There's no partisan monopoly on sex scandals

My fellow Democrats are having a field day with lurid sex scandals involving a pair of conservative, family values Republicans: Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. But sex scandals are bipartisan and Democrats have been involved in their fair share of sexual shenanigans in recent years.

One of my all-time favorites involved a powerful Arkansas Democrat, Congressman Wilbur Mills, who hooked up with a stripper known as "the Argentine Firecracker" in the mid-1970s. Mills' political career imploded when the half-naked stripper jumped into the Washington Tidal Basin following a night of debauchery (translation: fooling around).

More than 20 years later, Congress impeached another Arkansas Democrat, President Bill Clinton, for playing hanky panky with a young White House intern in the Oval Office. "It was only sex," argued his apologists. I beg to differ; it was much more than that, including lying under oath.

In 1969, a drunken Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) drove off a Chappaquiddick bridge, killing his passenger, young Senate staffer Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy saved himself, fled the scene, and escaped with a slap on the wrist after paying off the Kopechne family. When it comes to sex scandals, money talks. Later, another Massachusetts Democrat, Rep. Barney Frank, evaded prosecution even though his boyfriend was operating a male prostitution ring out of the congressman's Capitol Hill townhouse.

And last but not least, who can forget ex-North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who cheated on his wife while she was dying of cancer? He was my 2008 Hypocrite of the Year, and deservedly so.

Which brings us to today's GOP fun and games. First, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford set off to hike the Appalachian Trail and wound up in bed with his Argentine mistress in Buenos Aires, and our junior senator, John Ensign of Las Vegas, had an affair with the wife of one of his Senate staffers before allegedly paying his paramour's family $96,000 to keep the incident quiet. The FBI is investigating.

Neither Ensign nor Gov. Jim Gibbons, whose wife Dawn accuses him of adultery in a messy divorce action, showed up at the recent state GOP convention, which was no surprise in a party that exalts monogamy and family values. Meanwhile, Sanford praised his mistress as a wonderful woman before saying that he'd try to reconcile with his wife - a totally classless statement.

Bottom line: Neither major party has a monopoly on sex scandals, but they hurt the GOP more because Democrats usually adopt a "boys will be boys" attitude while Republicans like to preach about morality and family values.

• Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.