Feed: Adultery and Politics - AggScore: 12.8

Adultery and Politics

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img classalignright srchttpstatic.stuff.co.nz12551191435472951547.jpg alt width143 height172 When Bill Clinton was caught up in that messy bit of monkey business with Monica Lewinsky, liberals and the French sprang quickly to his defense. The French, especially, couldnt wait to sneer at us for our obvious lack of sophistication, although their linguists, to their credit, expressed some contempt for Clintons apparent inability to define is.The French feel that a man without a mistress is something of a freak. In fact, if it ever got out that a French politician didnt have a woman or two tucked away, the Parisian press would label him a sissy boy or, worse yet, an American.By the time Clinton rolled around, most of us were aware that John Kennedy had had his hands on more Hollywood starlets than costume designer Edith Head. Still, in spite of that, our politicians at least so long as theyre Republicans are dead in the water if theyve been discovered wandering off the reservation.Thats why I find it so absurd that anyone, including Newt Gingrich, thinks Newt Gingrich has even the slightest chance of garnering the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. After two divorces, each the result of his philandering, the man is carting around more baggage than a redcap.I realize that there are many people who would argue that a mans sex life has nothing to do with his ability to govern. They would point out that, at least for those of us who have no plans to be intimately involved with them, how they perform with their clothes on is a darn sight more important than how they perform with their clothes off.The counterargument is that the president of the United States isnt just its chief executive or even just its commanderinchief he is the living, breathing symbol of the nation. And as symbols go, a guy whose zipper is always at halfmast isnt most peoples ideal.The way I see it, we dont really know the politicians who represent us. We may see them on TV or even at meetandgreet events, but that merely tells us what they look like, what they sound like and whether, without a Teleprompter, they can utter a coherent sentence.Therefore, we cant pretend to know what sort of people they are anymore than we can evaluate the character of those actors, singers and dancers, we see performing in the movies or on the tube.Unfortunately, except when politicians have been caught taking bribes, dealing drugs or voting for ObamaCare, one of the few salient facts that ever reach us is when theyre discovered carrying on adulterous affairs.Perhaps the French would dismiss us as a nation of nave rubes, but the prevailing attitude is if these guys dont have a problem cheating on their spouses, those people to whom they have pledged their eternal fidelity, why the hell should we trust thememem2011 a hrefmailtoBurtPrelutskyaol.comBurt Prelutskya