Huffington Post contributor and author Erica Jong appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources with Howie Kurtz on Sunday to speak on the subject of the media's coverage of The Eliot Mess. Conservative radio host Laura Schlessinger, who quixotically placed the blame of the Governor's proclivity for workers-of-the-night squarely on the shoulders of his wife, Silda, on the Today Show last week, drew most of Jong's fire:

''KURTZ: So why should we listen to any of these people, all of whom have never met Eliot Spitzer or Silda Spitzer?

''JONG: Well, I'm particularly horrified by Laura Schlessinger, who is blaming the woman for what's going on. Clearly, Eliot Spitzer had some sort of sex addiction problem. He didn't have a super ego that was developed as it should have been.

''He had been doing this for eight years, and he thought he would continue to get away with it. He had worked out a system of going down to Washington, to the Mayflower Hotel, of all places, a place crawling with politicians and journalists, and he was seeing prostitutes at the Mayflower Hotel. He must have been insane to do that, or there was a lacuna where his conscious should be and he thought the rules that apply to other people didn't apply to him.

''Maybe the guy is bipolar. I'm not a shrink. I'm a lowly novelist and poet.

''But I will say that all these shrinks who are going on TV and talking about Eliot Spitzer should be disbarred, or whatever they do to shrinks.

''They should have their licenses taken away. An ethical shrink does not go on TV and psychoanalyze people she or he has not met. So I'm horrified by this.

''KURTZ: Well, or they could be disbarred from the airwaves, except that we need a constant parade of guests in order to talk about the story and keep it going.''

(image via stigma7)