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.
I agree, in a perfect world.
It just seems that every time it gets this far along with politicians and preachers it turns out to be true. And the denials flow from their lips unless there is concrete proof and they are trapped.
The celebrity stars just seem to expect it from each other.
The Carly moment was what convinced me he is hiding something. How do you specifically say you are going to answer the question clearly ... and then not say "yes" or "no" to a yes or no question?
Well that’s what I’m saying. If you can’t stand up and say you have not had improper relations with women then maybe you have. Innocent people usually are outraged at these kinds of rumors and innuendo. Cruz just deflects and tries to blame Trump. His wife is nowhere to be found at these pressers. She sure isn’t coming forward to defend him.
I would already have been in front of the cameras assuring everyone that Mr. GG2 does not cheat on me.
You know fwdude, that was what I was thinking too!
They are and we don’t have to respond. Trump’s doing it all by himself.
Sarcasm?
The first shoe hasn't even dropped.
Agreed, they are delusional. Pretend that he was born here and no scandal came out, he is still unelectable. There is a huge problem with losing The South, Ohio, and Florida.
FR is not representative of the country or republicans. We are likely less than 10% of the party. We need cross over votes are will lose forever.
And we will shrink to 5% if this election is not won and immigration stemmed. The numbers tell the story. He would lose very badly.
That it is, and I regret that only the tip of the iceberg is out there. I just keep on digging and trying to piece things together, what I can, and try to discern the secular truth(s) as best I can.
I hear you.
the only reason it’s a story is because Cruz has set himself up as a moral compass.
I don’t like either of our two frontrunners... but Cruz’s preacher like holy roller demeanor completely turns me off. So does Trumps bravado and language... but at least he’s not trying to pretend to be someone else.
They never promoted themselves as The Candidate Without Sin.
Their supporters never yelled that they could NEVER support a certain other candidate because of his "sexual immorality".
Wow. What a great post! I had no idea. Thanks.
Thank you.
I asked another FR yesterday when she left Cruz and that article was posted. And then I read the comment and a realized the Team Cruz has known the story’s out there for a long time.
All I get is accusatory comments from some.
Leftist sites have no plan to help conservatives, just because you think something hurts the other candidate doesn't mean you should post these totalitarian *sshole sites.
Just stop.
“All I get is accusatory comments from some.”
That’s all you deserve.
You could well be right. Here's the deal: If the Cruz and his campaign seemed otherwise clean and straight, and the NE story were the only thing going against it, then I would probably discount the story.
But as another poster said here yesterday, there's way too much smoke coming from the campaign for there to be no fire. It seems like every day, we're treated to some new sign of dishonesty, slime, etc. And as for Ted's "non-denial" denial, Judge Judy would no doubt eat him alive on that. After all, she said she knew right away that Clinton was lying about Lewinsky.
In a nutshell, the NE story alone is not enough to cast serious doubt on the Cruz campaign. But taken with the laundry list of everything else, I think you'd have to be as dumb as Jessica Simpson not to see through it all. ;)
Yeh he definitely looks shaky.
| Yes, former Cruz campaign manager, Amanda Carpenter, and political commentator on CNN is now doing her best to take Trump down with her blacklist. Plus Levin's new girlfriend, who works in the Cruz campaign, is probably eager to promote her candidate to the former "Great One." We could go on and on. It's really a function of the network you've created for yourself. And it's one of the reasons Trump is doing so well. Business leaders, celebrities, sports figures, religious leaders, and even politicians are supporting the Trump campaign. And I suspect that once Trump seals the nomination, a number of celebrities will come forward to support him. The celebrity endorsements will probably be 20 times the number that Mittens had in 2012. Trump is as much of a household name as Clinton. And name recognition is a big deal in the general election. Another indicator of network strength is that Trump's twitter followers are now 7.4 million strong. Cruz Twitter followers have just passed 1 million now. Of course, Trump has been building his network for 30 years. Cruz's network is going on about 4 years. Cruz is like the inventor of a new conservative mousetrap (policies) but is crying for distribution. Trump not only invents new conservative mousetraps, he's got a vast network to sell it to. And his brand is strong enough to withstand hundreds of millions of dollars of Donor negative advertising. Amazing what this guy of great competence and leadership ability is going to do for our country. |
The only difference is Trump was willing to tell all. I would like it better if Trump would denounce his past sexual exploits and maybe go into how the sexual liberation movement of the 60s was toxic for our culture. I would say it was that movement that created the women liberation culture which did have some extreme elements and are part of the Clinton grass roots effort now.
Trump has lots of cleanup stuff he is not used to getting into. Give him time. I am sure his standards are noble as he has matured to a grandpa.
What is important to understand, is the Trump team are not actively exploiting the Cuban Mistresses scandal as far as I know. We should not assume they are. Maybe friends of Trump are in the mistress mining mission, but I don’t think Trump is encouraging it. It would be better if Trump won the nomination fair and square without the usual personal scandal, like what happened to Herman Cain, to do it for him.
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