Hanky Panky in High Places

Thanks to Wikicommons.

Politicians sometimes don’t tell the truth (and we at USDemocrazy are SHOCKED!).  Sometimes politicians don’t just lie to the public… but also cheat on their spouses! (SHOCK! HORROR!)

Throughout history, extramarital relationships have tarnished a number of politicians (and entertained legions of their opponents).

For instance, who can forget Bill Clinton’s involvement with Monica Lewinsky, an event that led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives (though the Senate didn’t close the deal)?

And even other past presidents have indulged in an extramarital fling or two (or twelve). President Grover Cleveland’s wayward reputation earned him the political slogan, “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha.”

John Edwards, one-time presidential hopeful in 2008, admitted he lied about an affair.  In addition to that misdeed, he is being investigated for money he paid to his mistress’s company.

And now today, there is news of an international affair of state.  

The culprit this time is Italy’s playboy prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. His wife has had it with his paramours and is filing for divorce. The final straw for Mrs. Berlusconi was suave Silvio’s plan to nominate a number of models and actresses, nicknamed “Berlusconi’s Ballot Babes”, for the European Parliament.

How will the Italians take their prime minister’s divorce?  Berlusconi probably hopes they react like the French.

French President Sarkozy’s divorce of his wife Cécilia and subsequent marriage to model Carla Bruni was met with a Gallic shrug (it seems the French care less of their politician’s personal lives than we prudish yanks).

Even in America an affair doesn’t always spell the end of a politician’s career.  Take former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (nailed for being Client #9 at a prostitution ring). The kinky cavorter is back in the headlines (and not for unseemly reasons). He has resurfaced as a financial expert (he was known as a watch dog of Wall Street crimes) and now appears as a columnist for Slate Magazine.

Spitzer has bounced back to the point where in a recent poll a majority of New Yorkers would prefer him to current Governor Paterson (the man who replaced Spitzer during the scandal). Talk about a SHOCK!

So it seems that mistakes can be forgiven (at least by the public).  Does this shock you?