Eye On America | Juicy scandals have little to do with politics

Ross Weingarten Opinions Editor

In recent weeks, headlines have been dominated by the scandal concerning Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida. It was revealed that he had been sending illicit e-mails to underage male pages that worked on Capitol Hill. Soon after this information came to light, Foley resigned and admitted himself into a clinic to treat his alcoholism. Foley’s inappropriate behavior and the alleged attempt to cover it up has much larger, negative implications for the already-weakened Republican party as the mid-term elections approach in November.

Of course, Foley’s saga is only one in a long list of recent political scandals. Everyone remembers the Clinton impeachment trials seven years ago. More recently, in Britain, Home Secretary David Blunkett was forced to resign following a public custody battle with his former mistress, giving Prime Minister Tony Blair immense political headaches in 2004. And in the same year, former Governor of New Jersey James McGreevey had to resign after announcing that he is homosexual.

So what do these scandals have in common? In all four, sexual behavior that is considered taboo was used to hurt the political career of the individual. There is a difference between extramarital affairs and pedophilia, of course, but the basis is the same.

I believe, however, that sexually scandalous activity should be left to the tabloids, even if it is a publicly elected official that is committing the act. Sex, even inappropriate sex, and politics have nothing to do with each other. In a democracy, we elect candidates based on their ideas, their views, and their policy. What they choose to do behind closed doors may be of interest to us, but should have nothing to do with our views of them as politicians.

An opponent of this idea will argue that we elect candidates not only for their policy but also for their character, and I concede that some voters do. But I think this is a misinterpretation of the role of politicians. What does it matter if a candidate is religious or not, has a family or not, or even has a weird hobby or not? If a politician believes in and will fight for the issues that we believe in, they should warrant our votes, period.

I am not condoning the scandalous activity of any of the aforementioned politicians. Extramarital affairs, custody fights with mistresses, and, in Foley’s case, relations with underage pages, are most certainly wrong. But I will continue to argue that they have little bearing on the politicians themselves and the job that they were elected to do.

There is one caveat to my view, and that is that breaking the law, as Foley has done, does infringe on a politician’s professional life, and should have an effect on their careers. Foley exchanged inappropriate messages with boys that were under the age of consent. This is a crime (breaking a law that he himself passed), and Foley should suffer. Similarly, right before the election of 2000, the fact that President George W. Bush once got arrested for drunk driving surfaced and almost cost him the election. Bush, like Foley, broke the law, and should pay the price.

But simply engaging in sex with a woman that is not your wife, or another man, should not mean the political end to one’s career. Who cares what Clinton was doing behind closed doors, as long as the country was running smoothly, and he continued to fulfill his promises to the American people? Nowhere in any of his State of the Union addresses did Clinton promise to wipe out illicit affairs.

I propose that we follow the example of former Congressman Gerry Studds of Massachusetts. In 1983, Studds’ relationship with a male page on Capitol Hill surfaced, and he received immense pressure to resign. Yet he remained defiant, reminding America that he broke no laws since the young page was over the age of consent, and expressing dismay over how hard it was to be a gay politican in Washington. How did the public respond? He was elected to Congress six more times. The Studds scandal is an example of a politician being able to have a life behind closed doors that, while some people may not agree with, has nothing to do with his life as a politician.

So who to blame? Certainly the media is guilty of spreading scandals to the nation, but we should also blame the public that consumes them, providing the fuel to these flames.