(ap) - (2) DemocRATS Resign in a Month and the AP sees "DC" problem, not DemocRAT problem...

Analysis: Another sex scandal last thing DC needs

By NANCY BENAC
Associated Press Jul 27, 3:10 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) � There's been risque tickling. Raunchy twittering. Emailed photos. Stolen sex tapes. And more.

(ap) - It's funny, a 2nd DemocRAT in a month Resigns because of Scandal, and the AP goes out of it's way to make it about Washington in general, and not the Party that's been hit twice in a month with Scandal... One Paragraph in and no Party Affiliation yet... Let's see how this plays out, because I Assure you, that when it's been REPUBLICans in the past, the AP leads in the Headline with Party Affiliation and then Repeats it in the body of the Story and makes damned Certain that you know how bad this Hurts the REPUBLICans, not DC... Let's go ahead and find out what the Spin is this time, shall we... - tha malcontent)

Seems like sex scandals snagging Washington politicians are piling up faster than the federal debt.

(Paragraph 2... Still about DC and Politicians in general. - tha malcontent)

Now, in the latest episode of Washington's own unseemly take on "Sex and the City," Rep. David Wu of Oregon is resigning in response to allegations by an 18-year-old woman that she had an "unwanted sexual encounter" with the congressman, who is separated from his wife. Wu denied the charges.

(I can't quite tell which Party "Rep. David Wu" is a member of... Why would the AP Neglect that in this Story?... - tha malcontent)

Last month, it was Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., stepping down after admitting he'd sent lewd photos of himself through Twitter, and lied about it.

(HEY!... There's a "D"... And of course NO "R" would have been allowed to be as Absurdly Obstinate about the Obvious as Weiner was allowed to be by the Deliberately Uninterested AP and it's Children outside the Tabloid News... Weiner could very well be Charged with Crimes, and you won't see mention of that here... Just sexy, sex, sex... - tha malcontent)

There have been two other scandal-related resignations from Congress this year, both of them Republicans - a rare recent example of bipartisanship in this city.

(BOOM!... A DemocRAT Resigns and the AP Story that follows it inks "Republicans" before it inks "Democrats"... If it wasn't so Disturbing, the Bias would be Entertaining... Sometimes I Think that the Liberals in the "Free Press" Honestly Believe they aren't being Biased, when they so clearly are. I Think it's in their Blood and they don't even Realize what they are doing in a lot of these cases. - tha malcontent)

This stew of alleged philandering is the last thing Washington needs when public opinion about elected officials already is "relentlessly negative," to use the words of the Pew Research Center, and hostility toward government is strong.

"It probably confirms people's worst suspicions about the political class," says Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion expert at the American Enterprise Institute. "The public has long associated politics with corruption and banality."

(It's about the "Political Class" when it's 2 DemocRATS in a row... Back when it was the REPUBLICans, it was "how will this hurt the GOP next fall?"... - tha malcontent)

At least House leaders are honing their skills at nudging politicians out the door when the whiff of sexual impropriety starts to swirl into a vortex.

One day after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi requested an Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations about Wu, the seven-term Democrat pledged to resign once the debt-ceiling crisis was resolved.

(FINALLY!... "Democratic"... and then DemocRAT... How many Paragraphs away from where people lost interest in this Story is this now?... And of course it's to Paint Cruella Pelosi as doing the right thing, like REPUBLICan Leaders don't do the same and more... Like Resigning after posting a bare chested pic if you are a Man. - tha malcontent)

Oh, that. The debt crisis.

When talk of philandering plays out against the backdrop of the all-too-real threat of a historic government default, it seems all the more tawdry.

"I'm convinced that if Bill Clinton had been messing around with Monica Lewinsky during an acute economic downturn, things would've turned out very differently," says Eric Dezenhall, a crisis management consultant.

Instead, the economy was booming, and Clinton managed to survive impeachment and emerge in his post-presidential life as an elder statesman.

(Only because the "Free Press" REFUSES to go after it's own... Remember, Newsweak attempted to Hide the Monica Story it had and Drudge made his name breaking it... After that, the Sexual Abuse of an Unpaid Intern his Daughter's Age while he Discussed Troop Deployment in Bosnia with a US Congressman, the Subsequent Felony Perjury and Coverup, were all Dismissed as the President's "Private Sex Life" that the GOP was Obsessed with... But I Digress. - tha malcontent)

While public officials aren't necessarily more likely to cheat than other Americans, politicians often take "10 times longer than the rest of us to figure out that they've got a problem," says Dezenhall. He attributes that to "some sort of megalomania combined with an impulse control problem combined with denial."

Think Anthony Weiner. He spent 10 days denying he'd sent improper tweets and another 10 clinging to his job after he acknowledged he'd done it after all.

(Something the "Free Press" would NOT Afford a REPUBLICan. I Documented the AP's Disinterest in that Story until it was too Absurd to Ignore it any longer. - tha malcontent)

"You're dealing with personalities that believe they are destined to live larger lives than the rest of us," Dezenhall says. "Anything you do in pursuit of that goal is rationalized as a destiny that smaller minds wouldn't understand."

Think John Edwards. The former senator and Democratic presidential candidate completed the sex, lies and videotape trifecta by cheating on his cancer-stricken wife while offering himself on the campaign trail as a devoted family man. Now he's facing charges of misusing campaign dollars to cover up the affair, and there's another lawsuit over a purported sex tape he made with his lover.

(Something I am Certain the AP could have Destroyed Edwards with back then, but since they were Possibly going to Vote for him... Forget it. - tha malcontent)

"I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic," Edwards said in 2008 when he acknowledged the affair - at that point still lying about the fact that he had fathered a child with the other woman.

Think former Rep. Christopher Lee. The New York Republican resigned earlier this year after a gossip website reported that he had sent a shirtless photo of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist. No inner voice talked the married congressman out of that bad idea.

(Seriously... Read that again and see what takes a REPUBLICan down Compared with the Previous Examples of DemocRATS. - tha malcontent)

Think Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. He admitted in June 2009 that he'd had an extramarital affair with a former member of his campaign staff. He didn't resign until this May, in the midst of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation that was looking into steps that he took to cover up the affair.

(Won't end in Criminal Charges like Edwards, but that doesn't matter... - tha malcontent)

"I was blind to how arrogant and self-centered that I had become," Ensign said in his farewell speech.

Then there's Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y. He resigned in 2010 after employees accused him of groping and propositioning male staff members. The congressman acknowledged that he had groped one - but described it as tickling, not sexual behavior.

(That's the 3rd DemocRAT in this Story with Arguably Criminal Behavior going on... Imagine if Massa had an "R" behind his name... Yep, it would be like the Page Scandal that Assisted the DemocRATS in the Takeover of the Congress in 2006... You forgot about that Florida (r)epublican?... Yeah, NEVER Charged with anything and didn't Arguably do anything Wrong either, but hey... It got the AP's Party back in Power, so... - tha malcontent)

In general, Americans appear to be growing less tolerant of extramarital sex: In the early 1970s, about 70 percent of Americans said extramarital sex was always wrong. In recent years, the figure has risen to about 80 percent, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

(Damn... The Country is Moving Conservative?... - tha malcontent)

That's not to say Americans think they're any better behaved than their elected officials.

In a June survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted after the Weiner case exploded in the news, 57 percent of Americans said they thought politicians "just get caught more often because they're under greater scrutiny." Just 19 percent said elected officials have "lower moral standards than ordinary Americans."

Not that that should make anyone feel better.

(Probably not, but I am Certain your Party Appreciates this Wire Story, AP... Excellent Work Deflating, Dismissing and Spreading the Scandal around to Old Dead Scandals of the other Party... Hope you can do this for the next REPUBLICan... Bet you won't though. - tha malcontent)

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Online:

Pew poll on political sex scandals: Most Say Political Sex Scandals Due to Greater Scrutiny, Not Lower Morality | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Nancy Benac has covered politics and government in Washington for three decades.

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Benac can be followed at Nancy Benac (nbenac) on Twitter

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