My Adulterer Is Better Than Your Adulterer By Richard Craig September 5, 1998

I have but one simple request. Let he who is without sin please run for office.

Everywhere you turn, there's another elected official admitting he's had an affair. President Clinton went on TV and confessed his infidelity (sort of), to a chorus of howls from Republicans. But just as Clinton's biggest House nemesis, Rep. Dan Burton, finished his latest round of catcalls, he had to admit that he, too, had found his thrill on Capitol Hill.

Is Washington going through a new sexual revolution? Or is there just a clearance sale on pariahs?

The president's pseudo-confession was bad enough. Rather than showing true remorse, Clinton looked rather annoyed that he had to be bothered with admitting that he'd been lying to the public and his family for the last seven months. Clinton gave the kind of apology most often preceded by "Now, tell your brother you're sorry you pushed him."

The American public sat down to watch his speech in a generous mood -- after all, this is the man who fixed the economy, balanced the budget and got re-elected by a huge margin. But people know the difference between "Forgive me, for I have sinned" and "Ken Starr pushed me first," and they expect more out of Clinton than that. With his legendary political skills, most people thought he would find some way to confess his indiscretions, appeal to Americans' forgiving nature, and emerge relatively unscathed. Of course, they also thought he would have brains enough not to fool around with an intern while in the White House, especially while he was already under investigation for sexual misconduct.

This was manna from heaven for the Republicans, but they were only able to hold the high moral ground for about 15 minutes thanks to Burton. Not only was Burton forced to acknowledge having an affair of his own, but he casually noted that the affair produced a child, who is now in his teens. While Burton claims that his wife has known of the affair for some time, he hasn't been any more upfront than Clinton in owning up to his misdeeds. According to the Indianapolis Star, Burton has never before publicly acknowledged the child as his son, in either campaign literature or legal documents. The Star reports that the boy does not use Burton's last name, and his birth certificate does not list a father.

Burton's frequent attacks on Clinton have centered mostly on Whitewater and fund-raising tactics rather than on his personal life. Still, this revelation makes Burton look bad and makes his accusations against Clinton look questionable. Perhaps worst of all, this situation reawakens long-standing Democratic claims that Burton is at best paranoid, at worst delusional. This is the man who has said that the White House bugs his phone, and who reenacted the death of Vincent Foster in his back yard with a pistol and a watermelon. Images like these are hard enough to shake without a scandal such as this providing fodder for the opposition.

Given the nature of current partisan bickering, people on both sides will probably split hairs in comparing the weights of the men's transgressions. Clinton backers will feel superior because he never fathered an illegitimate child, and Burton's fans will say that at least their man didn't fool around in the White House. There's just one problem with this -- it causes people to try to rationalize varying degrees of indefensible behavior. Unless I'm mistaken, these are things that married men are not supposed to do, period. While this sort of thing is probably best solved privately, in today's media environment a politician who chooses to philander is showing extremely poor judgment. We don't expect our leaders to be perfect these days, but this is ridiculous.

Clinton will undoubtedly suffer more for this than Burton, and he probably should. Burton has a notoriously loyal following in Indiana. Regardless of however much embarrassment he may incur from this, Burton is still a shoo-in for re-election in November. His district is solidly conservative and he is hugely popular there. Clinton, on the other hand, has inflicted a much deeper wound upon himself and his party. In the short term, he has single-handedly ruined the Democrats' chances of retaking either house of Congress in the November elections. In the bigger picture, however, Clinton has irreparably damaged the credibility of his party and the office of the presidency. He has betrayed all the loyalists who stood by his denials, as well as all the citizens who re-elected him in 1996 while his affair was going on. Many people who were energized by Clinton's ideas and beliefs may never trust another presidential candidate.

This is why American politics may today be at its lowest point ever. The American political system once drew the best and brightest people America had to offer, and championed the rights of the many over those of the few. Today, unfortunately, that system comes with a warning label: Trust No One.

©1998 Richard Craig. All rights reserved.

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