THE TWO-TIMING DOUBLE STANDARD. We now have three Republican presidential candidates or potential candidates -- John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich -- who have admitted to cheating on one or more of their wives. (OK, what Rudy admits to is a little complicated. He was carrying on with his third wife when he was still married to his second wife, but he claims that because of recent prostate surgery he was impotent at the time, so their affair could not be consummated. As though that matters.) But here's my question. Imagine that a woman candidate for president admitted that she had cheated on a previous husband, or her current husband. I'm not talking about Hillary Clinton here, just any future female candidate. How many nanoseconds would she last in the race before being forced to pull out? We have plenty of examples of men who were publicly revealed to have committed adultery and managed to salvage their careers. Is there any female politician who has done so? None that I can think of.
--Paul Waldman
