Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010
COMMENTARY Balance needed in regulating strip clubs
By MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star
By MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star
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ReprintThe way I see it, three kinds of politicians concern themselves with the business of strip clubs.
Slimy politicos attracted to using a willing club as cover for graft, money laundering, or any number of below-the-table deals.
Holier-than-thou types enticed by the idea of regulating the clubs out of existence.
And then, there are politicians with the common sense to leave well enough alone.
Guess which category I suspect Sen. Matt Bartle’s most recent attempt to crack down on strip clubs will eventually be placed? Choice two.
Don’t take that to imply any doubt of its chances of passing into law. His effort has strong tailwinds for help. Midterm elections mean legislators will support it for fear of handing their opponents any “soft-on-smut” ammunition.
And there are the suggestions that financial payoff, pay-for-play by others, may have doused Bartle’s first attempt at passing the bill in 2005.
It’s too soon to comment there. Federal authorities, the grand jury Bartle spoke to last week, will sort that issue out. Bartle, a Lee’s Summit Republican, is not the target of the inquiry.
But the extenuating circumstances may mean the legislature skips discovering whether the bill is even necessary.
A nice, easy tension seems to be the right formula for overseeing strip clubs. The challenge is to enact laws that allow the clubs to exist, keeping rules just taut enough to maintain a balance between over-regulated and anything goes.
Three things ought to be kept out of strip clubs: prostitution, drug sales and underage dancers. Like a moth to a flame, all have a tendency to gravitate to the smarmier joints.
But once those ills are covered, politicians ought to steer clear, lest they create more problems by swooping in as a squadron of virtue.
Jurisdictions that clamp down too hard can shove such businesses into seedy hands that could be more troublesome for police and cities to regulate.
Don’t mistake this as an outright endorsement of all strip clubs. I simply accept that they’ll always exist.
And to those who insist on deluding themselves that many a lovely lady has put herself through medical school doing such work: Seriously, quit the happy spin.
I know there are women out there who did finance a medical degree or law school with such employment. But they are the exception, not the rule. Women don’t usually end up taking their clothes off for strangers because of their post-graduate diligence and a history of making smart life choices.
But like anyone trying to earn a living, the women deserve laws that allow them to make their money safely, without too much hassle from the customers — or politicians.