Barbara Walters: I had affair with U.S. senator (additional barf bags required)

CNN ^ | 5/1/2008 | ap

[tobyhill]

NEW YORK (AP) -- After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as "exciting" and "brilliant."

Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press.

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising star in TV news and co-host of NBC's "Today" show, but would soon jump to ABC News, where she has enjoyed unrivaled success. Her affair with Brooke, which never before came to light, had ended before he lost his bid for a third term in 1978.

[Gator113]

Such timing. Had a horse or Mexican donkey been running for president............

[dashing doofus]

That was Lilly van Stupp, Slim..... LMAO....

[tobyhill]

That video is soon to be released.

[Alter Kaker]

I believe it was rumors of this affair that enabled Kerry to knock him off.

Kerry never ran against Brooke. Kerry succeeded Paul Tsongas after beating Ray Shamie, a Republican.

[Alter Kaker]

It may be she just got a bad case of Jungle Fever.

Jungle fever? What the hell is wrong with you? This is 2008, not 1928.

[Palladin]

Bubby Wawa—what a pig!

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Now I’m REALLY not looking forward to the Helen Thomas memoir — is she going to have to tell us everyone SHE slept with? (well it may be a very short list)

I do hope Lazamataz isn't on it.

[stockpirate]

I was wondering what year it was, thanks.

Lighten up, we call it humor in some places.

[philled]

I guess this is news. I didn’t realize Baba Wawa was still alive.

[Palladin]

You mean Nora is carrying Hussein’s luuuuuv chile?

[Alter Kaker]

Lighten up, we call it humor in some places.

Using an obsolete racist epithet to attack interracial sex may be your idea of humor, but I think it's pretty classless.

[tobyhill]

We’ll see.

[Lazamataz]

I was Helen Thomas's willing sex slave for 60 of the past years.

God she's hot.

[Palladin]

“Jungle Fever”, a preference for a black man as a sex partner, is still around and well-documented. Just take a walk through my downtown and see all the fat white sluts wih drugdealer boyfriends.

[Palladin]

Laz, you are just plain insane!

And I mean that in the nicest way.

[Lazamataz]

"Jungle Fever”, a preference for a black man as a sex partner, is still around and well-documented.

If you've seen any porn at all, you'll know why.

[dalereed]

” Something tells me this is not Bawa’s only indiscretion.”

It was common knowledge at ABC that she got her cushie high pay job there on her back.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Barbara Walters: I had affair with U.S. senator

My guess would'a been Sen. Patty Murray.

[untrained skeptic]

Why is she coming out with this now?

I'm probably overly suspicious on this one, but are any of Brooke's or Walter's kids superdelegates?

[okie01]

Liberals have guilt trips.

And they like sleeping with power.

BaBa WaWa is a liberal. She slept with one black, powerful man -- thereby simultaneously assuaging her guilt and fulfilling her desires.

So, yes, she's prone to sleeping with another one.

Did you somehow construe my observation as representing some kind of bigotry?

I'll readily admit to a bias -- against liberals. White ones or black ones.