10.04.06 6:00 AM CDT
• Politics
• Jamie Malanowski
Things went bad for Mark Foley fast, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. Things never seem to go easy on a Republican caught in a sex scandal. As Paul Farhi points out in an interesting article in The Washington Post today, "for the most part, Democrats have been able to survive their sordid escapades while Republicans have paid with their political lives."
Farhi’s right. It’s true that some Democrats like presidential candidate Gary Hart and Rep. Gary Condit suffered for their liaisons. But Rep. Gerry Studds had an affair with a congressional page, and was returned to office, and Rep. Barney Frank hired a male prostitute, and was returned to office, and Sen. Chuck Robb accepted "a back rub" from the lovely Tai Collins (later immortalized in a Playboy pictorial and pictured here), and he was returned to office, and Bill Clinton fooled around with Monica Lewinsky, and he became more popular than ever. Even Rep. Wilbur Mills, whose involvement with an exotic dancer named Fanny Foxe, the Argentine Firecracker, became Washington legend after the two of them were found romping in the Tidal Basin, was reelected. It was only later, after a drunken Mills joined Ms. Foxe onstage in Boston, that Democrats demanded, and received, his resignation.
By contrast, Rep. Bob Livingston, Rep. Robert Bauman, Sen. Bob Packwood, Rep. Thomas Evans (whose "association" with a lobbyist named Paula Parkinson, was photographed for Playboy) and Rep. Dan Crane watched their careers disappear when allegations arose. Crane’s experience is particularly jarring: at the same time Studds was censured for sleeping with a 17-year-old male page, Crane was censured for sleeping with a 17-year-old female page. Crane apologized; Studds refused. Crane’s conservative district turned him out; Studds’ liberal Massachusetts constituents reelected him.
In 2004, a Republican senatorial candidate in Illinois, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race after his wife (Jeri Ryan, Star Trek’s legendary 7 of 9) alleged in divorce papers that he had asked her to go to sex clubs and have sex with strange men. In other words, Ryan was eliminated not because he had sex, but because he fantasized about his wife having it.
Why the discrepancy? Surely it has to do with the attitudes of their constituents, and how they feel about sex, and how much or little they care about the private lives of public figures. But it also has to do with sanctimoniousness. Anti-internet porn crusader Foley was the latest in a long line of small government Republicans who want to put big government in your pants. The holier-than-thou they are, the harder they fall.
Farhi’s right. It’s true that some Democrats like presidential candidate Gary Hart and Rep. Gary Condit suffered for their liaisons. But Rep. Gerry Studds had an affair with a congressional page, and was returned to office, and Rep. Barney Frank hired a male prostitute, and was returned to office, and Sen. Chuck Robb accepted "a back rub" from the lovely Tai Collins (later immortalized in a Playboy pictorial and pictured here), and he was returned to office, and Bill Clinton fooled around with Monica Lewinsky, and he became more popular than ever. Even Rep. Wilbur Mills, whose involvement with an exotic dancer named Fanny Foxe, the Argentine Firecracker, became Washington legend after the two of them were found romping in the Tidal Basin, was reelected. It was only later, after a drunken Mills joined Ms. Foxe onstage in Boston, that Democrats demanded, and received, his resignation.
By contrast, Rep. Bob Livingston, Rep. Robert Bauman, Sen. Bob Packwood, Rep. Thomas Evans (whose "association" with a lobbyist named Paula Parkinson, was photographed for Playboy) and Rep. Dan Crane watched their careers disappear when allegations arose. Crane’s experience is particularly jarring: at the same time Studds was censured for sleeping with a 17-year-old male page, Crane was censured for sleeping with a 17-year-old female page. Crane apologized; Studds refused. Crane’s conservative district turned him out; Studds’ liberal Massachusetts constituents reelected him.
In 2004, a Republican senatorial candidate in Illinois, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race after his wife (Jeri Ryan, Star Trek’s legendary 7 of 9) alleged in divorce papers that he had asked her to go to sex clubs and have sex with strange men. In other words, Ryan was eliminated not because he had sex, but because he fantasized about his wife having it.
Why the discrepancy? Surely it has to do with the attitudes of their constituents, and how they feel about sex, and how much or little they care about the private lives of public figures. But it also has to do with sanctimoniousness. Anti-internet porn crusader Foley was the latest in a long line of small government Republicans who want to put big government in your pants. The holier-than-thou they are, the harder they fall.
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