Dana Perrino (who used to mouth for president Bush) had something interesting to say about the lesson in the Sanford saga (not the Appalachian trail, after all, but the trail of tears):
Commenting on Gov. Mark Sanford's (R-SC) extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino writes in the National Review: "If the constant stream of these confessions by unfaithful husbands is any guide, we'll be treated to more and more of these stories." She then suggests an interesting solution:
While I am not able to explain, I do think I know the answer to all of this: Elect more women. No woman I know has the time for such trysts, nor do I know any who say the desire one. They're too busy trying to keep all the plates spinning at home, at work, and at the gym to make sure none fall and break.
Do click on the link to see what Grover (The Bathtub) Norquist has to add to this. You'll get a kick out of it.
I should grab Perrino's argument and run with it. Women elected everywhere! A female Pope coming soon! Yippee!
Except that there's an adding-up problem in all that, because Governor Sanford had an affair with a woman, and so did Senator Ensign. Unless we only focus on gay affairs we have to have a woman in the picture, too, and not only as the wife who usually stands by her man at the confession.
Perrino argues that the gendered division of labor leaves powerful women with too little time and energy to run around looking for juicy young hunks...
Where was I? Oh. The hunks. Well, it might actually be true, for some women. I mean being too busy with the multiple roles they have to juggle to have ever gotten to a position of power.
But I think something else shouldn't be ignored here, and that is the tradition of the locker rooms and the wider society, too: Men need a bit on the side, nudge, nudge, and did you see those tits walking by? The wife always nags etc.. Add to that the evo-psycho arguments about how men are hard-wired to have sex with many, many women and women are hard-wired to have sex with only one man (note the summing up problem again), and you get a different explanation:
Male infidelity, especially if it is of short duration, is not associated with the same societal punishment as female sleeping-around is. So men who become more and more powerful might find it easier to think that their affairs will be ignored and semi-approved.
What I don't understand is why they don't worry more about what happens when they get caught.