Dreaming Of The Days When Sexual Scandal, Bigotry Was A Bad Thing
Wistfully, I think of the good old days when Gary Hart’s presidential aspirations were torpedoed in 1988 when he was photographed with model Donna Rice on a boat named “Monkey Business” during a trip to the Bahamas; Bill Clinton’s legacy was forever tarnished by having sex with that woman; or when Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace from Congress after sending photos of his weiner to women even after he was arrested.
And then there were those situations back in the day when candidates were actually sunk for inappropriate things they said, like when Mitt Romney was running for president against Barack Obama and apologized after he was heard in a video speaking about people who are dependent on the government and will support Obama “unconditionally.”
“And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Romney said.
Yes, Virginia, there was a time when vetting a candidate involved looking at his or her sexual escapades and past impolitic comments and if found, they were usually used to exclude the candidate.
And then came trump with his “shithole countries” and “pussies.” But in the age of trump, we have some refreshing news; Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., was a frontrunner for re-election who had campaigned on his rejection of sexual violence and harassment. Reed resigned his seat and quit the race this month after he was accused of molesting a lobbyist in 2017 when he was supposedly drunk. He said he’s joining Prime Policy Group, a lobbying firm, “to have a greater impact on the country.”
And of course, there was Reed’s fellow legislator, Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo, who gave up as New York governor after numerous allegations of improper sexual activity.
And yet another glimmer of sunshine came with the GOP primary defeat of Charles Herbster, a trump-endorsed candidate for governor of Nebraska who is the target of multiple claims of inappropriate sexual behavior. And Sean Parnell, another trump-backed candidate for the Pennsylvania Senate race, withdrew amid allegations of child and spousal abuse.
But lest we become too giddy, remember that trump endorsed Herbster and Parnell, despite the allegations against them. And always, always keep in mind that trump is a serial sexual abuser who remains hugely popular among his base of deplorables and beyond.
At one time, it was political suicide to get caught using a slur against a group. And anyone who mentioned anything remotely about insurrection would be ridden out on a rail. No more. Today, support for the Jan. 6, 2020, trumpian rioters at the Capitol is normal while calling the 2020 election rigged by voter fraud is a litmus test to get trump’s endorsement. And casting aspersions against the LGBTQ community and Muslims is not only acceptable but will certainly win votes in red states.
For example, Kathy Barnette has the backing of the Club for Growth, an influential Republican organization, and is a leading contender for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. She once called Obama “a horrible gay Muslim” and organized buses to send Trump supporters to the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. In 2015, Barnette said it was alright to discriminate against Muslims and compared rejecting Islam to “… rejecting Hitler’s or Stalin’s worldviews” because “All views are not equal. So we have the right to reject it. And let me just say offhand, I reject how Muslims see the world.”
She said accepting homosexuality would lead to a “barrage to normalize sexual perversion” and “acceptance of incest and pedophilia” and once posted that a transgender person was “deformed” and “demonic.”
And then there is the leading candidate for Pennsylvania governor, Republican Doug Mastriano, who has been described as a far-right, Christian nationalist and dominionist, Islamaphobe who has promoted conspiracy theories including QAnon and has been a leading figure in trump’s sordid attempts to cancel the 2020 president election because of “voter fraud.” Mastriano also was seen on a videotape of the Jan. 6, 2020, capitol attack, watching as another rioter tears a police barricade away and then passing through a breached Capitol Police barricade, contradicting Mastriano’s previous claims that he had not been among the rioters.
For his inappropriate positions, Mastriano has won the unequivocal, holy grail of endorsements from trump.
Sex scandals are as American as apple pie but pre-trump, it wasn’t a very good thing for one’s political futures. Generally, those found to have engaged in illicit activities either denied, apologized or quit.
It would take forever to recount them all but here are a few lesser known examples:
While secretary of state, Alexander Hamilton had an affair with Maria Reynolds while both were married to other people. The affair was publicized in 1797 and Hamilton publicly apologized.
President Thomas Jefferson was publicly accused of fathering at least six children of an enslaved woman, Sally Hemings. There’s no record of Jefferson’s reaction to the claims made by a journalist and since confirmed.
Sen. Richard Johnson, D-Kent., did not deny his relationship with an enslaved woman in1829 but it contributed to his failed Senate re-election bid.
John Henry Eaton, a Democrat and Secretary of War, allegedly had an affair with Margaret O’Neill Timberlake, the wife of John B. Timberlake, which allegedly drove Mr. Timberlake to suicide in what was known as the scandal of the Petticoat Affair.
James Henry Hammond, a representative and later senator from the Nullifier Party of South Carolina, engaged in a homosexual relationship with a college friend, pursued what he called “a little dalliance” with his teenage nieces, and had sexual relationships with enslaved females, including a girl aged 12. The revelations forced him to withdraw from his Senate bid in 1843 but in 1857, he ran again for U.S. Senate and won.
Democrat James Buchanan, a Senator, diplomat, and later president and Democrat William Rufus King of Alabama, who served as vice-president under Franklin Pierce, were the subject of scandalous gossip alleging a homosexual affair in Washington, D.C., for many years.
Philip Barton Key II, the U.S, Attorney for the District of Columbia and son of Francis Scott Key, had a public affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles, the wife of U.S. Congressman and later Civil War Major General Daniel Sickles. Sickles got back at Key when he gunned him down in 1859.
During the 1884 presidential race, Grover Cleveland, a Democrat from New York and eventual winner, news broke that Cleveland had paid child support to the widowed Maria Crofts Halpin for her son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Halpin claimed that Cleveland raped her, leading to her pregnancy, and she also accused him of later institutionalizing her against her will to gain control of their child. Cleveland’s acknowledgement of paternity smoothed out the political fall out, prompting Cleveland’s opponents to adopt the chant, “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?”
Republican George Q. Cannon lost his seat as a Utah Territorial Delegate in 1888 after he was arrested for polygamy and served nearly six months in a federal penitentiary.
Sen. Arthur Brown, R-Utah, and founder of the Utah State Republican Party, was shot dead by his longtime mistress, Anne Maddison Bradley, for having a second mistress.
Sen. David I. Walsh, D-Mass., was accused in 1942 of visiting a male brothel in Brooklyn frequented by Nazi spies.
In 1954, Sen. Styles Bridges, R-N.H., threatened to expose the son of Sen. Lester Hunt, D-Wyo., as a homosexual, unless Hunt resigned from the Senate and give the Republicans a Senate majority. Hunt refused, but did not seek re-election, and later shot himself.
In the 1960s, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a Democrat, allegedly pursued other women while married to his third wife and reportedly tried to molest a flight attendant in his judicial chambers. Attempted impeachment based upon his moral character failed.
Rep. Wilbur Mills, D-Ark., was found intoxicated with stripper Fanne Foxe. He was re-elected, but resigned in 1974 after giving an intoxicated press conference from Foxe’s burlesque house dressing room.
Rep. Robert L. Leggett, D-Calif., admitted in 1976 to fathering two illegitimate children by a Congressional secretary, whom he supported financially. He then had an affair with another woman, who was an aide to Speaker Carl Albert.
Rep. Donald “Buz” Lukens, R-Ohio, was convicted in 1989 of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, and fined $500.
Rep. Jon Hinson, R-Miss., resigned in 1981 after being charged with attempted sodomy for performing oral sex on a male employee of the Library of Congress.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., was reprimanded in 1989 by the House for “fixing” 33 parking tickets for Steve Gobie, a male escort who lived with Frank, a homosexual.
Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., while married to President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson, acknowledged drinking champagne and having a nude massage by Miss Virginia Tai Collins in 1991.
Sen. Robert Packwood, R-Ore., resigned in 1995 after 29 women made claims of sexual harassment, abuse, and assaults. His denials of any wrongdoing were eventually contradicted by his own diaries boasting of his sexual conquests.
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., had an affair while married to his second wife and was the first lawmaker in either chamber to call for President Clinton’s resignation in 1999 due to the Lewinsky scandal. Barr lost a primary challenge less than three years after the impeachment proceedings.
An affair by Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., with a 23-year-old intern Chandra Levy, was exposed after Levy disappeared. Her body was found a year later, and in 2008, an illegal immigrant was charged with her murder, but all charges against the suspect were dropped years later. The murder remains unsolved.
Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., a staunch segregationist, was found in 2003 to have fathered a child, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, with a 16-year-old African American in 1925, who was employed by the Thurmond family.
Rep. Ed Schrock, R-Va., ended his 2004 attempt for a third term in Congress after allegedly being caught on tape soliciting sex with men, despite having aggressively opposed various gay-rights issues in Congress.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., resigned as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee in 2009, after admitting he had an affair with the wife of a close friend, both of whom were working on his campaign. He later resigned his Senate seat.
U.S. District Court Judge Jack Tarpley Camp Jr., of Georgia, resigned in 2010 and was sentenced to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a felon’s possession of a controlled substance, illegally giving a stripper his government-issued laptop, and possession of illegal drugs.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., admitted in 2012 to at least six affairs, including two affairs with his patients and staffers while he was a doctor at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tenn. While running on a “pro-life” platform, DesJarlais coerced his ex-wife into having two abortions, and tried to persuade a mistress, who was his patient, into an abortion as well. He still won re-election and said on a conservative talk radio show that “God has forgiven me” and asked “fellow Christians” and constituents “to consider doing the same.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, current House Minority Leader, was accused of covering up and failing to report sexual abuse of minors by former members of the Ohio State University wrestling team by the team physician. There were multiple victims during the period when Jordan was assistant coach from 1987 to 1995. On Feb. 12, 2020, one of the former wrestlers alleged that Jordan (was) “repeatedly crying and begging him not to corroborate accounts of sexual abuse against the university’s wrestling team doctor” that occurred while Jordan was a coach.
Inappropriate comments in past years usually elicited apologies like the time in 2013 when Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, publicly apologized after he referred to workers employed by his father as “wetbacks.”
In 2011, Texas Republican state Sen. Larry Taylor was criticized after he commented at a hearing regarding an insurance company paying policy, “Don’t nitpick, don’t try to Jew them down.”
In 2001, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., apologized after he used a slur during a broadcast discussion of race relations. About African Americans, he said, “They are much, much better than they’ve ever been in my lifetime,” and that “My old mom told me, ‘Robert, you can’t go to heaven if you hate anybody.’ We practice that. There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I’m going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.”
In 2010, South Carolina Republican state Sen. Jake Knotts referred to Democratic President Barack Obama and South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley as “ragheads.” The backlash against his comments helped elect Haley as governor.
While serving as a Missouri senator, future Democratic President Harry Truman referred to waiters who served at the White House as an “army of coons” in a letter addressed to his daughter. In a letter to his wife in 1939, Truman used the phrase “n — -er picnic day.”
Twelve years before he was elected House majority whip, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., spoke at a conference hosted by the white supremacist group European-American Unity and Rights Organization. Scalise said he was unaware in 2002 when he accepted the invitation that the group was affiliated with racists and neo-Nazi activists.