We have absolutely no interest in the sex lives of celebrities and politicians, and we’ve always thought that marital infidelities are best left to the couple involved and the rest of us should just mind our own business.
The only disagreement that we’ve ever had here on this rule of thumb has been the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton sexual affair. It was the unanimous opinion here that the president’s impeachment was an overreach and a $70 million one at that by the time Kenneth Starr quit churning his billable hours.
It was a split decision on whether President Clinton had done anything wrong. The majority vote here was that it was silly to care about the sexual activities of politicians and the president was no exception. The minority view was that it did matter, not because President Clinton was having sex outside of marriage but because he was having sex with an intern, theoretically an employee of the White House.
…Where You Get The Mail
We mention all this to say that if the revelation of Tennessee Senator Paul Stanley – the latest in a seemingly endless string of outed philanderers whose political careers have been built on images of their families and the rhetoric of family values – had not involved his legislative intern, we’d simply dismiss it as none of our business and it is best left to Senator Stanley and his wife.
The problem is that the first rule of Being the Boss 101 is that you do not have sex with people who work for you. It’s not about being unfaithful to your wife. It’s about opening up your employer – in this case, the State of Tennessee – to possible legal action for sexual harassment.
On that latter point, there appears to be no gray area, and reluctantly, we conclude that Senator Stanley’s behavior with an employee makes this seamy and untenable. It’s just hard to argue with the general feeling by most parents that their 22-year-old daughters should be safe from sexual advances in the halls of government (even if she is a seductress of the first order).
Damage Control
Senator Stanley essentially issued up his mea culpa in his resignation from the coveted chairmanship of the Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee. At this point in these serial events, the emphasis always seems to be on stanching the political bleeding, and apparently, that’s what his resignation was aimed at doing.
It’s confusing, however, as to why he would feel the need to resign a chairmanship if he isn’t resigning as a senator. Perhaps we are being Pollyannish, but we think he should be concentrate on his family, not his politics.
Whether his wife emulates the familiar, “stand by your man” style of Elliott Spitzer’s wife, or the refreshing independence of the wife of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, it could be a major influence in giving this a shorter shelf life as a media priority. It’s tempting to say these days that many of these politicians have more commitment to the Second Amendment than to the Seventh Commandment, but life is always complicated and often messy, so we hesitate to trivialize the most angst-filled episodes in people’s lives.
Compassion Is A Family Value
As for us, we find little to commend in Senator Stanley’s anti-living wage, pro-gun and anti-gay politics, and in the past legislative session, he was a poster child for the worst Legislature in modern history. That said, we vote for the volume to be turned down on all of this.
While Senator Stanley tried clumsily to cast himself as a victim in his first press release, he needs to follow the familiar scandal containment two-step: accept responsibility and ask for forgiveness. Our people are infinitely forgiving and they understand that every one has something in their lives that they’d rather forget.
To his credit, the senator did not toy with the idea of coming across with the extortion payment in hopes of keeping a lid on the blackmail attempt. Instead, he went to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, knowing that consequences would be inevitable and unpredictable.
Senator Stanley prominently displays a photograph of his family on his website, and they cast a striking portrait of perfection. At this point, we should at least be willing to give them space to deal with the imperfection that has intruded into their lives.
