Spitzer's best defense

I do think the "high end provider" has a point. If a married guy "just gotta have strange pussy", buying it from a prostitute seems a lot less threatening to the marriage than entering into a sexual affair with secretary/social_friend/whatever. However, prostitution for some reason carries a worse stigma than the affair. Plus, it's illegal for most partakers. So, as usual, we have tradeoffs to consider.

But there is still a strange irony -- according to the customs and mores of our civilization, a marriage is supposed to be based on monogamy. So how do we rationalize "just gotta have strange pussy" ???

Oh Oh. Look out for some more Alpha male stuff. lol...

Shadowcat- LOL

Need the history buffs to chime in: Wasn't it customary for the Enlightenment nobility to have courtesans on the side?

I was a Poli Sci major in college during the Monica Lewinski-Bill Clinton scandal. One of my professors stated that most presidents had affairs while in office and that FDR died in the arms of his wife. I have no evidence to that, other than my professor's word, and would not begin to know where to reseacrch this matter. I for one would have liked to have seen Spitzer come out and say:"I had a grat time. I don't regret a thing, other than the fact I was caught."

I'd really like to see Bill Clinton say, "Well, he paid for it, so that's illegal. I didn't, so that's roughly more legal. Larry Craig and Vitter broke as many, if not more, laws, than Spitzer, so if Spitzer had to resign, then I think they should as well. Me, I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, LOOK AT MY WIFE FOR CHRIST'S SAKES!"

In response to the history question:

In the 20th century, it is now beyond dispute that FDR, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Clinton all cheated on their wives, in various ways, while they were elected officials, and with the possible exception of Johnson, while they were in the White House. Reagan may have also cheated on his first wife, but before he became an elected official. Lots of other politicians of various stripes have cheated on their wives of course, but those are probably the only WWII and post-WWII presidents to do so. Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Bush II probably did not cheat on their wives, and certainly not while in the White House. There have been a lot of persistent rumors about Bush I cheating on his wife, but no solid evidence, and at any rate, probably not while in the White House.

Significantly, there is not much correlation between being a good president and being a faithful husband. Most people (except right wing ideologues) would probably rank FDR as a good to excellent president (personally, I would rank him near the top, second only to Lincoln), but he was notoriously unfaithful throughout his marriage. Nixon and Carter were incredible prudes, on the other hand, and both typically rank near the bottom of any list in terms of the success of their White House years.

Prior to WWII, it is very difficult to get a clear historical record on whether Presidents cheated or not -- this is partly due to the distance of time, and partly because infidelity was not as openly discussed as it is today. (Kennedy, for example, actually had prostitutes in the white house, and this was well known to reporters at the time. But few people talked about this publicly until long after he was dead.) Jefferson probably slept around considerably, and he certainly fathered children out of wedlock. But he probably did not cheat on his wife (who died quite young). Grover Cleveland is somewhat famous for having fathered a child out of wedlock (and this WAS well known at the time, but did not prevent him from being elected President). However, he also did not cheat on his wife, because he was a bachelor until he became president. He then married a woman only 22 years old, when President Cleveland was nearly 50! There are some rumors -- never confirmed -- that Washington slept around. Ben Franklin clearly slept around a lot, and probably had children out of wedlock, but he was never president.

With regard to FDR, he did not literally die in the "arms" of his mistress. However, he did carry on a life long affair with Lucy Mercer, and she was with him when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage; however, they were both fully dressed, so it's not like he died in bed or anything like that. (There was a staff person present when he died as well.) Roosevelt's adult daughter actually helped her Dad carry on the affair with Mercer while he was in the White House, by helping him to arrange meetings with Mercer and also to keep it a secret from Eleanor. Eleanor knew about the Mercer affair before FDR became President (and they nearly divorced over it), but believed mistakenly that he discontinued it. She did not find out that he had maintained the affair while in the White House until after he died, and she found out that Mercer was with him at the time of his death.

In sum, it is probably unlikely that "most" presidents had affairs while actually serving as president, but a significant minority have done so since WWII, and it is certainly possible that other presidents carried on affairs at other times in their lives.

P.S. As to the myth that Lincoln was gay, it is just that, a myth. Lincoln probably had one of the saddest sexual and romantic lives of anyone. He was almost certainly a virgin until he married Mary Todd. She was brilliant and charming, but also an incredible insufferable bitch, who went completely bonkers shortly after Lincoln was elected president. He probably had one of the most miserable marriages in history, but suffered through the whole ordeal without complaint, right up to the day he was killed.

"Ben Franklin clearly slept around a lot, and probably had children out of wedlock". Yep, one was the royalist governor of New Jersey. He was widely known to be Franklin's bastard son. Washington, while rumors persist and the signs are everywhere, probably never can be proven to have slept around because he was most likely sterile. Jefferson, on the other hand was single for a long time after his wife died, although I doubt the Sally Hemmings legend is true. The DNA tests expressly DIS-proved the legend that Jefferson fathered certain of Hemming's older children, but they did prove that a descendant of Jefferson's paternal grandfather did father children with her, when Jefferson was in his 70's I believe.

I forgot to add that no one should feel too terribly sorry for Eleanor Roosevelt. She had affairs with both a woman and a man, and so was not denied an active sex life. This was after she knew about FDR's Lucy Mercer affair, and their marriage was completely sexless by that point.

Go Eleanor!!! Whoo Hoo