Who knew that seeming double-centenerian Pete Domenici was such a player? None of us, it turns out, until the former longtime Senator of New Mexico recently admitted to an extra-marital affair with a colleague's [Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada] daughter, which produced a now-thirty-something son.

Domenici is certainly not the first politician to suffer from Strom Thurmond Disease. You may remember the late Senator Thurmond, he of the presidential campaign in 1948 based on the segregation of the races - something he couldn't personally accomplish with the hired help in his own household (let's call it an Early Schwarzenegger). Just two weeks ago, at the age of 87, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, his bi-racial child who could not acknowledge her father publicly until his death in 2003, passed away herself. Just another sad story of conservative hypocrisy, and in Thurmond's case, one of many dalliances with women not his wife for the "family values"-spouting, Lost-Cause romantic.

This is not to say this kind of thing doesn't happen on the Democratic/liberal side. (I have two words for you. John and Edwards.) Yet, the difference is that like most Republicans, Domenici was all too concerned what was going on in our private lives if we were gay, a woman, or a President being impeached in the 1990s over an affair. He was a moral exemplar, you see, who was so pristine and pure you'd think he brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain. He could deign to lecture us all, including then President Bill Clinton.

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Clearly Newt Gingrich has been preparing and rehearsing endlessly for this question,

“You adamantly oppose gay rights… but you’ve also been married three times and admitted to having an affair with your current wife while you were still married to your second. As a successful politician who’s considering running for president, who would set the bar for moral conduct and be the voice of the American people, how do you reconcile this hypocritical interpretation of the religious values that you so vigorously defend?”

This question was asked, eloquently and with "due respect," by a college student, Isabel Friedman, who is President of the College Democrats at The University of Pennsylvania.

I assume she framed the question carefully so as not to give Newt ammunition against her. For instance, she did not bring up that this extramarital affair with now-wife Callista Gingrich lasted over six years, and overlapped with the time he was pushing for the impeachment of Bill Clinton with a lot of pro-family values talk. She did not bring up a host of other skeletons in the Gingrich closet, or the fact that he resigned his office as House Speaker on ethics grounds. No one in the mainstream media EVER brings THAT up.

Newt's answer, nevertheless, is extremely rehearsed.

“I’ve had a life which, on occasion, has had problems. I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that’s their primary concern. If the primary concern of the American people is my past, my candidacy would be irrelevant, if the primary concern of the American people is the future . . . that’s a debate I’ll be happy to have.”

On the other hand, "The American People" can't decide about the personal life of a candidate if David Gregory continues to have Newt on his show and never brings it up. And really, we're all to the point with Gingrich (and his blatant and not occasional hypocrisy about sex) that his permanent seat on Meet the Gregory (h/t Daily Show) says more about David Gregory than it does about Newt Gingrich, the end.

Update: Michael Duvall has resigned. h/t commenter vorhese.

I've said for years that most politicians are in bed with lobbyists, but in the case of California Republican Michael Duvall, he's actually getting his freak on with one. Duvall gets the Jesse Jackson treatment, getting caught with an open microphone, bragging about making love and spanking his much younger mistress:

"And we had made love Wednesday. A lot."

"So I am getting into spanking her...yeah, I like it."

"I like spanking her. She goes, I know you like spanking me."

This bit of gotcha journalism wouldn't interest me much, but for the fact that Duvall considers himself to be one of those family values Republicans -- who just happens to be having kinky sex outside of his marriage.

Take a look at this hilarious bit of Republican erotica from Andy Cobb -- "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Resigning." Governor Mark Sanford truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Open thread below....

Ever since John McCain apparently ran out of 'get out of gaffe free' cards and was actually held to account for having more homes than he could keep track of, it has this blogger wondering if the traditional media might finally be ready to fairly report the facts and not the myths about our candidates. If so, CNN's dual "Revealed" episodes on both candidates the other night was a fair start in that direction. Besides actually asking McCain about his role in the Keating 5 scandal, they also confronted him about his multiple extramarital affairs. Watch it:

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John Cole ties the affair, McCain's housing crisis, and what has been the media's Orwellian framing of elitism in this campaign all together and sums it up neatly:

Just so we are clear- visiting your grandmother while vacationing in Hawaii, the state where you were you were born- elitist.

Meeting the millionaire heiress daughter (who you will soon begin an affair with and divorce your first wife and then go on and buy a ton of houses) in Hawaii and then going on and honeymooning in Hawaii – not elitist.

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(Site note: Sorry, we've been experiencing technical difficulties all day.)

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ABC News:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

Update: John Amato: This is awful news. What would have happened if he had been the nominee? Go Obama! The media will never let up on this and if he doesn't come clean on everything as fast as he can, it will never be over. The tabloids will be digging into ditches trying to find as much dirt as possible.

SusanG has a round up of opinions.

Atrios:

The public: Edwards was a f*&king idiot for running for president, and betrayed a lot of his supporters by doing so.

The private: everything else is between Edwards and his family. Not for the rest of us to figure out how this is supposed to affect their relationships and their marriage.

FDL:

But Edwards did play the family card quite heavily during his campaign, and if he'd gotten the nomination, the Democrats would be sunk right now and we'd be looking at four years of John McCain. So on that count, I'm profoundly grateful that he didn't get it. He was risking a lot for all of us by doing this stuff and running at the same time. It was incredibly stupid. What more can you say?

Maybe we'll get this kind of inquiry into the Vicki Iseman story?

Hullabaloo:

I realize that everybody gets excited about sex scandals. It's human nature. But it's important to keep in mind that John Edwards didn't even come close to winning the nomination and this is just another sleazy tabloid story with absolutely no serious significance other than the sickening spectacle of the prurient slavering of the mainstream media now that they have finally found their hook: it's because he lied to the press about his sex life. How could he???

(Lying to the press about the anthrax killers and WMD in Iraq, well, not a problem.)

Many people, especially in the press, jumped to defend McCain against the evil New York Times on that one and there has been no follow up. But considering how everyone is excusing the flogging of this Edwards story on the basis of the fact that he lied to the press, I'm not sure it's in the country's best interest not to ask McCain about this again and talk to the women herself. What if it comes out that it was true after he's president? Why surely the press will be as honor bound to obsess over it as they were about Clinton and now Edwards, right? It's not about the sex --- it's about the lying, remember?...read on

Brad Reed has compiled the extensive list, but I'll give you the Reader's Digest version here. Go read the full article at Alternet:

10: Bush Gets Re-elected
9: Alberto Gonzales' Congressional Testimony
8: North Korea Conducts a Nuclear Test
7: Colin Powell's Bogus WMD Presentation at the U.N.
6: The Terri Schiavo Affair
5: Bush and Condi's Excellent Gaza Adventure
4: "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job"
3: Abu Ghraib
2: 9/11
1: "Mission Accomplished"

Seems like the hardest part is simply narrowing it down to just 10.

Working Life: Why we miss John Edwards' voice on trade and globalization.

Amygdala: Knowing what one is talking about.

Connecting.the.Dots: Lotts of Smoke

sans everything: When conservatives loved the Palestinians. Computers have cut-and-paste functions. So does right-wing historical memory.

Mad Kane's Political Madness: Dear Ralph: Go Away!

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: The NYT censors Krugman, why not Kristol, Rich, Dowd, Kristof, and Brooks?...Mountain, Meet Molehill...Howard Kurtz's conflicting interests and his love affair with The Right...USA Today to Dems: Move to the right...How the press can prevent another Iraq...Russert asks a plagiarist about plagiarism, but that wasn't his lowest moment...Fox News Porn...NYT can't see a Bank bailout in front of its eyes

You may remember the piece I wrote about this stalker Babe: "Cafferty debates with a Man-Stalker named Rachel Mardsen: “waterboarding is a swim lesson” The ex-FOXer who was escorted off their premises is at it again, or so it would seem. And it looks like Sarkozy might be her next target:

A right-wing former Fox TV pundit is being investigated for criminal harassment after accusing an ex-boyfriend of leaking Canadian anti-terrorism secrets. I don't know why he (gave me the documents)," she said yesterday in an email response to an interview request, "other than perhaps he was too cheap to buy me jewelry and figured state secrets would be a good substitute." She denied harassing the officer.

"I live in NYC," she wrote. "If I was going to 'stalk' anyone from that kind of a massive distance, it sure wouldn't be that loser.

"Anyone who reads my blog or column knows it would be (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy!" Backhurst's lawyer Andrew McKay said Marsden is harassing the officer through emails and inaccurate website postings.

"Her conduct is simply outrageous," he said. Backhurst, who ran unsuccessfully in 2004 as the federal Tory candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River, acknowledges a brief love affair with Marsden two years ago – not one that continued until nearly three months ago, as Marsden maintains. The OPP's criminal investigations branch recently cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. A separate internal investigation is ongoing, his lawyer said...read on

Hmmm, another case where the guy is cleared. OK, I wonder when CNN will put her on the air again?

Poor Ann Coulter. Every time things start going really bad for the White House, the usual suspects start their distraction campaigns. Then Ann Coulter--who desperately and rather pathetically wants to believe she's still relevant--has to come out and prove that she's the top of the slime heap by saying something even more outrageous. Her new book isn't selling well, and well, let's be honest, she reeeally needs to sell some -- and for more than the buck or worst, penny they go for. After all, it's not like those black cocktail dresses she prefers grow on trees, and let's not even talk about her cosmetic expenses--you think that comes cheap?

Appearing on Tucker to pimp her latest rag (and how sad a gig that is, the lowest rated show on MSNBC), the official Republican Spokesperson tosses out her contribution to the right wing mud wallowing to make everyone forget that they are the last stubborn stragglers to utter failure: John Edwards had an 18 month affair -- as reported by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER. At that point, even Tucker had to laugh at the feckless Coulter. Let's face it, if Tucker's laughing at your journalistic sourcing, Ann, you're officially a joke.

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As with just about every stop on her comedy book tour, she manages to get in a dig at Elizabeth Edwards--who called her out on Coultergeist's disgusting last attempt at attention--dismissing her as "Lizzy" (gee Ann, you wouldn't happen to be trying out for the road show of "Heathers, The Musical," would you? Remember, "bulimia is so '87") but Tucker just can't get past the tabloid comment. He tells Ann he'll wait to get confirmation on the Enquirer story the next time he's at the supermarket -- and as the segment comes to a close and she stares doe-eyed into the camera Tucker slips this in:

Carlson: "Good luck at Safeway."

And then there's this... it's scary how far she has to go to out do herself...The smell of desperation just reeks from her.