When then-President Bill Clinton had a chance to come clean about allowing White House intern Monica Lewinsky to nosh on the First Member, he looked America in the eye and lied, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman...Ms. Lewinsky."
Years later, after he left office and appeared on 60 Minutes to promote his book, Clinton offered this admission on why he dallied with young Monica in the Oval Office.
"Because I could," he said.
Yes, he could. That's why so many politicians screw around. Because they can. Because politics gives them a chance to score. Were they not elected officials with at least the aura of power, most of these clowns couldn't get laid in a whorehouse.
Sen. John Ensign is the latest to admit he porked a campaign aide. He's not the first and he sure as hell won't be the last. But his position as a member of Congress provided him with more opportunity simply because he is there and some flock to elected officials like groupies to rock stars.
Politics is a heady business and the chance to score extends not only to elected officials but those who work for them. When I worked on the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1984, White House staffers and campaign aides would slip off their wedding rings as soon as Air Force One cleared the runway. The motto: Wheels up, rings off. Women who wouldn't give me a second look in ordinary life invited me back to their hotel room because I worked, at the time, for the President of the United States.
The lure of easy sex makes politicians risk their careers and their reputations without a second thought. Colorado Senator Gary Hart challenged reporters to follow him around when he ran for President and they did just that, catching Washington party girl Donna Rice sneaking out of his DC townhouse after spending the night.
John Edwards screwed around while his wife battled cancer. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was nailing a House committee staff member while publicly chastising Clinton for his adultery. Gingrich later dumped his wife to marry the staffer -- the second time he divorced because of an adulterous affair.
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer banged high-priced call girls. So does Lousiana Sen. David Vitter.
In the interest of equality, we should note that it's not just the male politicians who mess around. Congresswoman Mary Bono was a coed when she met Sonny Bono in his Palm Springs restaurant. Their affair led to the breakup of his marriage to his third wife. After Bono died in a skiing accident, May Bono ran for his Congressional seat and dated around before entering an adulterous relationship with Rep. Connie Mack IV. Mack dumped his wife of nine-and-a-half years to marry Bono.
Sexual stupidity is not limited to married politicians or heterosexual ones. Rep. Barney Frank, the most openly-gay member of Congress, suffered political embrassment when police arrested his live-in boyfriend for running a gay prostitution ring out of the Congressman's Capitol Hill home.
Former New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato may have summed it up best. When asked why so many elected officials get caught with their pants down, D'Amato replied: "When the little head gets hard, the big head goes soft."
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And a small percentage of politicians who screw around differs from probably the same small percentage of non-elected people who screw around exactly how?
Your implication is that politicians engage in extra-marital sex because their position lets them do so. In reality, I believe they do it because they are no better or worse than any of the other people in our country.
One small correction:
The Miami Herald did not observe Ms. Rice leaving Mr. Hart's house after spending the night. Rather, she was seen leaving the house on the evening of May 2, 1987. YCLIU.
That was Hart's spin on the story, claiming Rice left the night before from another entrance and returned the next morning with some papers for him to sign. The Herald, and other news organizations, reported Rice left the next morning and stuck to the story.
There's one other activity at work in these issues that nobody seems to want to discuss.
Most powerful politicians attract (or even hire) their share of "groupies". These are often nimble (female) 20-somethings that, once on their staffs, look to their bosses as some kind of "rock star" that they can swoon over and dream of sharing a bed with.
Clearly, when they finally come to light (as they most assuredly will do) most of these sexual trysts are consensual. Yet it always seems that it's the politician (usually male, older and graying) that gets the rap...probably because the whole sordid affair fits the age-old stereotype of the "dirty old man taking advantage of his office staff to cheat on the wife".
Now, I'm certainly NOT advocating or excusing such behavior. Marriage vows are marraige vows. And, clearly, the vast majority of our elected representatives still well recognize what the consequences (political and otherwise) will be if they are ever caught with their fingers in the hired help.
On the other hand, just because someone is graying and married doesn't ALSO mean that sexual chemistry can't, on occasion, still happen. Toss in a failing (or failed) marriage and the fact that powerful politicians are a particularly juicy "target of opportunity" for swarms of nubile females looking for an elected power figure to chalk up as their latest sexual conquest, and it all becomes a recipe for personal shame and political disaster.
So, before we all automatically assume it is entirely the (male) politician's fault in such situations, it is important to remember that it still takes "two to tango".
No one is holding a gun to the graying head of the politician, forcing him into the 'tango'. The old adage, "With age comes wisdom", seems to not hold true in this scenario. The elected representative neither deserves, or is capable of upholding the responsiblity of the office being held. If the graying elected representative can't control their baser instincts, they certinally do not have the mental discipline to step back and objectively govern by the rule of law. Stepping into the 'tango' shows a massive lack of judgement, thereby disqualifying them from governing. Character is determined from all aspects of an individuals behavior, and failing on this personal level is perhaps the very worst. If you can't be trusted to uphold your committment to the one person you have sworn to go through life with, you certinaly can not be trusted to govern with honesty and integrity. It stinks of hypocrisy.
Love and marriage may go together "like a horse and carriage" but "power" means getting the pick of the lot. Whether we like it or not that's primate behavior, whether it's monkeys, jocks, stage music performers, bankers or politicians. Doug couldn't be more right; power turns some women on, even proximity will do.
Gerald Sutliff
Bakersfield, CA
Infidelity requires lying, secrecy, and hubris. That's a United States political resume. Welcome to the inner party!
"Sexual relations" not "sex."
Clinton denied "sexual relations," not "sex" with Lewinsky. As an attorney, I was quite interested to see how Clinton could have been so stupid as to lie about having sex with Lewinsky, so I read quite a bit about it. As I recall, the term "sexual relations" was the subject of a court-approved definition adopted for purposes of discovery in the case. That definition did not include oral sex. In fact, oral sex had originally been included in the definition, but Clinton's attorneys had argued to have it removed, and it was removed. The argument was based on the whole Southern Baptist "blow job isn't sex" argument. Accordingly, Clinton's lawyers' argument was that oral sex was not "sexual relations" under the Court's definition. Accordingly, under that definition, the blow job was not "sexual relations." However, I do not know WHEN that definition of "sexual relations" was approved by the court, so I cannot say that the term had been so defined at the time Clinton used it at his press conference. I use this as an example for deposition witnesses -- don't deny the obvious like Clinton did by using a artificially narrow definition of a term. Most people will just think you are lying.
Maybe if we start to look at politicians as the power-hungry scumbags that they are instead of assigning them the status of omnipotent demi-gods, we'll realize that they're nothing more than the amoral, contemptible and corrupt sleaze-bags that they constantly prove themselves to be.
I dare say that 95% of all men have committed adultery, either the actual act or in their minds. So, it doesn't bother me in the least to hear that some man has gone out and gotten a little strange. And don't anyone here come around with a make believe halo over their heads and tell me that they are sinless.