CNBC's John Harwood, US senator in alleged marriage scandal

Examiner ^ | 3/6/10 | Cherie Saunders

[Dr. Scarpetta]

The reporter who was interviewing President Obama when he famously swatted a fly is suddenly the buzz of DC, thanks to a New York Post gossip item about his marriage.

According to unnamed "spies" for Page Six, CNBC Washington correspondent and New York Times writer John Harwood has split from his wife Frankie Blackburn, and it's all because of an alleged romance with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)

The Post's March 5 column quotes anonymous "well placed sources" who claim Harwood managed to keep the sordid details out of one DC paper "by sobbing to a reporter until he agreed to kill the story."

A Cantwell spokesman had no comment about the rumor. As for Harwood, he reportedly told Page Six: "I don't feel comfortable talking about my family life." But, the sobbing part "is absolutely not true."

Among the men SeattleWeekly.com lists in the senator's dating history: lobbyist Ron Dotzauer, ESPN anchor Charlie Steiner, former New Jersey senator Robert Toricelli and lawyer Jim Johanson.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Thanks for the link.

Robert "The Torch" Toricelli dated Maria Cantwell in D.C.

[nutmeg]

Have you seen this?

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Most women won't screw around on a guy man enough to keep her.

Interesting sub-thread you have going. Talking about 'being a man' and 'what a man should have done'. A 'man' doesn't mess around with another guys wife, nor does a 'man' mess around on his own wife. Period. End-of-sentence. Far too much of this going on these days, even within the church. An very telling 'entitlement mentality' that crosses political boundaries...

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I can’t find a picture that I am 100% positive is Mrs. Harwood.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

“Aided by the Dotcom bubble, Cantwell’s earnings during this period were significant, with some estimates of her wealth at the time reaching $40 million.

But that largesse has been significantly diminished since the Internet bubble burst around the time of Cantwell’s first Senate campaign in 2000.

After narrowly winning a costly election that ended in a recount, Cantwell returned to the nation’s capital as a senator.”
http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Maria_Cantwell

[Dr. Scarpetta]

The Democrats and media are in bed together. Literally.

More than we will ever know...

[Buckeye McFrog]

actually for whatever reason, any guys I’ve known who were cheating on their wives were doing so with women who were not in any way as attractive as the ones they were married to.

[wbarmy]

This really doesn't say much for you, does it. This sounds like you are trying to blame him for your lack of zipper control, and hers.

Why didn't you “Cowboy Up” and stop doing her? Even the guy in the country song “Lucille” had enough of a conscious that he couldn't do Lucille once he saw the husband.

What a shmuck!

[Bad Jack Bauer]

Interesting sub-thread you have going. Talking about 'being a man' and 'what a man should have done'. A 'man' doesn't mess around with another guys wife, nor does a 'man' mess around on his own wife. Period.

Wooing and marrying a woman is not the endall. A guy has to be worthy of keeping her and she is the one who decides if a man is worthy of her in the long run or not. Rare is the man who loses his woman because he is not enough of a wuss.

[AppyPappy]

You felt contempt and disdain for him and you were nailing his wife? I can understand her feeling contempt for her husband. She was an adulterous skank.

[Bad Jack Bauer]

Even the guy in the country song “Lucille” had enough of a conscious that he couldn't do Lucille once he saw the husband.

In the song the husband could not make a good enough arguement with just his own merits, he had to bring up his kids and the "crops in the field." Without his kids and farm on the line the other man would have not hesitated to have Lucille warming his bed.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Years ago I had an affair with a young married woman. Her husband found out and confronted me. I would have completely understood if he had taken a swing at me and in fact I would have even had some respect for him if he had. Instead he came and started sobbing about how much he loved her and pleading for me to stop seeing her. Did not issue so much as an “or else.” I cannot put into words into how much contempt and disdain that made me feel for him.

Don't you have regrets now that you're older and.......... hopefully wiser?

[Bad Jack Bauer]

You felt contempt and disdain for him and you were nailing his wife? I can understand her feeling contempt for her husband. She was an adulterous skank.

The contempt I felt for him was because of the way he handled it. You don't grovel and wail at the feet of a guy doing your wife and expect him to feel anything else. I had my ex cheat on me and my confrontation with her lover was a bit different. I wrapped a full can of Dr. Pepper around his head then the soles of my Tony Llamas went into his ribs. No crying. No grovelling.

[kcvl]

Ron Dotzauer

Their complicated relationship began in 1985, when Cantwell, then 23-years-old, was the first employee in the 37-year-old Dotzauer’s consulting firm. They dated, “had a sexual encounter” a week before he was to get married to another woman (thus confirming her status as “the other” in Dotzauer’s divorce papers) and continued their political partnership, with him acting as an adviser in every one of her campaigns. (He was her campaign manager in her successful bid to unseat three-term incumbent Slade Gorton in 2000).

Jim Johanson

Currently a lawyer and, at one time, a candidate for Snohomish County Superior Court, Johanson and Cantwell dated during her first Senate run in 2000. He also succeeded her as state rep when she bumped up to the U.S. House in the early ‘90s.

[Bad Jack Bauer]

Don't you have regrets now that you're older and.......... hopefully wiser?

I do have some regrets about the whole thing. Even though she has been a good wife for years I do regret being one of the reasons her reputation was so smeared. I even regret her husband losing such a beauty in the end. But I still find the fact that a man would seek out his wife's lover only to plead and grovel disgusting though. To this day I wish he had swung at me. Punched me. Done SOMETHING. It was his wife I was doing and he would have been well within his rights.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

You committed adultery with the guys wife, and then expected him to treat you ‘like a man’? or, at least your definition of what a ‘man’ would do? As a society, we need to rediscover what it means to ‘be a man’.

[AppyPappy]

Heh. It sounds to me that you should have put those Poser Llamas into your own ribs.

[Bad Jack Bauer]

You committed adultery with the guys wife, and then expected him to treat you ‘like a man’? or, at least your definition of what a ‘man’ would do? As a society, we need to rediscover what it means to ‘be a man’.

It was not how I wanted to be treated it was how I believed he should have acted. The way I see it, the only reason to confront a wife's lover is to set things aright. If the guy who has had your wife naked in his arms has already disrespected you by doing so how is grovelling going to elevate his opinion of you. I found it somewhat insulting to be subjected to his tears and pleading.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Thank you for your amazing honesty and transparency on this very tough issue. I noticed a couple others questioning your comments, your choices. Tough. Since this issue has hit far-too-close-too-home with (probably) too many of us, it can be a hot-button issue.

Again, thanks for being upfront about the emotions and actions in one of the most personal issues for anyone to deal with - the failure/disintegration of their marriage.

[dogcaller]

Harwood is a number 1 turd polisher for the Poseur in Chief...on CNBC he makes the loosest ones shine like gold.