If a man can't govern himself, how is he fit to govern others?

Plus, of course, there's the disgusting lack of morals - his wife is dying of cancer and he carries on an affair.

CR

Vous must be kidding me. Nevermind now deliberately forgetting what leaders throughout history have generally been like irrespective of their achievements.

What's the point of getting power if you don't use it to get laid anyway?

They didn't flaunt it in public either, because they knew that their subjects wouldn't approve.

Nowadays we're better equiped to scrutinize our politicians, and our standards have gotten higher besides.

Personally I used to think that a politician's private life is just that, private. I don't think that newspapers ought to sift through their laundry to find out every detail, but if it comes out - so be it. Don't tell me you wouldn't think less of somebody in your own life if you happen to find out that he's cheating on his dying wife.

I'll just point out the the exact same situation happened not too long ago, with a Republican, and it received an equal level of non-coverage from the news media. It never got much past an AP item.

In fact, Newt Gingrich did one better by serving his dying wife with divorce papers while he was off dumping his spunk into a choir girl twenty years his junior. And all of this while leading the charge to impeach a sitting President for lying about sex. The layers of hypocrisy peel back like an onion ...

Anyway, I think the reason there was limited coverage of Gingrich is the same reason there's limited coverage of Edwards -- neither is serving in government right now. An ex-politician gets frisky? Yawn. Whereas Larry Craig was (and is) a serving Senator. And Larry Craig is a never-ending fountain of humor goodness: Not only does he want to drill all of America, he's tired of being yanked around by the nozzle.

-edit-

(From Crazed Rabbit's article in Slate: "That said, Edwards is no longer an elected official and is not running for any office now. Don't expect wall-to-wall coverage.")

Off topic, a little, but Lemur I've got an idea. I want to market T-shirts with the words "Spunk Dumpster" put on it. Do you think I'd make some money? Its catchy don't you think?

Better yet, make sweatpants with "spunk dumpster" on the bottom. It will be the new "juicy."

ANd for the guys, "I want you to be my Spunk Dumpster"...
The new "Juicy"!!! You're the best Lemur. This will be my greatest venture since "Child Molestor Sensitivity Training" at the local Boy Scout den.

You've no idea what you're talking about right ?

Where is the outrage ?
He is seeing some woman who isn't his wife , big deal hold the front page .

Errrr ...some bloke who long denied being a poof and stood 4 square in denial at all earlier allegations of drugs and gay sex gets arrested for doing a George Michael . Now thats a story for the media isn't it , it has bugger all to do with what party he belongs to .

Does it make me cynical that I find the fact that there are actually t-shirts that say "spunk dumpster" more surprising than a politician having an affair?

Nope definately wouldnt say our standards have gotten higher. In fact I'd say they've decreased quite substantially. Becuase of all this wonderful media coverage any person who's lived half a decent life is ran off becuase they don't want their skeletons to tear them apart. Isntead of having good, or even half decent canidates we end up slimy passive aggressive spineless politico's who've lived a life of self denial in hopes of gaining political success. The "scrutiny" has ran off great men like Collen Powell from running, and Condoliza Rice wont even go on as a vp. No our standards have gotten creapy and worse, well thats puting it lightly, they've gone down the s****r and blocked up fermenting in sewer's. We have no standards anymore.

Actually, I've heard some suggestions that he could get the Veep nod from Obama as well. Edwards has a pretty good rep with the blue-collar votes that are seen as Obama's only real weakness.

So does this harm his chances or enhance them?

For a democrat, I would say this man is padding his resume. I mean, in demo circles this guy will be a saint when it finally breaks on the mainstream. Fathering another child with another woman while his wife is being eaten away with cancer? This guy should be the democrat nominee, not Osama Bin Obama Messiah.

But Edwards was a prime Dem Pres contender and was (is?, as Seamus asks) being highly considered for Veep position with Obama. He was in direct running for nomination when the story of this first broke, I believe.

Gingrich has been known of for years so an admission isn't super big news.

And did any news source forbid staffers to talk about Gingrich before his admission?

Funny to see all the lefties shrug it off as "everyone does it..."

CR

How is it not already in the mainstream? It's all over the late night comedy shows.

Our standards have only dropped the last two decades or so. When watched against the last three centuries ago, we've begun expecting more of our politicians' behaviour - though admittedly mostly as a reaction to how easier it has become to dig up dirt and how much the media covers it. The boredom with these details and the realization that a lot of politicians can be hedonistic is a thing of recent times.

Even as late as Kennedy, for example. He was fairly discreet but still it was a public secret that he was a cheating scumbag and he made Clinton look prudish by comparison, yet he got away with it.