Yes, I’m coming to this story a bit late, but I figure that by now, we’ve had some time to reflect on its ramifications.

I watched soon-to-be former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer’s ascendancy with interest and hope, thinking he might someday be the Democratic Presidential candidate. I was attracted to his self-confidence, his righteous anger, and his ability to achieve results. He wielded a tremendous amount of power, and seemed interested to pursue the greater good.

My hope, however, began to wane last year as hints emerged that Spitzer might be abusing his power.

Now it seems, with the prostitution scandal, and the possibility of Spitzer’s involvement stretching back years, that Spitzer was no mere power-abuser. He was something far more dangerous - a powerful person who sees themselves above the law.

We’ve seen this before, of course. Richard Nixon famously asserted that “when the president [breaks the law], it’s not illegal.” More recently, President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney have consistently bent or broken the laws of the land, in the name of national security or for the cause of restoring power to the executive.

And we will not be spared from seeing it in the future.

But there are a number of other things that really bother me about the Spitzer case. I’m bothered by reports of cheering on the New York Stock Exchange floor. I’m bothered by the eagerness of unnamed Justice Department officials to link the name of a prominent person in an ongoing investigation. I’m bothered that evidence seems to indicate that the investigation was begun because Spitzer was Spitzer, not because of ties to a prostitution ring.

Don’t get me wrong - Spitzer’s actions were and are reprehensible, and he should be held accountable. Resigning was the right thing to do. But I worry that we as a society, and particularly those in places of high prosecutorial power, seem to relish the fall from greatness.

Take the baseball steroids scandal - Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have gotten plenty of attention, and Bonds is facing indictment on perjury. They certainly deserve punishment for using an illegal substance and for lying publicly about it. But what about the no-names who used steroids? What about the Jeremy Giambis or the Rick Ankiels?

So, in the midst of the Spitzer scandal, I ask, what about the other “johns”? Or are we so obsessed with watching, and sometimes aiding in, the fall of the mighty only that they don’t matter?

If so, we have far bigger problems ahead than prostitution rings, steroid abuse, or any other scandal you can name. Scott Horton, a Columbia Law professor and blogger, identifies what has troubled me so much about the Spitzer case: “The integrity of our criminal justice system rests on the notion that we investigate crimes, not people.”

While the Larry Craigs, Barry Bonds, and Eliot Spitzers around us are falling, may we keep our humanity and compassion - loving the sinner, whatever his political affiliation, and hate the sin.