Politicians and Sex

Barack Obama arrived in office promising change and a different way of doing politics. Up to this point, nothing has changed — not least the scandals, and above all those concerning sex or corruption, or the way they affect life in this country.

And in recent weeks, it is not only the poor state of the economy and the battle for health care reform that threaten the success and popularity of the president, but precisely the scandals concerning prominent members of his party.

So far in March, the New York media have been full of the scandal currently surrounding Gov. David Paterson, who intervened to prevent a domestic violence case from being taken to the courts when the accused was one of his hangers-on.

Paterson, who has already abandoned his plans for re-election and is expected to resign in the coming days, is also under investigation for demanding free tickets to the World Series.

And what to say about legendary Congressman Charles Rangel, who is now known to have gladly accepted free vacations to the Caribbean and is under investigation for corruption; while another congressman, Eric Massa, was accused by one of his various male assistants of soliciting him for sex?

Massa responded with accusations of his own, stating in a press conference that he was the victim of his Democrat colleagues for not supporting the health care plan. He also said that, in the past, he had been threatened by Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief adviser, “totally naked, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush,” when the two happened to be in the showers of the gym in the Capitol.

All this, analysts say, coupled with recent scandals involving other prominent Democrats, has put Obama’s government on the defensive just at a time when it is faced with Congressional elections and when voters are disillusioned, desperate and furious with the president’s unfulfilled promises.

In fact, political rhetoric has become synonymous with cynicism, abuse and ridicule.

And the Republicans are making the most of the situation, launching criticism and attacks of the kind they themselves were receiving from the Democrats eight years ago.

The fact remains that scandal between politicians, particularly sexual scandal, is a fact of life in this country. Political orientation is of little importance; people will lend their attention any time a story appears in which a government official is caught with his pants down.

The last decade has seen numerous politicians of all parties succumb to temptation, with serious legal and public repercussions. This has happened to the point that sex scandals have cost the Republicans control of Congress and almost made the Democrats lose the presidency.

No one can deny that the biggest of these has been the one that took place in the Oval Office itself when then-President Bill Clinton got involved with Monica Lewinsky and Clinton’s adversaries sought to punish him not for his sexual relations, but for lying about sex.

In 1987, one of the first such cases in U.S. press history revealed a sex scandal and ruined a political career: The senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, a likely candidate for the presidency, was discovered spending a weekend on board a yacht with the model Donna Rice.

More recently, the now ex-governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, and Sen. David Vitter, both promoters of high morals and strong family values, were caught with prostitutes. And what to say about Gov. Mark Sanford of North Carolina, who mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind not only his position, but also his wife and four children, and was found in Argentina visiting a lover?

A favorite case is that of Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, who was arrested in the bathroom of Minneapolis airport for soliciting sex from another man.

Nevertheless, it is not only politicians who are the unfaithful ones here. The latest figures suggest that at least one in five Americans is too.

In fact, it is not only powerful politicians like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Warren Harding, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy who have been caught bed-hopping. It is estimated that half of married men in this country have extra-marital sex at some point. In political life today, this disqualifies them from being government officials, even though it has nothing to do with the government itself.

With half of the population disqualified and demanding exemplary, perfect lives of their politicians, it is getting more and more difficult to find people who can, and would want, to be elected.