Substitute "Hardball" host Michael Smerconish asked former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer (D.) if prostitution should be legal Monday on MSNBC.
Spitzer replied "he is not the right person" to answer that particular question, although he did concede that prostitution's association with other illegal activity does incline him to believe it should be criminalized:
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: [...] Should prostitution be legal?
ELLIOT SPITZER: Again, I'm not the right person - I think that -- no, certain parts -- when I was governor, I was proud of the fact, and this is what caused attention, that we passed much tougher human trafficking laws. And I think the problem is that prostitution is, in fact, it is integrally related with other parts of criminal activity that is fundamentally wrong, dangerous, violative, on any dimension. If people are saying, look, two people consensually having sex and there's money, when you define it that benignly, it sounds somewhat like smoking dope and people say, a ha, decriminalize it, but it is integrally related with other aspects of criminal behavior, so I'm not sure I'm ready to go there.
Revelations of Spitzer's membership in a high end prostitution ring famously ousted him from the New York governorship in 2008.
Spitzer announced his candidacy for the office of New York City comptroller last Sunday.