Prompted by the RNC expensing trips to bondage clubs, the folks at the Daily Beast took a look at all “58 scandals over the past 20 years involving all politicians or major candidates for city mayor and above” using a “a methodology that accounted for whether a crime was committed, versus inappropriate behavior; whether the charges were proven, versus alleged; the level of office held; and whether the incident involved children, staff, a coverup or hypocrisy.”
Their top level findings:
- The number sex scandals has increased dramatically over the past few decades, thanks to technology, new press standards and a post-Clinton belief that everything is fair game.
- Republicans have more scandals (32 to 26), but Democrats have bigger ones, based on our methodology (13 out of the top 20).
- Democrats tend to have more problems with harassment, staffers and underage girls; Republicans tend to have more problems with prostitutes, hypocrisy and underage boys.
Using the traditional “dead girl or live boy” test, though, the Republicans seem to come out ahead.
And I’m not sure I would have included small town mayors and state assemblymen in the study, since nobody outside the local area would have heard of these scandals.
via Taegan Goddard
