sex scandals

And another political sex scandal. When will this ridiculous, hypocritical, tittering at salacious stories, political backstabbing bullshit end? WHEN?? Two notable Democrats "smeared" by sex scandals (does ANYONE out there smell Karl Rove??? Hello, it's an election year w/ the Democrats primed to win big), two young women just trying to earn a few bucks harassed by law enforcement. Wow, people like sex. Wow, older men will pay outrageous prices for sex with young, cute, white girls. Wow, a young cute white girl can make in ten minutes what her friends w/ straight jobs make in a day, or a week. Wow, politicians will use law enforcement, the media, and sex to smear one another. This shit is just getting sadder & sadder. Legalize ALL adult sex work. Make a national mandate to promote healthy sexuality as part of a national health care plan. Stop using sex as a weapon, period. And, please, PLEASE, stop all the salacious crap about politicians' sex lives. Can it be THAT hard to do??? Really???

This morning's breakfast and coffee was livened up by an interesting op-ed piece in the opinion section of the New York Times.

And it made me wonder what it must feel like to be a member of the Log Cabin Republicans these days. Do you feel vindicated about being out, seeing the scorn heaped upon your closeted colleagues as they fall out of their garment bags? Do you feel saddened by the wreckage strewn about in their personal and professional lives? Do you feel angry and exasperated by the way these men have consistently pushed policies that have obviously been harmful to themselves as well as well as to so many others? Or do you find yourself just increasingly bewildered and puzzled by the sheer number of staunchly conservative "family values" Republican leaders who seem to be living double lives?

For all those in the bewildered and puzzled category, Gail Collins has a new hypothosis: It isn't the lightening storms and the fear of being the only white man in the bathroom; it isn't the incessent hounding of the press. No, it might just be the sheer stress of being a Republican campaign leader!

After all, it's not just Craig, formerly co-chair of the Romney campaign, we're talking about. Collins reminds us that David Vitter was southern regional chair for the Giuliani campaign, and Bob Allen was head of the Florida branch of McCain's presidential campaign. This leads her to ask:

"Does lending one’s name to a Republican presidential campaign create an irresistible impulse to misbehave? Or is this the sort of job people only undertake when they feel a secret need to do penance?"