Sex, Lies and Politicians

Image via WikipediaThere's nothing like a political sex scandal to distract the world from more important issues.  Such as wars, economic crises, and predictions of the world coming to an end.

Some notable examples:  Edward VIII was the King of England before he gave up the throne to marry a divorcee.  John F. Kennedy's dalliances with other women weren't made public until long after his death.  Bill Clinton nearly lost the presidency (and his marriage) over Monica Lewinsky and others.  And John Edwards ruined his political career and marriage to his cancer-stricken wife by having an affair (and a child) with another woman.

Now for some more recent examples:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that they have separated after 25 years of marriage.  Initially, we thought that being Governor of California through a protracted budget crisis must have taken its toll.  But now that he's out of office, we know that Arnold had been keeping company with the family's housekeeper for over a decade, and that they had a child together.
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been indicted by a New York grand jury for allegedly attempting to sexually assault a hotel maid, has resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund.  He had been talked up as the next president of France.
• Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who's on his third wife, declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.  Donald Trump, who's married for the third time himself, decided he'd rather 'fire' apprentices on TV and continue to run his beauty pageants than run for president.  Which means that Ronald Reagan remains the only President who's been divorced.

We're not experts on this sort of thing, but we've seen this movie before.  A powerful man, usually on the side of family values, decides that his own wife and family aren't enough to satisfy his ego.  So he takes up with a younger, more compliant woman.  He gets caught with his pants down, but not before bribing the woman to keep quiet.  He confesses to infidelity in an emotional statement, then resigns from office.  He marries the woman after the divorce leaves him broke.  The ex-wife gets a book deal and confesses her wronged-ness to Oprah, Diane Sawyer, or whomever.  Rinse.  Lather.  Repeat.

We're not sure about Gingrich or Strauss-Kahn, but one would think that Schwarzenegger's political career is toast at this point.  He does have his acting career to fall back on, even though he's suspended it for the time being.  Hollywood tends to be a lot more forgiving in matters like this than Sacramento is.  Just ask Charlie Sheen.

But what's really at work is our expectations of who we elect to political office.  We expect them to not only serve our state/country to the highest standards, but to also have stable marriages and lives.  We tend to be setting the elected official up for a fall when he/she does the job well, but their personal lives fall apart.  Should that disqualify them from serving?  How can you tell if the decision-making has become  compromised due to a roll in the hay with an office staffer or the children's nanny?  Do we expect too much from them?

Maybe we should recognize that politicians should be judged on how they do in office, and not what they do with their free time.  Let their spouses handle that one.