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Why Ted Cruz’s Sex Life Matters: Toxic “Family Values” Charade Deserves Continued Scrutiny
Salon ^ | MAR 30, 2016 AST | NICO LANG

Posted on 03/31/2016 2:34:53 PM PDT by drewh

When is an affair just an affair? And when is someone’s private sex public business? Those are the questions of the moment following two sets of high-profile allegations involving Republican politicians engaging in extramarital relations. Last week, the National Enquirer alleged that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz had been “caught cheating” with five mistresses, choosing not to identify the women by name. Earlier in the week, a story broke that Robert Bentley, Alabama’s virulently anti-gay governor, was having an affair with Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his married chief of staff. As Neal Broverman reports for the Advocate, rumors of their affair had been circulating in Washington for years. Both deny the allegations.

Many believe that what takes happens in the bedrooms between consensual adults should stay there, even when it’s politicians whose policies we disagree with. My colleague, Mary Elizabeth Williams, argued that this is hardly the worst misdeed Cruz has ever committed; however, in our extremely sex negative culture, it may be the one that ends his White House run. “[O]f all the reasons that Cruz shouldn’t be president, is an accusation that he slept with other women really the one he ought to go down for?” Williams asks. She astutely notes that—given the possibility that the report was leaked by a Trump staffer—the story is “intriguingly timed, to say the least.”

Should it prove legitimate, inquiry about Ted Cruz’s sex life is more than just “gossip”—as Politico’s Jack Shafer likewise suggested. Cruz’s alleged affairs are worthy of inquiry for the same reason that it’s news when closeted Republicans like Larry Craig foot-tap for sex in an airport bathroom or Randy Boehning is caught on a gay hookup app: Their lies hurt people. Their duplicity, often cloaked political rhetoric, profoundly affects the populations against whose interests they consistently voted, even while engaging in the exact behavior they deemed despicable.

Exposing the hypocrisy of legislators not only makes our political system more honest—it can actually change behavior. After Boehning was outed by Dustin Smith last year, following a chat between the two men online, the North Dakota politician actually told reporters that the leak was a relief: “The 1,000-pound gorilla has been lifted.” To hold politicians accountable for their infidelities is to hold them to the same standard that they do millions of Americans across the country.

There are a number of reasons Ted Cruz’s sex life matters. Aside from his platform, reports indicate that a Super PAC associated with the candidate’s campaign donated $500,000 to former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina last July. Why would a pro-Cruz PAC give money to the competition? Media sources have suggested that the reason for the contribution may have been that Cruz was allegedly having an affair with a staffer on Fiorina’s failed presidential campaign. If Cruz coordinated with his PAC to bribe Fiorina’s camp with what amounts to “hush money,” that’s not only sleazy. That could amount to a federal crime. A GOP operative was sentenced to two years in prison last year for breaking campaign finance laws, which stipulate that candidates and their political action committees cannot communicate.


TOPICS: Cheese, Moose, Sister
KEYWORDS: cruz; familyvalues; hypocritecruz; scandals
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1 posted on 03/31/2016 2:34:53 PM PDT by drewh
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To: drewh
When the Cruz hater have to post bilge from Salon to try to make their point, you know they are getting desperate.
2 posted on 03/31/2016 2:36:21 PM PDT by fwdude
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To: fwdude

Word.


3 posted on 03/31/2016 2:37:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: drewh

Yes, because Salon has the best interests of GOP voters in mind


4 posted on 03/31/2016 2:37:39 PM PDT by SteveinSATX (C'mon Cruz, Trump or Carson ...baby needs a new pair of shoes!)
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To: drewh

I can’t remember this much concern over the sex lives, and extra marital affairs of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, TED Kennedy. Chris Dodd, Barney Frank,.......


5 posted on 03/31/2016 2:38:09 PM PDT by eyeamok
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To: drewh

Would this not also apply to the ‘charade’ that is the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton?


6 posted on 03/31/2016 2:38:34 PM PDT by fhayek
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To: fwdude

Its just a matter of time, with all of the tabloid for pay news sources out there, the Cruz mistresses are coming like Tiger Woods...and getting paid!


7 posted on 03/31/2016 2:38:58 PM PDT by drewh
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To: SteveinSATX

I agree, but after months of Cruzlims and Trumpbots submitting lib sources when it suits their candidate, I’ve given up complaining about it. All I can do is not do it myself, and in that I have been successful!


8 posted on 03/31/2016 2:39:46 PM PDT by 20yearsofinternet (Border: Close it. Illegals: Deport. Muslims: Ban 'em. Economy: Liberate it. PC: Kill it. Trump 2016)
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To: drewh

This is something we need Huckabee to handle. He’s never like Ted anyway, and would certainly ‘frown upon’ on reports from last week.


9 posted on 03/31/2016 2:40:22 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: drewh

you quote from Salon for BARF ALERTS or SATIRE.

Not to back an argument.


10 posted on 03/31/2016 2:41:35 PM PDT by dp0622
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To: drewh

“When is an affair just an affair? And when is someone’s private sex public business?”

Basically, Salon’s answer is “When they’re a Democrat, it’s just an affair, when they’re a Republican, it’s public business”.

I didn’t even read the article, but I would bet money that is what their conclusion boils down to.


11 posted on 03/31/2016 2:41:55 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: drewh

I am sitting with frustration wondering when the next foot will drop on the Cuban Mistresses scandal. I thought that this week it would be a tsunami rolling through the Cruz campaign, permanently swamping it in hypocrisy.

Has anyone seen anything new on this case?


12 posted on 03/31/2016 2:41:59 PM PDT by jonrick46 (The Left has a mental disorder: A totalitarian mindset..)
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To: drewh

The old double standard is still at play here.

When it’s a liberal politician who is caught with his pants down, then oh well. It’s nobody’s business.

But when it’s a conservative? What a loser hypocrite, right?

But the truth is - democrats are expected to be liars and cheaters. Conservatives are expected to adhere to the higher standard.


13 posted on 03/31/2016 2:42:14 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility.)
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To: jonrick46

Perhaps it really is a giant nothing burger.


14 posted on 03/31/2016 2:43:13 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility.)
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To: drewh

“When is an affair just an affair?”

When it’s a Democrat. STFU Saul Alinsky


15 posted on 03/31/2016 2:43:51 PM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: drewh

As soon as Ted derails Trump on the 1,237 delegates, Cruz is going to be destroyed. It will leave Cruz “toxic” at the convention.


16 posted on 03/31/2016 2:44:40 PM PDT by niki
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To: drewh

I really don’t know how much the sex thing is going to matter but, as a Trump supporter, I don’t put much stock in what Salon has to say.


17 posted on 03/31/2016 2:44:43 PM PDT by teletech
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To: drewh

This again. It amazes me that people believe the stories in the National Enquirer.

The National Enquirer told us that “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge in Patient’s Brain! (October 7, 2015). They also informed us that “Homewrecker Carly Fiorina Lied About Druggie Daughter” (Sept. 23, 2015).

And there’s this: “…Trump and Enquirer CEO David Pecker have been friends for years. “They’re very close,” said a source close to the Enquirer.” I’m not saying that Trump got these stories written, but I’m sure that the CEO is doing his part to help his friend Donald Trump.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/trumps-alliance-with-the-national-enquirer.html


18 posted on 03/31/2016 2:45:02 PM PDT by beejaa
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To: beejaa
It amazes me that people believe the stories in the National Enquirer.

Weren't they the people who said at the beginning of October that Hillary Clinton had only six months to live?

Well, now it's the end of march. Time! *click*

19 posted on 03/31/2016 2:48:57 PM PDT by RansomOttawa (tm)
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To: drewh

Liberals know who the liberal in the race is and will print any thing to destroy his opponent.


20 posted on 03/31/2016 2:49:55 PM PDT by traderrob6 (SEE)
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