Twice in as many weeks we have heard the news of politicians cheating on their spouses. Nothing new there, of course. Back in the early 1980's, the journalist T.H. White said the only major modern presidential candidates he believed were faithful to their wives were Harry Truman, George Romney, and Jimmy Carter. Power and philandering seem to go hand in hand. Apparently, however, cheating by some politicians is not quite as bad as cheating by others. Or at least, some seem more likely than others to accept the consequences for their foolishness.
Below is a list of high profile sex scandals from the past 12 years. Check it out...do you see a pattern?
Newt Gringrich, Republican: cheated on multiple wives, re-elected to the House of Representatives repeatedly, now an elder statesman of the GOP, and presidential aspirant.
Bill Clinton, Democrat: cheated on his wife while in the White House. Impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, acquitted, completed his second term.
Jim McGreevey, Democrat: had extramarital homosexual affair while governor of New Jersey. Resigned.
Larry Craig, Republican: though married, he was arrested for homosexual solicitation in a public restroom. Completed the remaining years of his term, chose not to run for re-election.
Mark Foley, Republican: a bachelor, Foley engaged in homosexual liaisons with young Congressional pages. Resigned from the House of Representatives.
David Vitter, Republican: carried on extramarital relationships with multiple prostitutes in Washington and New Orleans. Refused to resign, and is favored to win another term in the Senate.
Eliot Spitzer, Democrat: carried on extramarital affair with one prostitute while governor. Resigned.
John Ensign, Republican: admitted to extramarital affair. Vows to keep his Senate seat.
Mark Sanford, Republican: caught in extramarital affair with a foreign national. has vowed to serve out his term as governor of South Carolina.
I may have missed one or two similar occurrences from the past decade, but from these high profile scandals, one thing seems clear. If you are a Republican, the damage to your political standing will be less severe than if you are a Democrat. The only recent sex scandal involving a Democrat which did not result in a resignation from office was Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. President Clinton, however, suffered the humiliation of being only the second president in our nation's history to be impeached. All the other high profile Democrats resigned from their powerful positions once their philandering activities came to light.
If you are a Republican, on the other hand, you are much less likely to suffer lasting political damage from sexual misbehavior. Mark Foley is the exception, but his philandering was not extramarital, so perhaps that is the difference. He was a bachelor. On the other hand, if you are a married Republican, all you have to do is pretend to be contrite, and you can happily serve out your term, and perhaps continue to be a leader in the party that claims to represent our nation's traditional, moral values.
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Comments
Thanks for the summary. It's hard to gather such information and to see it in context. Rated!
Rated. Not happily, I might add.
Dem. Barney Frank: mired in a scandal involving paid sex and favor granting. He's still around.
Repub. Bob Packwood: charged with both sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. He resigned.
Second, look at the results described here. While Newt is still highly regarded in the GOP, it did take time for him to rehabilitate and, as Pro's descriptions point out, Craig and Foley did end up out of office. So we only have three Republicans--Vitter, Ensign, Sanford--whom scandals have apparently not hurt.
I can't remember if Vitter was last year or this (so hard to keep track!), but all three are relatively recent. While Vitter might be favored for reelection, it hasn't happened yet, and the Ensign and Sanford cases are still new. The stories haven't played out completely. So it's not certain that they'll escape.
That said, Republican moralizers are certainly obnoxious and offensive. I'm just not sure that the implication that they always get away with it is true.
Larry, I think you may have a point there!
Sandra & Rob, their religion apparently doesn't include Leviticus, Chapter 13, which says adulterers should be put to death. By the way, the previous chapter of Leviticus outlaws homosexuality. It is Leviticus 12 that is often cited by the Religious Right for their condemnation of homosexuality. I'm still trying to figure out why Leviticus 12 is pertinent in the 21st century, but not Leviticus 13. Of course, the other scripture that is often cited on homosexuality is I Corinthians, but that book also says women should not cut their hair, and should keep their heads covered. Hmm.....
Packwood also goes beyond my 12 year limit, but not by much. I think his case is a bit different, since he was accused of sexual harassment, where there was a clear victim. That goes beyond a mere extramarital affair, don't you think? The only one I mention that really gets to that level of depravity is the Foley deal, since the pages were only just barely old enough for his actions not to be felonious. The pages were, however, old enough not to be considered minors, so he was not engaged in a felony.
Ah, Wilbur. Fanne Foxe in the Tidal Basin. Those were the good ol' days!
But I remember once when I worked on the inpatient teen ward for emotionally disturbed kids (nice first out of college pre-corporate job) and Roslyn Carter came to visit the kids on the ward. We want in a circle on the floor and lloked up at her on a chair. This was before photo ops. There were no cameras. 2 badass secret service dudes but no cameras. She just talked with kids.
And sitting on that floor looking up and listening to her there I had absolutely no doubt as to why Jimmy always smiled and also would never, ever have an affair.
The only reason I would like to see him lose office is to remind these people that the Republicans cannot always get away with doing whatever they want, whenever they want, like Sanford, Vitter and Ensign have done. Very sad, these people, very sad hypocrites all.
Lisa, I'm always happy when you venture over to my blog. It just goes to show that the moral expectations of the public are malleable. It all depends on who the transgressor is, I guess.
Studds was a central figure in the 1983 Congressional page sex scandal, when he and Representative Dan Crane were censured by the House of Representatives for separate sexual relationships with minors — in Studds' case, a 1973 sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page.
He was censured by the House but continued to serve in office until 1997.
Also, way more problems had to do with wallets than whoopie.
See this for a list of Political scandals of the United States in Wikipedia.