On the DC Madam case, "this whole thing could have been ripped right out of an Edith Wharton novel"

I got an email from a friend that really struck at the core of what's been bugging me about this D.C. Madam saga:

Yesterday, when I heard about the DC Madam’s suicide, I kept thinking this whole thing could have been ripped right out of an Edith Wharton novel. It's so 19th century. Women are still paying the ultimate price for prostitution – death, humiliation and destitution – while men continue to thrive in positions such as a U.S. Senator or a well-paid attorney. Makes me wonder how much our country has progressed since the 19th Century.

I found a post about the ABC News report last year that Palfrey’s list consisted of “…thousands of names, tens of thousands of phone numbers,” Ross said. “And there are people there at the Pentagon, lobbyists, others at the White House, prominent lawyers — a long, long list.” Ross added that the women who worked for the service, potentially as prostitutes, “include university professors, legal secretaries, scientists, military officers.”

You don't hear much about any of those guys. I wonder if any of these men felt real remorse over these women, whose futures have been ruined. Their livelihoods have been destroyed, their reputations strewn all over the nation’s media.

Will Senator David Vitter mourn Deborah Palfrey who arranged pleasure sessions for him? Does Randall Tobias think about the women he paid and wonder whether they are now okay? Are food prices affecting their lives? How about their kids? Probably not. Sex is over. It is on the next cocktail party for them.

But not for the young naval officer who has lost her job.

Clearly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

During the trial, Dana Milbank did a column documenting the public humiliation of the women who worked for Palfrey. The prosecutors were vindictive. I'm not saying they were without fault, but there is something very 19th century about this whole sordid affair.