandings of female identity? Isn’t at least possible that she hasn’t denounced Governor Spitzer because she has adopted a complex understanding of the sex worker industry and its possibilities as an empowering practice? Perhaps it is because of her feminist credentials that she didn’t publicly censure Spitzer!

Ok, that’s probably a stretch.

The truth is that Hillary Clinton understands that her own personal history prevents her from doing more than offering perfunctory consolation to the Spitzer family. After all, how soon after publicly chastising Spitzer would the rabid news media assault her for the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal? The moment she talks about “gross violations of public trust” or the “exploitation of female bodies,” she will be forced to assume the defensive position that she has masterfully avoided for the past few months. As much as I dislike what the Clintons stand for, the inevitable outcome would be unfair to her and counterproductive for the public.

Of course all of this moot, as Obama would never force Hillary to “reject and denounce” Spitzer’s actions. Not only would such a move be out of character for him –he prides himself of being above the “political pettiness”—it would likely backfire. Remember what happened the last time he and John Edwards “picked on her” before the New Hampshire primary?