I Think I Can Agree With This
I observed a while back that "Eliot Spitzer has been brought down for a crime most libertarians don't
think should be a crime, by federal prosecutors who should not be
involved even if it were a crime, and using techniques, such as
enlisting banks as government watchdogs of private behavior, that
stretch the Fourth Amendment almost out of recognizable shape."
Megan McArdle makes a pretty good point about the last part:
I'm not distressed to hear that the Feds were spying on Eliot Spitzer.
No, not because I don't like the man, but because I think maybe we should
spy on our politicians, all the time. No probable cause, you say? I
fling back at you Mark Twain's observation that America only has one
distinct criminal class: Congress. . . . I think it's entirely
appropriate that the anti-corruption police watch politicians like
hawks. They've chosen public office; that conveys a lot of
responsibility to the public, including assuring them that your votes
aren't being bought outright. I also think that politicians, when
caught in a crime, should automatically get the maximum penalty; if
they think the law is such a good idea, they ought to suffer heartily
when they disregard it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that various injured partied (Dick Grasso, Ken Langone, et al.) covertly employed a small army of private investigators to tail Spitzer, and the arrogant suckwad actually thought he was safe.
Which is the perfect reflection of competition: piss people off, especially the electorate, they’ll probably come after you….
I also think that being worth about $500 million, conducting covertly illegal behavior and transactions, and being in the employ of the state punishing others for doing exactly as you, entitles you to your severed head on a pike.
The only disagreement that I have is that it's the federal government spying on local government. Which means, if the feds find something that they don't want to become public, it won't become public.
In a libertarian sense, spying on our government is the duty of every citizen, not something we should be expecting the federal government to do for us.
Megan is on to something. The mere fact that someone is a politician sounds like probable cause to keep them under surveillance to me!