Reportedly, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that political power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. While apologizing for using the words "Kissinger" and "aphrodisiac" in the same sentence, I suspect that Dr. K knew what he was talking about.
The recent sex scandals involving former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who resigned in disgrace on Thursday; ex-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), lend credence to Kissinger's theory. All three of these high-profile politicians succumbed to temptation by taking advantage of vulnerable women. Weiner e-mailed sexually explicit photos to several young women, Schwarzenegger fathered a love child by a member of his household staff and DSK is charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid in midtown Manhattan.
Weiner, Schwarzenegger and DSK are the most recent examples of powerful men involved in extra-marital affairs that ruined their careers and their reputations. A partial list would include impeached former President Bill Clinton, ex-senators John Edwards, D-N.C., and John Ensign, R-Nev., ex-governors Elliot Spitzer of New York and Mark Sanford of South Carolina, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican presidential contender.
According to the New York Times, Clinton was only the latest of 14 presidents who have faced charges that they were "less than pure when it came to bedroom conduct." In other words, they fooled around on the job (think JFK). One of those 14 womanizers was obscure President Chester A. Arthur, who told a friend that being accused of marital infidelity was "worse than assassination."
Relationships expert Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (yes, that's his real name) has an interesting theory. He wrote that most people think powerful men cheat because "they're looking for sex." But then he added: "No, these men are looking for something else entirely: validation. Men cheat not out of a sense of entitlement, but out of a sense of insecurity. And the bigger they are, the harder they fall, not of arrogance but out of fear and weakness."
Boteach could be right, but I question his analysis in the cases of Schwarzenegger and Strauss-Kahn because both men had a huge sense of entitlement when they were strutting the world stage.
"Ahnold" was already a popular Hollywood movie star when he was elected governor of California, and DSK, who was planning to run for president of France, was the prototypical arrogant international bureaucrat who stayed in $3,000-per-night hotel suites at taxpayer expense. Now he's under house arrest in a New York City luxury apartment.
"We tend to think that politicians should be better and smarter and more skilled, when really they're dumb people like the rest of us," wrote marriage counselor Michele Weiner-Davis. For my part, I saw plenty of extracurricular hanky-panky during my diplomatic career, and well remember the ambassador who lusted after 12-year-old boys (remember Michael Jackson?) and the married congressman who went looking for prostitutes in Latin America.
My unsolicited advice to the rich and powerful: When faced with temptation, keep your pants on.
• Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, is a retired diplomat.