Herman Cain's lawyer, on the claim that the candidate had a 13-year-affair:
This appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door.
Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media."
I beg to differ. Here is what I wrote in an editorial more than 13 years ago about a certain president and a certain intern (sorry, no link available, but it was on Jan. 27, 1998, if you want to dig it up):
The lesson we should learn is that people do not have private lives and public lives. They just have lives, and what they will do in one aspect of those lives, they will do in the others. If they are willing to lie and cheat and take advantage of others in ``private,'' they will do so in public as well.
A person's character is not something that can be donned and discarded like a suit of clothes. It is with them always and determines what they are willing to do and not do.
The same thing applies to Cain. If this allegation is true, Cain's activity and Clinton's share a common trait: breathtaking recklessness, a trait that should make us nervous in a president.
Comments
Yeah, we should have known that Clinton would saddle us with eight years of peace and prosperity. And that budget surplus was such a bother, thank goodness Dubya got rid of pronto.
The average marriage lasts something like 7 years, and yet this relationship lasted 13 years. I'd argue that it was a second marriage, rather than an "affair".
His wife obviously would knew about it, and yet she didn't divorce him. That doesn't sound like he was particularly reckless. In fact, it sounds like he's a master at diplomacy.
Mr. Pennypacker for President? Cain has shortcomings when it comes to the Oval Office, but I don't see this relationship as being one of them.
Your archives only go back to July 2005. Are you sure you're not just making this up?
The public archives go back only so far. Our internal electronic library goes back further. You can check my cite out in the ACPL's collection if you want.