A weakness that's all too general

By Harold I. Gullan

As Henry Kissinger once observed, power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Hence l'affaire Petraeus, which, since no state secrets were apparently compromised, seems to have devolved from dangerous liaison to farce after costing the careers of two generals.

Those cynical Continentals have long regarded universal weaknesses of the flesh as no impediment to serving one's country at the highest levels. At the 1996 funeral of French President Francois Mitterand, for example, both his wife and his long-term mistress stood side by side, along with their respective offspring.

While the American media were not always as pervasively salacious as they are today, it seems likely that a good many of our presidents had extramarital affairs. For all his rectitude, even George Washington was reputed to appreciate more than a trim ankle.

Grover Cleveland claimed to have done the honorable thing by admitting he had fathered an illegitimate son and supporting him, because all the other lovers of the boy's promiscuous mother were married. To Republican chants of, "Ma, ma, where's my pa?" Cleveland's Democratic supporters responded, "He's gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!"

It's uncertain whether Warren Harding's imperious wife actually poisoned him after the exposure of his most blatant affair. That's because she wouldn't permit an autopsy.

Divorce was once considered more scandalous than (ideally discreet) adultery. We didn't have a divorced president until Ronald Reagan, and we may owe that to Sara Roosevelt and George C. Marshall.

No one could understand why fun-loving Franklin Roosevelt married his dour cousin Eleanor. So it was no surprise when he was attracted to her vivacious social secretary. But his mother, Sara, who controlled the family's money, forbade divorce. Franklin and Eleanor were obliged to continue a marriage of convenience that became a good deal more over time.

Nor was it surprising when Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force Dwight D. Eisenhower reputedly fell for his lovely, lively driver-secretary, Kay Summersby. But Army Chief of Staff Marshall is said to have threatened to ruin his career. So Ike stayed true to Mamie, and the rest, as they say, is history.

John F. Kennedy was among the third generation of men in his family to view serial infidelity as just one component of a compartmentalized life. His mother had been talked out of divorcing his father by her own adulterous father.

Bill Clinton came close to JFK in this regard but lacked his taste. The only justification for a woman as strong and talented as Hillary Rodham Clinton to stay true to her man was for the sake of her own career.

In these days of gender equity, terms such as womanizer have fortunately become obsolete. Without the intimate friendship of an influential woman, Lyndon Johnson would have found it much more difficult to attain power in Washington. The lure of the libido increasingly works both ways.

Two presidents who almost certainly never had affairs are the odd couple of Harry Truman and Richard Nixon. Truman fell in love with Bess Wallace in kindergarten, and despite the lifelong disapproval of her mother, he never strayed. Presumably Nixon was more motivated by power itself, and denying Kissinger too much credit.

And Jimmy Carter, of course, lusted only in his heart.

Many more presidential aspirants, from John Edwards to Newt Gingrich, have been compromised by revelations of particularly egregious excesses in immorality. This year, however, all four candidates were at pains to praise each other as good family men, devoted fathers, and faithful husbands - whose only shortcomings were that their policies would surely destroy the republic.