Washington Post opinion columnist Eugene Robinson was online Tuesday, March 11 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns and the latest news.

Discussion Group: Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood

The transcript follows.

Archive: Eugene Robinson discussion transcripts

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Eugene Robinson: Hi, everybody. Today is the Mississippi primary, but everyone seems to be talking about New York, for some reason. Eliot Spitzer has managed to commandeer the news cycle, and not in a good way. Politicians and sex: a story we never seem to tire of. Today's column, just for reference, notes the fact that while our attention is focused on Hillary and Barack and Spitzer's little "Kristen," violence in Iraq -- remember Iraq? -- is creeping up. Let's talk about all of this and more.

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Bethesda, Md.: I realize you will not answer this, but maybe you will read it and repent! I know you're an opinion writer, but you simply can't redefine words to fit your opinion. Today you again accuse Sen. McCain of wanting the "occupation" of Iraq to go on 100 years. He has said no such thing. His comment in Derry, N.H., was that a U.S. "presence" might be needed in Iraq for 100 years, as we have had a "presence" in Japan and Europe for 60 years and Korea for 50. "Presence" is not "occupation." You must know better, so why do you keep doing this? I have an opinion.

Eugene Robinson: I used "occupation" because it's a much more accurate description of what we're doing in Iraq than "presence."

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Falls Church, Va.: The surge is working by statistics of fewer deaths and improvement of life for the citizens. You cite the latest few attacks and say it is not working. Your pessimism is inspired by your hatred of the Bush administration, not by any objective viewpoint of the overall situation.

Eugene Robinson: Civilian deaths in Iraq were up in February. Yesterday was the deadliest day for U.S. forces in Iraq since September. American military officials in Iraq have said they sense an attempted al-Qaeda revival. I think an objective analysis would say that violence, after being tamped down by the surge, is starting to rise again; that the political goals of the surge have not been accomplished; and that Ahmadinejad got a motorcade and red-carpet treatment when he visited, while George W. Bush had to arrive unannounced and leave within a few hours. Which is what I wrote.

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Chattanooga, Tenn.: Re: Spitzer Scandal -- I know, I know, stereotyping is wrong and dangerous and stupid, etc., etc., but I just got to ask: How dumb can men get?!

Eugene Robinson: That's a rhetorical question, right?

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Washington: Not that I don't love a good sex scandal, but we've got a lot going on right now, what with Iraq, the election, the economy and peak oil. Perhaps it's just time for the Homeland Security to staff an "Urge Management Department" so that dark sides can be satisfied without disrupting the nation's business. I think a call girl named Kristen needs a new job.

washingtonpost.com: Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood: Spitzer's (Familiar) Big Problem (washingtonpost.com, March 10)

Eugene Robinson: As long as we don't give the job to FEMA. They'd never get the, um, Urge Managers to the right hotels.

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Washington: Hi Mr. Robinson. This is definitely in the "what the hell was he thinking" category ... but doesn't this have the whiff of the Republican-controlled Department of Justice/IRS? Remember Rove's fired U.S. Attorneys who were supposed to routinely seek and destroy sitting Democrats? It seems like someone was trying to get something on Spitzer through his finances, and this fell into their lap. Truth, or conspiracy?

Eugene Robinson: I've seen this idea raised in the blogosphere, but I don't see any indication of a political hit job -- so far, at least. It sounds as if Spitzer's bank (or another of his financial institutions) reported some odd cash transactions, as is required, and the feds thought initially this might be a case of bribe-taking or something like that. When they looked at the shell companies involved in the transactions, they realized it was a prostitution ring. That's the basic scenario as we understand it right now.

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Silver Spring, Md.: While many of the usual suspects -- pundits, journalists -- are trying to explain the irrationality of Gov. Spitzer's behavior by suggesting it's a combination of some high elected officials' senses of power, invulnerability and risk-taking, that really makes less sense if you think about it. These are people who got where they did by minutely and realistically calculating the political risks of every word they said and position they took. Maybe some of it's a Gary Hart-like, bizarre compartmentalization of that sense of calculation into the nonprivate life alone, but my wife -- a family therapist with decades of experience -- has what to me (a long-term political junkie) is a simpler and more understandable explanation: the folks who do these things are addicts ... in these types of cases, sex addicts.

These people, who are normally capable of immensely refined calculation of political realities, behave in an utterly irrational and self-destructive way because the need to satisfy the addiction takes precedence over everything else. When you look at how addictions like gambling and substance abuse destroy the lives of many otherwise capable and successful people, this explanation makes a lot of sense in this context. What do you think?

Eugene Robinson: That sounds like a reasonable theory: Sometimes sex isn't about power or risk-taking or wanting to be caught; it's about... sex.

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"Politicians and sex":"Politicians and sex" would be cases like Hart, Clinton, Livingston, Craig, etc. Apparently repeated business transactions with a prostitution ring is far more serious. The potential for a prominent client to be blackmailed could lead to subversion our legal system. A ring like the Emperors' Club sounds like it might be susceptible to a RICO investigation. While I don't condone "mere" adultery, the possible allegations against Eliot Spitzer could be far more serious.

Eugene Robinson: Agreed. You certainly don't want the governor of New York doing weird cash deals with the kind of people who run elite prostitution rings.

And by the way, $1,000 an hour? Wow. I understand that Spitzer has family money, but wow.

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Manchester, N.H.: It is disingenuous of you to claim that anyone "supposed" that Iraq has become an oasis of peace and tranquility. The President -- or "the decider" as you snidely write -- never said the surge would "end" the violence. Is there anything to you besides hyperbole and disingenuous straw man arguments?

Eugene Robinson: It's not disingenuous, I think, to point out that the political breakthroughs Iraq was supposed to make have not yet been made. Nor is it disingenuous to point out that violence is rising again.

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Oneida, N.Y.: Thanks for taking questions. This is the second time a Spitzer issue kicked mud on the Clinton campaign. First was the ill-begotten plan to grant drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants; now its the embarrassment of a superdelegate whose indiscretions echo Bill's. Will the fallout from the Spitzer scandal harm her campaign? Would it be prudent to vet the former president to be sure that no more "bimbo eruptions" sully his wife's campaign?

Eugene Robinson: My guess is that Sen. Clinton will keep her distance from the Spitzer affair and be happy to see a quick resignation.

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Baltimore: You were on "Countdown" last night discussing "Saturday Night Live" with Olbermann, and I was surprised both of you thought the cold opening was anything but their third anti-Obama sketch in a row. If anything, that sketch played up the fact that Obama is an inexperienced neophyte. Not to mention the jab at an Obama presidency that would tap Al Sharpton as Secretary of State (which builds off of Robert Smigel's borderline offensive cartoon from last week).

See, my problem with all five of "SNL's" Clinton/Obama skits (I'm counting the cartoon and Tina Fey rant in this) is that they aren't funny -- and the most recent one was the worst case. Rather than tweaking Obama's actual personality traits, Armisen just essentially (to paraphrase Andrew Cuomo) shucks and jives as Obama and plays him as an ignorant, lazy and incompetent executive. Ya know, like Bush. Anyway, my question is, how is this "Saturday Night Live's" "makeup call" to Obama (to use your and Olbermann's "playing the refs" analogy from "Countdown")?

Eugene Robinson: As I said, it won't make anybody's list of all-time funniest SNL skits. But it was preceded by "Hillary's" announcement that we were about to see an "unfair and misleading" ad. And the depiction of Sen. Clinton, with her hair in rollers and goop all over her face, was hardly flattering. The incompetent "Obama" was clearly a caricature being painted by "Hillary" for political gain. That said, yes, both candidates did come off looking bad; and, yes, the talented Fred Armisen needs to keep working on his Obama impression.

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Kingston, Ontario: Mr Robinson, about your column today -- I think one reason for the confused politics of the Iraq issue concerns the use of the word "victory." The GOP claim that only they stand for this, and that the Democrats are defeatists. And yet victory proper -- i.e. the battlefield part -- actually was achieved in Spring 2003. Since then the U.S. has been trying to prevent or mitigate the meltdown of a whole society, which is not something soldiers can do. Only the Iraqis among themselves can solve the problems that face them now. To continue talking about the U.S.'s role in terms of victory and defeat obscures the whole state of affairs.

Eugene Robinson: I agree -- the terms "victory" and "defeat" are always left undefined because they don't really make sense in terms of Iraq.

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Washington: Your answer to Manchester about being disingenuous on the violence in Iraq might have had some merit if you had ever written that the surge had, in fact, reduced deaths and violence. Could you point us to that column? If not, Manchester seems to have a point.

Eugene Robinson: I understand your argument, but I don't see any practical way that I can be held accountable for all the columns I didn't write. That would be a lot to keep track of.

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Winnipeg, Canada: Practical question, and one I hope I personally never need an answer to: How do elected officials who can't keep their pants zipped at appropriate times persuade their wives to stand beside them during their mea culpas? If I ever did something like that, I'd be grateful if my wife didn't shoot me. I don't think I'd have the, um, cahones to ask her to share the podium with me for my moment of shame.

Eugene Robinson: The word is cojones. And I'd be fearful of losing mine if I ever thought about asking my wife to share the podium at a moment like that.

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Disbarment?: How likely do you think Eliot Spitzer is to be disbarred? And even if his is, couldn't he still make a bundle more money in the private sector than in public service?

Eugene Robinson: I hadn't thought about disbarment, but if he has to plead to felony charges -- and that's a possibility because of the money transfers and even the Mann Act -- then I guess he might well be disbarred. As I noted earlier, I understand there's family money, so that might not be a big issue for him. Given his record, he's not likely to get offered a big job on Wall Street...

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Arlington, Va.: On a completely different topic: What do you think of David Simon and the other writers of "The Wire" announcing that they were going to practice jury nullification at all nonviolent drug trials, should they be selected for the jury (and the encouragement that their fellow citizens do the same)?

washingtonpost.com: 'The Wire's' War on the Drug War (Time, March 5)

Eugene Robinson: I think all the people responsible for "The Wire" have been reading too many of their own press clippings. Memo to "The Wire": You're a TV show, not America's moral conscience.

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Eugene Robinson: Thanks, everyone. My time is up for today. See you again next week, same time, same URL.

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