As it turns out, real life as always, trumps fiction.
This entry was a comment from a reader. The full link is at the end. But I think its message merits a blog post. TheB writes:
“I’m amazed that I was able to access all of the tawdry tabloid details of l’affaire Edwards in of all scandal sheets, the New York Times.
And my sadness isn’t about John and Elizabeth; let’s face it, they’re wealthy and money makes up for a lot of shortcomings. At worse, they’ll co-exist in their 28,000 square foot palace.
No, the sadness should be over the alleged father of the mistress’ child, Edwards’ former campaign aide, married with three kids, who sold his house to move into rented quarters, and then, at the expense of Edwards’ well heeled friends, moved across the country to a rental in California the lease of which is about to expire.
The Times failed to report how he’s made a living since leaving the campaign. The mistress in question is an emotionally distraught person who knows at least now, that she was never to be the future Mrs. E.. That she initially shared the California rental with the aide and his family would invite titillating speculation but I suspect the truth is far more prosaic – a matter of economics.
Rabbi Boteach’s writes as a spiritual leader, someone who sets the bar for what is morally correct, not for us to judge others but as a matter of how we should conduct our lives. And for politicians he sets a debatably high standard of behavior.
I agree with him that the time taken to have, to use your words, ‘hot sex’ with a person other than your spouse, is time taken away from family. But what will never appear on the cover of the National Enquirer or even in All The News That’s Fit To Print is that for aspiring politicians the real mistress is, as Boteach alludes, the electorate and once elected a never ending line of people who want a piece of your time. It’s clear where infidelity stands in the moral universe.
Ambition involves murkier ground, and a question of whether you can live up to one ideal, that of devoted family man or woman and mother, the work ethic which promises at least in theory, position, riches and the admiration of the public.
Possessed of high self esteem and moral compass, can a politician balance the two?
Copyright TheB 2008 — for full story, please go to: Cheating, Chemo, Commitment (And Mr. B, it is true I do not own a TV — but I do find a comfortable spot to view Boston Legal each week and as for Sex in the City — reruns in the gym, which I clearly do not visit often enough.) / R