Steve Benen observes that, after the extensive coverage given to Bill Clinton’s numerous extramarital affairs and, more recently, to the state of the Clinton marriage, it is only fair for the press to cover the sex lives of Republicans.
Lurking just over the horizon are liabilities for three Republicans who have topped several national, independent polls for the GOP’s favorite 2008 nominee: Sen. John McCain (affair, divorce), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (affair, divorce, affair, divorce), and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (divorce, affair, nasty divorce). Together, they form the most maritally challenged crop of presidential hopefuls in American political history.
My gut tells me that the McCain and Giuliani affairs won’t much matter and that Gingrich’s will probably keep him from running. Neither McCain nor Giuliani present themselves as standard bearers of the social conservative movement and both have the “hero thing” to bolster their moral standing. Conversely, the circumstances surrounding Gingrich’s misdeeds are particularly disgusting [Update: See here] and he does tout the “Republicans and more moral than Democrats” line.
Further, while few of the Left ever believe this, the problems with Clinton were not so much his inability to keep his zipper up but rather his abuse of power and flouting of the law. Most of the women he had “relations” with were either subordinates or otherwise in a position to be harmed by rebuffing his advances. In the Lewinski case, he then lied about it under oath, lied in a press conference to the American people, and proceeded to cover it up. So far as I know, none of those things are true of any of the three men named here.
UPDATE: I should note, since I wasn’t blogging at the time and that, even if I were, people haven’t read all my posts, I strongly disagreed with the (unanimous) Supreme Court ruling in Clinton v. Jones (1997) that ultimately created the conditions whereby Clinton lied under oath and came to support the repeal of the special prosecutor law somewhere during the 1990s. I did, however, support impeachment and conviction given what transpired.
Related posts below the fold.
________
