Opinions
Why politics would be very boring without sex
There is a thin line betwaeen politics and sex. Throughout history leaders have not only been famous for their competence but also for their sex scandals. When we say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely we are not leaving sex corruptions out of the equations.
If nations, for leaders to be sex predators.
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”. These words made headlines around the globe in 1998 as the US President denied his affair with a 21 year old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Oral sex in the Oval office and the stained blue dress made Bill Clinton only the second President in US history to be impeached during his first term in office.
Clinton at first denied any sexual relations with Monica but was later forced to admit that he indeed had engaged in sexual behavior (though not intercourse) with her when confronted with the evidence he left on her dress. Impeached by Congress not for the sex, but for lying to Congress, Clinton was tried by the Senate and got a 50-50 vote, an acquittal under the American laws.
People around the world know Silvio Berlusconi for many things but above all for his interminable sex scandals. Serving a total of 9 years as the Prime Minister of Italy, this media mogul has a personal fortune of $9 billion, which he apparently enjoys to the fullest. The 2009 and 2010 accusations by his wife and others of his sexual misconduct grabbed the attention of the world. He was accused of engaging in sexual relations with females less than 18 years old, including the 16 year old Moroccan belly dancer and Bunga Bunga. Berlusconi was eventually convicted of paying for sex with a minor in 2013 and sentenced to 7 years in jail, with a permanent ban from politics. Court testimony revealed Berlusconi had paid a teenage prostitute 4.5 million euros for her services.
If you are an action movie lover then you know Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dogged by rumors and accusations of sexual harassment for years, the Austrian Oak shrugged off questions about his indiscretions and got himself elected governor of California in 2003 and again in 2006.
When the sexual harassment allegations resurfaced in a big way, during these campaigns he still fought back, until the last straw broke the camel’s back in 2011 when it was revealed that Arnold had fathered a son out of wedlock with his maid back in 1997. His wife left him and he became the brunt of late night comedians’ jokes, often referred to as “The Sperminator.” Any talk of amending the constitution to allow him to run for president of the US went out the window, as did most of his female fans.
A month after starting his second term in office in March 2008, the President of the Czech Republic confessed to an affair with a young flight attendant. The morning after his re-election, 66-year-old Vaclav Klaus was photographed with a blonde government-aircraft stewardess outside a hotel in Prague.
Klaus admitted it would be difficult to explain his romance with a woman less than half his age to his wife of 40 years. But running off with young flight attendants behind his wife’s back had become somewhat of a presidential hobby. His first indiscretion with a blonde stewardess reportedly happened in 1991, when he was a rising political star of post-Communist Czechoslovakia.
The second came in 2002, this time with a 24-year-old who worked on his official aircraft. But the nation barely raised eyebrow at their President’s latest infidelity. The country’s biggest newspaper said most people would be impressed, as a mistress is usually seen as a sign of a real man.
In 2007 Israeli President Moshe Katsav stepped down, amid a swirl of accusations of sex crimes. It was one of the most grim and sordid sex scandals Israel’s ever seen. A year earlier, Katsav had complained to the Attorney General about being blackmailed by one of his female employees.
But the investigation fast turned against the President, as the woman alleged rape. With more complainants coming forward, Katsav had reportedly sexually harassed up to 10 women. The Attorney General dismissed as fairly slim Katsav’s claim that he’d been made a victim of a plot. Katsav’s decade-long political career had never before been marred by any trace of scandal.
The father-of-five quit the largely ceremonial post after a plea bargain in which he confessed to sexual harassment to avoid two rape charges. At the time Rape convictions in Israel carried up to 16 years in prison. The deal allowed Katsav to get a suspended sentence, and has been condemned by his accusers and rights groups.
The African soil is also blessed with politicians who are famous for their sex scandals. South African President Jacob Zuma, former Nigerian President Olusegum Obasanjo (who even had sex with his daughter in law), King Mswati III of Swaziland (with 14 wives) and many others. South African President Jacob Zuma has never been shy about defending his right, sometimes with a joke and a wink, to have three wives as a Zulu man, no matter how much Westerners may disapprove of his polygamous ways. He has fathered many children outside marriage.
Zuma has made short shrift of objections to his expansive appetite for women, calling his accusers culturally blinkered and claiming that, in a country of millions of single mothers, polygamy is actually responsible.
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