sex, lies and videotape - Political Class Style - Part 1

Two current events I have recently come across reminded of a movie from the 1990s entitled "sex, lies and videotape." I have never seen the movie but it seemed appropriate considering the behavior of the political class over the past few years. The first news item I recently came across is the potential sex scandal involving ex-Congressman Eric Massa who is accused of sexually harassing staff members on multiple occasions. The second item is the latest poll results from the website of Real Clear Politics which indicated that Americans' approval rating of Congress as an entity was about 18% and the disapproval rating was 78% (these results from Real Clear Politics is the average of several reputable, non-partisan polling processes).

These two events raised the question in my mind is that maybe the approval rating and performance of Congress and the political class is so low because of their wasting of time on sexually-related matters and not on the responsibilities of their elected office. This line of thought evoked the movie "sex, lies and videotape" in that there has been a lot of misbehaving by politicians over the past few years that usually fall into these three categories:

Videotape

Consider the following politicians that were stupid enough to get their misbehaving caught on videotape, indicating that they may be smart politicians but do not have a lot of common sense:

• North Carolina Senator John Edwards - as we have discussed more than once in this blog, Senator Edwards, potential Vice Presidential and Presidential office holder, carried on an extra marital affair with someone associated with his campaigns even though he was married, had kids, and his wife was battling cancer. Now we find out that a North Carolina judge is looking to have a videotape, of the Senator and his mistress having sex, turned over to him in conjunction with a case related to the affair. Edwards was relatively close to being either Vice President or President and he allowed himself to be videotaped in an embarrassing situation with his mistress. Imagine if he had become President, the blackmail potential of that videotape would have been invaluable. Edwards would have spent more time suppressing the contents of that tape then leading the country to the detriment of its citizens.
• California State Leglislator Michael Duvall - Mr. Duvall is a married father with two children who has fashioned himself as a family values politician. He was a member of the Rules Committee that oversees member ethics behavior in the California legislature. However, a few weeks ago Mr. Duvall did something very stupid. Prior to a session of the House, he started bragging in great detail about his extra marital affair with a lobbyist to a fellow legislator. However, did not realize both the microphones and cameras that would televise the session were active and live, recording his entire graphic description of his affair's sexual details. Just another politician that is satisfying his sexual needs at the expense of his constituents. The time and effort he put into the affair, covering up the affair, while maintaining his marriage had to have had a negative impact on his performance as a politician.
• Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry - this is an oldie but goodie. In the early 1990s, the mayor was caught on videotape doing crack cocaine in a hotel room in a police sting. How can you respect the law when those responsible for enforcing those laws are both breaking those laws and are stupid enough to get caught on videotape?

Sex

There has been no shortage of politicians that were wasting time in extra marital and illegal affairs but were at least smart enough to not get caught in the act on videotape like Edwards, Massa, and Barry above. However, the fact that we cannot view their acts (thank goodness!) does not take away from the fact that they betrayed their constituents. Time wasted on having and covering up their affairs left less time to serve their constituents. The affairs also left them vulnerable to blackmail, also to the detriment of their voters. Consider this list of shame of our political "leaders":

• President Bill Clinton - adulterer and liar about his affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky and probably others.
• Congressman Gary Condit - adulterer and liar about his affair with intern Chandra Levy, who was eventually found murdered, whose acts were never fully investigated due to the 9-11 attacks shortly after they came to light.
• Senator John Edwards - liar and adulterer, see details above.
• Congressman Mark Foley - accused sexual harassment of young Congressional pages led to his resignation.
• Legislator Michael Duvall - liar and adulterer who had an extramarital affair with a lobbyist.
• Congressman Eric Massa - allegedly sexually harassed staff members, see above.
• Governor Mark Sanford - had an extra martial affair despite his marriage and four sons and the fact that he was being discussed as a potential 2012 Presidential candidate. Potential blackmail situation avoided.
• Governor Eliot Spitzer - resigned from office after affairs dealing with prostitutes were revealed. Narrowly avoided being prosecuted under the Mann Act that outlaws bringing prostitutes across state lines.
• Senator Larry Craig - arrested for lewd conduct (soliciting for a homosexual connection) in a Minneapolis airport men's room and pled to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct.
• Senator John Ensign - admitted to having an extra marital affair with a member of his campaign staff who was married to a member of Ensign's Senate staff who was also a close friend of the senator. What a class guy, doing the wife of his friend while in the U.S. Senate.
• Governor Jim MacGreevey - liar and adulterer who resigned after having an extramarital affair despite being married and having a child.
• Senator John Hart - an oldie but goodie, liar and adulterer who got caught in an extra marital affair. Hart was relatively close to becoming President of the United States. Another potential blackmail situation avoided. Ironically, he was caught in the act while on the boat named "Monkey Business."

That covers the Sex and Videotape portions of our blog topic. I will save the Lies category for tomorrow, I need to take a shower and wash the slime off after reviewing these types of behavior. These are our so-called leaders. I guess leadership these days consists of lying, adultery, stupidity, wasting time on affairs at the expense of solving problems of constituents, and exposing themselves to potential blackmail situations which could severely hamper their ability to make the right decisions. That is why all sitting politicians need to be defeated if they are up for re-election in November. Almost 80% of us know that they are not doing what we want them to do and their immoral and stupid behavior does not justify keeping them around in light of them getting nothing accomplished.

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