Republican officeholder? Don't cheat

Does it seem like there are more Republican officials caught with their pants down?

Does it seem like Republicans pay a higher price at the voting booth for such scandals than do Democrats?

If you answered yes to both of the above questions, your hunch is right, at least according to a Washington Post survey of the subject matter dating back through the 1970s.

The study looks at 39 sex scandals involving members of Congress and one president since 1974. I'm assuming you can figure out who the president was. (Hint: He was impeached for charges related to one of the many sex scandals that came to light during his two terms.)

Here are some interesting facts:

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• Sex scandals have been slightly more prevalent among Republican lawmakers (22) than Democratic ones (17).
• Republican sex scandals have also been more likely to involve adultery than Democratic ones: 86 percent of the GOP scandals involved an elected official cheating on his wife, compared to only 65 percent of Democratic scandals.
• Democratic officials were twice as likely to involve some sort of workplace harassment or dalliance, compared to 27 percent among Republicans.
• Though the report doesn't mention it, Bill Clinton covered all the bases.
• Most of the recent sex scandals have involved Republicans.
• The study finds sex scandals cut re-election chance in half – unless you happen to be a Democrat.

The conclusion of the writer, whose own progressive credentials include a stint with the Brookings Institution, is: "All of which goes to show that cheaters do sometimes prosper, particularly if said cheater is a Democrat."

But what else can we glean from this information?

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First, a little history from 30,000 feet: Today we know that President John Kennedy was an inveterate cheat. If you consider his affairs – the numbers, the recklessness, the lack of compassion he showed women, including a young intern – it's pretty shocking stuff, even by today's non-standards. But no one knew about it until long after he was dead of an assassin's bullet. I don't say this to be mean. Kennedy is, by far, my favorite Democrat president since 1960. It's just a matter of fact. Reporters knew what was going, on but they didn't report it. They may have considered it just a personal matter. They may not have considered it a matter of national security. They may have been afraid to cover it, which might mean they would lose their job or certainly access to the White House.

Whatever the reason, no one knew about it.

The early 1970s sex scandals involved very public activity. There was Wilbur Mills, another Democrat and one of the most powerful men in Washington as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. On Oct. 9, 1974, at 2 a.m., Mills was involved in a traffic incident in the capital. His car was stopped by U.S. Park Police because the driver had not turned on the lights. Mills was intoxicated, and his face was injured from a scuffle with Annabelle Battistella, better known as Fanne Foxe, a stripper from Argentina. When police approached the car, Foxe leapt from the car and jumped into the nearby Tidal Basin in an attempt to escape.

Despite the scandal, Mills was re-elected to Congress the next month in a heavily Democratic year with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Not having learned his lesson, just a few weeks later, a drunken Mills accompanied Fanne Foxe's husband onstage at a Boston burlesque house where Foxe was performing. He even held a press conference from Foxe's dressing room. After this second very public incident, Mills stepped down from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged his alcoholism, joined Alcoholics Anonymous and checked himself into the Palm Beach Institute in West Palm Beach, Fla.

A couple of years later, it was another powerful Democrat whose brazenness, and stupidity, did him in. In 1976, Wayne Hays, the chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee, divorced his wife of 38 years and hired the fetching Elizabeth Ray to be his Capitol Hill "secretary." Two years later, he married his Ohio office secretary, Pat Peak. When Ray wasn't invited to the wedding, she was livid. She went to the press with the story that she had been hired not to be Hays' secretary but rather his mistress. She was even given a raise to serve as a staff member of the House Administration Committee. Ray famously explained, "I can't type. I can't file. I can't even answer the phone." She even "let a reporter listen in as the Ohio congressman told her on the phone that his recent marriage would not affect their arrangement." Time magazine reported, "Liz chose to tell her story after Hays decided to marry Pat Peak and did not invite her. 'I was good enough to be his mistress for two years but not good enough to be invited to his wedding." Three days later, Hays admitted to most of the allegations on the House floor, denying only that Ray's federal salary was awarded solely for sexual services. She was not, insisted Hays, "hired to be my mistress." He resigned as chairman of the Committee on House Administration on June 18, 1976, and then resigned from Congress Sept. 1, 1976.

They just don't do sex scandals anymore like they did in the 1970s. In fact, it was not until the 1990s and the Clinton White House that they began to dominate the news again.

But there was a very significant change that took place with Clinton. Unlike Mills and Hays and other officials caught in flagrante, Clinton wasn't embarrassed. He wasn't ashamed. He just lied his fat white tokus off. And he got away with it, though he did get impeached. Thanks to the Republican-controlled Senate, however, he beat the rap – including charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Imagine that happening to a Republican president tried by a Democratic Senate!

Though it was ugly and very embarrassing to everyone in the country except Clinton, he got away with his predatory serial adultery, multiple sex harassment charges, even a credible rape allegation. He didn't even pay a price when his Internal Revenue Service systematically audited his victims who dared to go public.

Why?

Because the press was on his side. They loved him. They still do.

To say Bill Clinton's debauchery lowered the nation's moral standards would be the understatement of the 1990s.

The rules for coverage of all succeeding political sex scandals changed as a result. The press, at first, refuse to run the stories. After Matt Drudge let the cat out of the bag (or rather "the blue dress" out of the closet), the media establishment went into crisis management mode for their standard-bearer for the next few years – right through the impeachment trial. And don't forget Clinton's infamous "wag the dog" military strikes to deflect attention from his sexual peccadilloes and the crimes he committed to cover them up.

This was a game-changer for the American definition of moral turpitude.

Since then, our study shows, more Republicans have been snagged by sexual scandals. Why should that be surprising? The press is highly partisan. It would be shocking for them to find more scandal of any kind in their own party. What should be even more surprising is the way their standards about adultery change when a Republican is caught.

And why are Democrats more likely to be re-elected despite sex scandals? Because the press doesn't hound them right through Election Day.

Have you ever noticed when a politician is caught in any kind of scandal they are three or four times more likely to be identified by party affiliation if they are Republicans?

It's true. Just look at the press clips about indicted Democratic California state Sen. Leland Yee, charged with brokering a $2 million arms deal that would have included the purchase of shoulder-fired missiles from Islamic terrorists. Even today they seldom, if ever, mention his party affiliation.

There's still very little national press coverage of the sensational case.

Why do Republican officeholders pay a higher price for indiscretions? Does one really have to ask?

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