Queue up for your outrage here
Over at Huffington Post, Cenk Uyger echoes what I’ve said about the political sex scandal issue – if it doesn’t effect their policies or fly in the face of their politics, then why does it matter to the public at large? Why isn’t it just a personal issue? If someone is a law-and-order politician, a moral watchdog, and then they’re caught with a hooker – yes, that’s a story. If someone supports anti-gay marriage amendments to the constitution and lectures constantly on how we need to enact rules against gays, and then they’re caught soliciting anonymous gay sex in an airport restroom or exchanging crystal meth to a male prostitute in exchange for “backrubs,” then yes – that’s a story. But someone whose main issue is poverty and justice has an affair with a campaign staffer? Sure, tabloid it up – but what does it ultimately do to their political career and why is it political news?
Then, Uyger does me one better. All right – let’s accept the narrative that sex outside of marriage=your political career is at an end. Then why is John McCain still standing?
Now, we get to the most relevant question – if John Edwards’ political career is done, why isn’t John McCain’s? John McCain had a well-documented affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He has admitted in the books he has written about his life that he ran around with several different women while still married to his first wife. And don’t forget that he left her for a younger, richer woman – multi-millionaire Cindy Hensley who is now Cindy McCain – after she had been severely hurt in a car accident.So, why are McCain’s actions any more excusable than Edwards’? Because it was thirty years ago? Does that wash it away? Will we be fine with Edwards running for office again in a couple of years because then it will all be in the past? What is the statute of limitations on an affair?