Extramarital Politics
I am going to really enjoy the inevitable media fragging Senator John Ensign is going to take because of his holier-than-thou attitude during the Lewinsky scandal, when he called on Clinton to resign for having an affair. What’s especially delicious about this is that Ensign back then and during the Larry Craig scandal played the “Because of these bad apples, even God-fearing, recreational-sex-disdaining politicians like me are now going to be called sexual deviants” card. He’s sold that angle hard on a number of occasions (”There’s too many people that paint with a broad brush that we’re all corrupt, all amoral,” he once said). He said a lot of stuff, and it’s all going to be dragged back out now and shoved in his defeated, suddenly elderly face.
I think the key thing to take from all of these sexual scandals isn’t so much that these guys are any more or less morally reliable than anyone else — particularly when it comes to marital infidelity, I sometimes wonder whether it’s the press’s business at all, unless you’re dealing with a guy like Ensign who’s made a career sneering at the moral lapses of others. However the sheer quantity of embarrassing sexual scandals is interesting in that it tells us something about the general sense of impunity elected officials must enjoy.
Senators and congressmen may or may not fool around any more than the rest of the population, but one would expect elected officials to be a lot more careful about cheating on their wives than ordinary people, because the consequences of getting caught are so much more extreme and lasting than they are for other people. An ordinary person may lose his marriage, but a politician loses not only his marriage but his livelihood, particularly if he’s a conservative. So you’d think that sexual infidelity scandals would be relatively rarer, especially for Senators and/or presidential candidates, who face a relatively constant amount of scrutiny. But they’re not all that rare, which tells you that these guys are kind of used to getting away with things they’d prefer to keep secret.
It’s sort of like having a bad drug problem. In the beginning, when you first start down the road to addiction, you wouldn’t think about going to work high, or doing lines in your office bathroom, or texting your dealer from an office Blackberry in the middle of an important meeting. But after you make it through a few conference calls whacked out of your mind you start to feel like you’re never going to get caught, and you start to take liberties… coming in late, leaving early, forgetting to wipe the puke off your mouth after a bathroom break, etc.
It’s the same thing with these guys. After you spend day after day handing millions and millions of dollars over to your campaign contributors, live on CSPAN, robbing the body armor budget for troops in the field to pay for Brown Tree Snake programs or $133,000 streetlights and not ever getting called on it, you must start to get cocky almost against your will. You’re basically walking out of the Capitol building with your suit stuffed with taxpayer cash every single day, right past a small army of reporters, and no one ever says anything, so… why not have sex with an aide on the way home, or better yet, with a stranger in the men’s room of Union Station? That mentality has to figure into all of this somewhere, right?
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It’s weirdly depressing when ‘moral majority’ leaders keep getting caught in morality scandals are so commonplace it feels almost routine. Remember how fun it was when it happened to Ted Haggard? This is almost boring.
The only way to spruce this up is if the blackmail aspect of the story goes anywhere.
For men, what is the point of fame and power? Fame and power themselves can be a rush, of course. And there’s the money too. But, it has always been, is, and always will be that fame and power give a man access to a higher class of women, and/or more of them, than they’ve had before. That’s why it’s worth it. How Ms. Hampton fits into this, well maybe she’s just part of the “more”.
I didn’t think you were so naive, Matt. Yes, now, today, one really should be more careful. But it’ll never stop. And why should it? Otherwise, what would be the motivation to achieve fame and power?
I think we should all be wary of anyone who declares them selves “holier than thou”. especially if they are an elected official. I tend to consider myself a conservative, but I may have to keep that tidbit to myself!
Matt said: “However the sheer quantity of embarrassing sexual scandals is interesting in that it tells us something about the general sense of impunity elected officials must enjoy.”
This sentence makes no sense. Elected officials may, delusionally, think/wish/hope that they have impunity– defined as “exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss”–but of course, in our advanced culture, version 2009, they don’t “enjoy” any such thing. Get caught today for doing what men have done throughout history, and will continue to do until the end of it (like it or not) and one will surely be punished. For example: Mr. Ensign, who is now royally screwed, pun intended.
I don’t understand why you think a “holier than thou” person would be “more careful” than anyone else. It has been my observation that the over the top religious people are in fact more likely than not to be completely careless! Why? Because of their excuses to themselves and later to others: something got hold of me; I couldn’t help myself; it’s her fault; she came on to me; the (she)devil made me do it … Any actual planning for or during an affair would counter their foreseeable later cries of helplessness in the face of overwhelming temptation. Which reminds me: This type of reasoning is why in the Middle East they stone women who have been raped. It’s all a matter of degree, not kind.
My point is exactly that!
In response to another comment. See in context »Ensign gave mea culpa, and now the lawyer for the Hampton family, who seemed to have profited from the entire affair (as it were), is wondering why Ensign is bringing down the Hampton family. C’mon, man, the Hamptons have tried to keep this matter private!
Can we just bring them all together on Oprah? Or my Dr. Phil or Glen Beck? They could all cry together, pray for forgiveness, and all would be right in the world again.
The press is somewhat deserved, yet I can feel the wind from the wheels of spin turning at GOP headquarters. They’ll have the base back with them, donating money to keep socialism from stealing out souls in no time.
edit: strike “my”
In response to another comment. See in context »Don’t forget, as I’m sure he’s ‘Born Again,’ that he’s pre-forgiven. So he’s alright & ready to move forward.
And the point of posting this woman’s picture here was…what? She’s not the hypocritical politician, he is. So why is she being singled out– for an electronic Scarlet Letter? She’s a private citizen–let’s leave her alone and “bang” away instead on the pol.
Thank you, Nora Barry! I wish I had been more straightforward in my previous comment. But you are, and completely right to do so. Americans may not in actuality stone the women who are involved in an extramarital affair, but we do tend to stone them figuratively!
In response to another comment. See in context »Nora this is going to be one of those times I agree with you, posting Mrs. Ensign’s pic is a cheap shot.
In response to another comment. See in context »So that we can all laugh at this dull bureaucrat’s attempt at livin’ the life. Girl’s no Ashley Alexandra, that’s for sure!
In response to another comment. See in context »So, what’s your point?
In response to another comment. See in context »Nora,
That’s a good call. I once disagreed with a scifi novelist for putting her photo on the dust jacket of one of her books, but that was for different reasons than you disagreed with Matt here.
And if Matt does take the picture down, I’m submitting him to O’Reilly’s Pinheads & Patriots segment as a patriot, because then the universe would explode.
In response to another comment. See in context »I can’t speak for Matt, but when I pulled up versions of the story, it appears that Cindy Hampton and her family benefited from this relationship. Her salary double once Ensign and she started the affair; her husband then son were also hired on as part of Ensign’s staff. It’s easier to pull up a picture of Ensign than the Hamptons. Perhaps it’s too soon to bring them in as guilty parties, so the pic isn’t ready for prime time internet. We’ll be seeing it elsewhere soon enough.
In response to another comment. See in context »Small edit to my last comment. I apparently didn’t pull up enough articles before. So Doug Hampton was already working for Ensign? In any case, my feeling is that the Hamptons are not copmpletely innocent parties in all of this.
Odd that the link “Cynthia Hampton Ensign” above leads to a run-down with a pic of Ensign and his wife Darlene. And they’ve made up, so Ensign might have a new govt. gig before you can say “I did not have relations with the meaning of is is.”
In response to another comment. See in context »While I generally am all for the sentiment that inspires a knee-jerk response like this, I can’t see what’s wrong with illustrating this uh, ‘human interest story’. If anything, looking at the humans involved only humanizes it, and that’s exactly all it is to start, embarrassing humanity. Ensign centerfolds are readily available at ensign.senate.gov. Hurry and cover this innocent woman’s sinful flesh in a burka for the sacred honor of all that is femininity.
In response to another comment. See in context »You left out the part where the woman he was sleeping with happens to be the wife of one of Ensign’s friends and employees, breaking one of the all time serious moral codes in existence. But, you know, he apologized, expressed great shame for what he has done to his family (yawn), blah, blah, blah. What a putz.
This is so boring. I’m waiting for some kinky politician to get caught, or for someone who has been criticizing to get caught, and have it come out he or she was screwing at the same time they were making appearances speaking against such behavior. What happened to those kind of scandals? This is a vanilla affair.
Not sure why you think Ensign’s going to lose his career. David Vitter still has his, after all.
[...] Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – Extramarital Politics – True/Slant It’s sort of like having a bad drug problem. In the beginning, when you first start down the road to addiction, you wouldn’t think about going to work high, or doing lines in your office bathroom, or texting your dealer from an office Blackberry in the middle of an important meeting. But after you make it through a few conference calls whacked out of your mind you start to feel like you’re never going to get caught, and you start to take liberties… coming in late, leaving early, forgetting to wipe the puke off your mouth after a bathroom break, etc. Share and Enjoy: [...]
My post is still in moderation. Taibbi takes down the pic. I call bullshit. Another bunch of high schoolers.
Good rant, Matt. If Ensign wishes to remain consistent with his previous holy pronunciations, he should resign. Or at least explain why he now believes that President Clinton and Senator Vitter were right in not resigning.
As for the small flap here over Mrs. Ensign’s photo. I don’t see the problem. Of course I also didn’t see the original photo which went with Matt’s post. Now there’s simply a link to a blog post with a photo of the happy couple. Either way I don’t see a problem. Posting a photo of a married couple whose husband has cheated says exactly what about the wife? Any reasonable human will think “oh that poor woman,” not “serves the slut right.” I simply don’t see the potential for scarlet letter material here. Perhaps I am obtuse and/or essentially sexist. Please advise.
Why is my previous post still under moderation over an hour after I posted it. Did I do something wrong?