What do Mark Sanford, the conservative Republican, and John Edwards, the populist Democrat, have in common?

Answer: They were both born in South Carolina except for Sanford, who was born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

In short, they don't have much in common.

Except this: there's a current fixation on their extra-marital activities.

Or, as they say on cable television, the gifts that keep on giving.

Continue reading "Affairs To Remember: Updates On Sanford, Edwards" >

In the wake of my post yesterday about political sex scandals, Andy Toomey of New York City writes:

In your recap you forgot two obvious ones, Clinton/Lewinsky and Gary Hart/Donna Rice.

It's impossible to forget these scandals, but yesterday's post only went back to 2001 and Gary Condit. In 1998, when my Political Junkie column ran on the Washington Post Web site, I compiled a Congressional Sex Scandals in History feature, designed to appear during the Clinton/Lewinsky investigation.

It's the end of the day, a long day, a chance to reflect on what exactly happened on this surreal Wednesday.

When the Mark Sanford story broke, I was sitting across from Neal Conan, the host of NPR's Talk of the Nation. We were on the air, live. It was our regular Wednesday Political Junkie segment on TOTN. As the segment began, we learned that the governor's news conference, which was scheduled to begin just as the show was starting, would be delayed a half hour.

That gave us more time. So we discussed the bizarre nature of the situation, I did the obligatory bad jokes ("He was actually in Argentina? He's so pampas"). And then we went on to the other political subjects of the week. Villaraigosa's not running for governor of California. What in tarnation is going on in Albany? How 'bout those Nixon tapes!

NPR White House correspondent Don Gonyea then came on the show to talk about behind-the-scenes stuff during a presidential press conference. The callers were great, and Don was, as always, superb.

And then Neal's face dramatically changed.

He had the wires up on his screen, as he always does in the event of breaking news, and he motioned to me in a dramatic gesture. I got up and looked at the screen. I couldn't believe my eyes:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - SC Gov. Mark Sanford says he's been unfaithful to his wife with friend from Argentina

Of course, on sober second thought, it made complete sense. Missing for a week, including Father's Day. His wife hadn't heard from him. His staff kept announcing suspiciously different reasons for why no one could find him. Something was up.

Neal and I talked about it for the remainder of the segment, half in shock, and then I raced back to my desk to watch the remainder of the news conference.

It was painful. The governor revealed more details than I ever thought a smart politician should. But a smart politician wouldn't betray his wife and family or lie to his staff and the voters who elected him.

And that in a nutshell was the mixed emotion that hit me as I was watching him. Wow, he's so honest about his feelings, I thought. Wait, what am I thinking, he's lied to everyone close to him! How can "honesty" belong in the same thought? I don't believe I blinked for some 15 minutes.

When I finally exhaled, people were coming by, asking if I had seen the e-mails between Sanford and his girlfriend. I read them, and felt dirty.

It's hard to find sympathy for the Mark Sanfords of the world, or the John Ensigns or the Kwame Kilpatricks or the John Edwardses. And yet, when you read these expressions of personal feelings and emotion, you can't help -- or at least I can't help -- but feel sad. Not sad for the betrayers necessarily. Just sad. People are hurt, badly hurt, by foolish actions. Careers are ruined, and lives are ruined. And I don't know what else to say. It's not that I've suddenly lost faith in Mark Sanford. It's ... I don't know.

Will he stay on as governor? What's next for the GOP? That's for tomorrow.

I feel deflated, and I'm leaving the office.

The stunning admission of an extramarital affair by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, an early favorite of many conservatives for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, is just the latest sex scandal to rock the Republican Party.

Just last week, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, the No. 4 Republican in the Senate, confessed to a similar transgression. While Ensign wasn't on as many White House wannabe lists as Sanford, he had recently visited the early caucus state of Iowa, a sign that he may have had more than a passing interest.

A fellow Nevada Republican, Gov. Jim Gibbons, has been in hot water over salacious details regarding his ongoing divorce proceedings from his wife.

And in recent years, we have watched the spectacle of Sen. David Vitter (LA) appearing on the "D.C. Madam's" clientele list, and lurid e-mails between Rep. Mark Foley (FL) and underage congressional pages. Foley resigned in disgrace; Vitter remains in office and is seeking re-election next year.

Of course, sexual indiscretions are hardly the property of one party. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) resigned in disgrace last year in a prostitution scandal, and New Jersey's Jim McGreevey (D) resigned as governor following his declaration that he is a "gay American." And John Edwards was carrying on an affair with a videographer as he was simultaneously campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination last year -- and as his wife was suffering from inoperable breast cancer.

What follows is a chronological list of political sex scandals during the current decade. It does not claim to be complete. Lumping them all together on one list is not to equate them; all sex scandals are, after all, not created equal. But all had political ramifications:

Continue reading "Sanford The Latest In A Series Of Political Sex Scandals" >