1 The whole point of blackmail--hence the name blackmail--is to maintain silence in exhange for money. Halderman's scheme was so half-baked, half-concocted that he should have known it would come to nothing. The real joke is two million dollars. Why not 32 million? Why not being made King of New York, New York for his silence? So farfetched was Halderman's scheme. If Halderman had written a freelance article about Letterman's sexual escapades, Letterman's sexual harassment, he would have been financially rewarding. But such an article is inherently of no interest; and for that reason rejected for publication. Kenneth Starr exceeded prosecutorial discretion when he extended his investigation of Whitewater into Monica Lewinsky. Clinton's bad judgment did not warrant impeachment; Clinton was nowhere near the malfeasance of Richard Nixon. Eliot Spitzer as an attorney should have known that transporting a woman over state lines for purposes of prostitution is crime. Letterman reminded his audience that violation of a moral's clause would have Spitzer fired immediately. Letterman mocks the politician's private sexual pecadilloes while he is boffing his female staff while he is in a long term relationship with Regina Lasko. This goes way beyond hypocrisy and ends up being morally bankrupt. 'Pecadillo' by the way derives from Latin 'pecare' meaning to sin. The public politician's private sin is mocked in public for public entertainment.