Hillary Clinton is ahead in the polls, Bill Clinton is the most popular political figure in the country, and Gallup reports today that Americans overwhelmingly believe the former president would be a helpful asset if his wife wins the presidency.
And yet there’s Chris Matthews, with his unhealthy fixation.
MSNBC host Chris Matthews is obsessed with Bill Clinton’s sex life. Over the last four weeks, Matthews has incessantly raised baseless speculation that President Clinton may have an extramarital affair or engage in inappropriate behavior that would impact Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).
He has called Clinton’s sex life the “800-pound gorilla stalking behind” Hillary Clinton, and suggested it would sink her presidential campaign. Earlier this month, Matthews asked about Bill Clinton’s “personal behavior” 10 separate times in a single interview.
Look, I realize that Ken Starr, impeachment, and the late ’90s were probably great fun for the political media, and guys like Matthews probably saw a nice bump in the ratings. But if media professionals care anything about our discourse at all, they’re really going to have to get a life.
Last summer, the NYT ran a 2,000-word, front-page dissection of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s marriage that contained no news at all, exploring exactly how many weekends the couple spends together in a typical month. Shortly thereafter, the WaPo’s David Broder stated his concerns that reporters didn’t quiz Hillary about her personal relationship with her husband after a speech on energy policy. A few months later, the WaPo questioned whether Bill will be the “biggest issue” in Hillary’s campaign.
I feel like news outlets need to undergo some kind of 12-step program now, before the campaign season really picks up.
And if the media’s response is, “We have no choice; sex sells,” then I have a suggestion.
Take a moment to consider Republicans’ infidelity.
Lurking just over the horizon are liabilities for three Republicans who have topped several national, independent polls for the GOP’s favorite 2008 nominee: Sen. John McCain (affair, divorce), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (affair, divorce, affair, divorce), and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (divorce, affair, nasty divorce). Together, they form the most maritally challenged crop of presidential hopefuls in American political history…. Now, just a few years after infidelity was considered a dealbreaker for a presidential candidate, the party that presents itself as the arbiter of virtue may field an unprecedented two-timing trifecta.
McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, “aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich.” McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife’s family money. In 2000, McCain managed to deflect media questioning about his first marriage with a deft admission of responsibility for its failure. It’s possible that the age of the offense and McCain’s charmed relationship with the press will pull him through again, but Giuliani and Gingrich may face a more difficult challenge. Both conducted well-documented affairs in the last decade–while still in public office.
Giuliani informed his second wife, Donna Hanover, of his intention to seek a separation in a 2000 press conference. The announcement was precipitated by a tabloid frenzy after Giuliani marched with his then-mistress, Judith Nathan, in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, an acknowledgement of infidelity so audacious that Daily News columnist Jim Dwyer compared it with “groping in the window at Macy’s.” In the acrid divorce proceedings that followed, Hanover accused Giuliani of serial adultery, alleging that Nathan was just the latest in a string of mistresses, following an affair the mayor had had with his former communications director.
But the most notorious of them all is undoubtedly Gingrich, who ran for Congress in 1978 on the slogan, “Let Our Family Represent Your Family.” (He was reportedly cheating on his first wife at the time). In 1995, an alleged mistress from that period, Anne Manning, told Vanity Fair’s Gail Sheehy: “We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, ‘I never slept with her.'” Gingrich obtained his first divorce in 1981, after forcing his wife, who had helped put him through graduate school, to haggle over the terms while in the hospital, as she recovered from uterine cancer surgery. In 1999, he was disgraced again, having been caught in an affair with a 33-year-old congressional aide while spearheading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.
We all know about Bill Clinton’s issues from a decade ago, but Bill Clinton isn’t going to be on the ballot. If the media is drooling with prurient interest in the candidates who’ve committed adultery, there are several to choose from.