Sex and politics
March 11, 2008 at 11:06 am by Wayne GarciaNew York Gov. Elliot Spitzer is only the latest in a long line of politicians undone by their sexual urges (or demons), including many in Tampa Bay. My former political partner Mary Repper once described it to me as a “rich history of lust in politics.” Here’s a partial list of the juiciest stories of the bunch:
- Gary Hart was busted by two enterprising Miami Herald reporters in May 1987 during his presidential primary campaign after the reporters staked out his D.C. apartment and observed Donna Rice leaving one evening. It didn’t help that he had dared the media to put to rest rumors of his marital infidelity by saying, “”Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.”
(for the serious journalism junkies out there, here is in the inside account by the Herald of how it got the story, in part 1 and part 2.) - Circuit Judge Gasper Ficarrotta sees his judicial career in Tampa come to an end after it is discovered that he was having an ongoing affair with one of his bailiffs — in his own chambers. They broke up and bailiff Tara Pisano (at the urging of her attorney) wrote a journal about the affair, which later become public during a courthouse corruption probe: “He used his office like it was his private apartment. He had a couch, a blanket, another blanket that folded into a pillow, two small pillows, a radio boom box, many candles, a TV/VCR combo, a microwave, a small refrigerator, a coffee maker, eating utensils, snacks, cold drinks, beer, wine, piña colada, margarita mix, all the comforts of a home. He wanted to have sex on his couch, in the dark, in the light, with candles burning, in his desk chair, in his hearing room, in his closet, on the floor, sitting, standing…. The sexual encounters in his judicial office were countless.”
- Pinellas Circuit Judge Charles Cope was busted in California in 2001, trying to break into a hotel room to hook up with a woman he met while at a judicial conference. The details of his two days of public intoxication and damned-near stalking of the woman and her mother can be found in the Supreme Court of Florida’s condemnation of his actions (download .pdf here.)
Bill Clinton. Wilbur Mills. Jim McGreevey. Larry Craig. Mark Foley. There’s so many more that even the unlimited space of the Internet prohibits listing them all.
Who’s your favorite? And is wanting sex really so bad, or is it the way they wanted sex?
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March 11th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I think it’s the method not the sex.
Anyway you slice it, what Spitzer did was reprehensible. Not the hookers, per se, but putting his wife’s health in danger, and hooking up with hookers while also jailing them. And, I hate to say it, but some of the talk radio people are making a good point today: What if some criminal element found out about Mr. Spitzer’s little trysts and tried to blackmail him? That could put New Yorkers in danger.