The era of the modern sex scandal began in 1988 with Gary Hart. Back then it was de rigueur for the press to maintain that the sex scandal of the moment was not really "about" sex. What it was "about" was lying, which in turn meant that it was "about" something more important than sex, i.e., "character." The problem is that lying is an inherent part of adultery and of any embarrassing sexual activity. The fact that a person has lied about sex tells you nothing about that person’s general propensity to lie. Unlike most citizens, prominent politicians make speeches by the hundred, give media interviews constantly, and have extensively documented public records. If the politician is a habitual or characterological liar, the public record will show it, and the lying-about-sex is redundant. If the politician is not a habitual or characterological liar, his lying-about-sex is misleading -- is itself a lie, in a way. Sex scandals are an increasingly prominent, increasingly frequent, and increasingly varied part of American political life. They come in all flavors and orientations. Weinergate breaks new ground: it is the first entirely virtual political sex scandal, the first to have been conducted entirely online. In other ways, though, it is not so new. It confirms a pet theory of mine: the Clinton Rule, which states that when a married politician appears before cameras and microphones and starts babbling absurd lies about some sexual something, the person he is really trying to lie to is his spouse. The lies that get told to the public and the press are side effects. After Anthony Weiner’s press conference, there was near-unanimous agreement among the cable talkers that his political career is finished. I doubt that. I think he will be around for quite a while. Weiner may yet be Mayor of New York one day. Just not next time.
