{"id":657,"date":"2011-06-08T21:24:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T01:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=657"},"modified":"2018-03-17T21:27:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T01:27:00","slug":"women-in-politics-have-sex-scandals-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=657","title":{"rendered":"Women in Politics Have Sex Scandals, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Samantha Henig\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>June 8, 2011<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a numbers game. It\u2019s\u00a0a matter of attraction<\/a>. It\u2019s being too busy with \u201cdiapers and bottles and bills and votes and markups<\/a>\u201d to \u201cpossibly think about doing anything else.\u201d There are a number of explanations offered for why men seem to be overrepresented when it comes to sex scandals among politicians or other powerful figures. (The most obvious is they\u2019re overrepresented, period, when it comes to political office and powerful positions.) But while our attention is turned toward Anthony Weiner, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Silvio Berlusconi, John Edwards, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and whoever else is likely to apologize for or deny the next round of photographs and love children and criminal charges, let\u2019s also take a moment to remember nine women in politics who have caused ripples with their sexual exploits.<\/p>\n

Helen Chenoweth<\/strong>, Republican Congresswoman from Idaho
\nHer offense<\/em>: After attacking her Democratic opponent by lumping him in with Bill Clinton, whose behavior in the Monica Lewinsky scandal had \u201cseverely damaged his ability to lead our nation, and the free world,\u201d she admitted to a six-year affair with a married man who later worked for her congressional staff.
\nHer defense<\/em>: \u201cI\u2019ve asked for God\u2019s forgiveness, and I\u2019ve received it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iris Robinson<\/strong>, member of Parliament and wife of the First Minister in Northern Ireland
\nHer offense<\/em>: Having an affair with a man forty years her junior, earning her the nickname \u201cCeltic Cougar.\u201d
\nHer defense<\/em>: She cited \u201cserious bouts of depression<\/a>\u201d and \u201cthe stress and strain of public life\u201d when stepping down from her Parliament post following the scandal.<\/p>\n

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Her offense<\/em>: Practicing and preaching free love\u2014and outing Henry Ward Beecher for practicing, if not preaching, it.
\nHer defense<\/em>: Women should be allowed to do what the men do.<\/p>\n

Aimee Semple McPherson<\/strong>, evangelical minister and political operative
\nHer offense<\/em>: Soon after campaigning for William Jennings Bryan, McPherson, who founded the Foursquare church, disappeared for a month, and, according to witnesses, was spotted in many hotels with Kenneth Ormiston, a married man.
\nHer defense<\/em>: McPherson claims she was drugged, kidnapped, and held for ransom by two people, Steve and Mexicali Rose. And during a grand jury investigation, Ormiston admitted to having an affair, but said it was with \u201cMrs. X,\u201d not McPherson. (The case was eventually dropped.)<\/p>\n

Katherine Bryson<\/strong>, state representative in Utah
\nHer offense<\/em>: She was caught on camera with a lover by a surveillance camera that her husband, Kay, had set up intending, he said, to catch a thief.
\nHer defense<\/em>: Kay abused power by using county employees to install the publicly owned equipment that did her in, Katherine said. A judge disagreed.<\/p>\n

Jacqui Smith<\/strong>, Home Secretary for the U.K.
\nHer offense<\/em>: Claiming the purchase of pornographic films on her parliamentary expenses.
\nHer defense<\/em>: Her husband is the one who bought them; but she still\u00a0resigned from office and said<\/a>\u00a0that she \u201cwas the one who did the wrong thing. For claiming it. For not going through the expense form closely enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catherine the Great<\/strong>, Empress of Russia
\nHer offense<\/em>: Taking many lovers, elevating them to positions of power, and then casting them off, with large sums of money, when she became bored with them.
\nHer defense<\/em>: At least I gave them parting gifts. And the horse thing\u2019s a lie.<\/p>\n

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Her offense<\/em>: Carrying on an affair with former Prime Minister John Major when they were both in Margaret Thatcher\u2019s government.
\nHer defense<\/em>: By the time she revealed the affair, by publishing her diaries, she didn\u2019t really need one; she was out of politics, and Major, who had made family values a central theme in his political career, suffered most of the attacks\u2014aside from a few spectacular blows, including, from Lady Archer: \u201cI am a little surprised, not at Mrs. Currie\u2019s indiscretion but at a temporary lapse in John Major\u2019s taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chu Mei-feng<\/strong>, councilwoman for Taipei City
\nHer offense<\/em>: Being caught on film having sex with her married lover.
\nHer defense<\/em>: It may not work for politics, but it\u00a0sure works for entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photographs via\u00a0Wikimedia<\/a>\u00a0Commons<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Samantha Henig\u00a0\u00a0June 8, 2011 It\u2019s a numbers game. It\u2019s\u00a0a matter of attraction. It\u2019s being too busy with \u201cdiapers and bottles and bills and votes and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-family"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-17_21-25-57.jpg?fit=236%2C364&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-aB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":843,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=843","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":0},"title":"As they back Trump, evangelical leaders face their own sex scandals","author":"Donnie","date":"March 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Sarah Pulliam Bailey\u00a0WASHINGTON POST\u00a0\u00a0MARCH 31, 2018 ASSOCIATED PRESS\/FILE 2006 Frank Page, president and chief executive of the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s executive committee, resigned this week because of an \u2018\u2018inappropriate relationship.\u2019\u2019 WASHINGTON \u2014 As white evangelicals have been some of President Trump\u2019s staunchest defenders, a handful of their leaders find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Family"","block_context":{"text":"The Family","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-31_19-58-58.jpg?fit=825%2C518&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-31_19-58-58.jpg?fit=825%2C518&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-31_19-58-58.jpg?fit=825%2C518&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-31_19-58-58.jpg?fit=825%2C518&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":556,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=556","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":1},"title":"Invisible in any language: Mass. 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