Top 20 Political Scandals

Allie @ Gone Hollywood

What better way to end March than with Michael Steele answering questions about an RNC member’s expenses-paid $2,000 night at a Los Angeles bondage club.

Earlier in the month, Kevin Garn, Republican majority leader of the Utah state senate, admitted that he once skinny dipped with a 15-year-old girl and paid her $150,000 to keep quiet, and California State Senator and Republican family-values defender Roy Ashburn was arrested for driving drunk in a state-owned vehicle after leaving a gay nightclub with a new companion.

After studying the 58 scandals over the past 20 years involving all politicians or major candidates for city mayor and above—many involved crimes, others just allegations, but all wound up as tabloid fodder—some conclusions can be reached.

• The number sex scandals has increased dramatically over the past few decades, thanks to technology, new press standards and a post-Clinton belief that everything is fair game.

• Republicans have more scandals (32 to 26), but Democrats have bigger ones, based on our methodology (13 out of the top 20).

• Democrats tend to have more problems with harassment, staffers and underage girls; Republicans tend to have more problems with prostitutes, hypocrisy and underage boys.

Here’s the Top 20 Political Scandals:

#1, Philip Giordano

Party: Republican
Position: Mayor (Waterbury, Conn.)
Scandal Broke: July 26, 2001
To the applause of spectators, former Waterbury, Connecticut, mayor, lawyer and ex-Marine Philip Giordano was convicted of sexually abusing two preteen girls—just 8- and 10-years-old at the time. Giordano claimed innocence: “I did not do anything criminal.” Giordano was sentenced to 37 years behind bars in June 2003.

#2, Bill Clinton (Jones scandal)

Democrat
Governor/Presidential Candidate
May 6, 1992
Bill Clinton hits our list three times. By our methodology, the Paula Jones scandal rated the worst: Unlike Gennifer Flowers or Monica Lewinsky, Clinton’s alleged advances on Jones, when he was governor of Arkansas and she was working for the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, were not consensual. Jones sued Clinton in 1994, setting up a historic case. The Supreme Court ruled that sitting presidents could not wait until the end of their term to respond to litigation regarding their private actions. And it was Clinton’s testimony related to Jones that set up his Lewinsky-driven impeachment. He later settled with Jones for $850,000.

#3, Mel Reynolds

Democrat
U.S. Representative
August 12, 1994
When allegations surfaced he’d had sex with a teenager, Reynolds called the justice system “racist,” and claimed police did not investigate months earlier when Reynolds alleged the woman was trying to extort him. Reynolds maintained he’d only fantasized with the young woman over the phone. The jury didn’t buy it. He was convicted of criminal sexual assault and other charges in August 1995. He resigned shortly thereafter and was sentenced to five years in prison.

#4, Robert Packwood

Republican
U.S. Senator
November 22, 1992
Packwood was an advocate of women’s rights, a pro-choice Republican who had stood behind the Equal Rights Amendment and hired women to top positions in his office. But in 1992 The Washington Post published an article airing the grievances of 10 women, mainly former staffers, who said he had made unwanted and aggressive sexual advances starting in 1969. A Senate inquiry in 1995 found “substantial evidence” Packwood had abused his power, leading to his resignation.

#5, Roosevelt Dobbins

Democrat
State Assemblyman (Arkansas)
August 10, 2005
A 17-year-old girl stopped by Dobbins’ house one afternoon to use his computer to fill out a college entrance exam. They had been close—she considered Dobbins a “mentor,” according to the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette—but it went further that day. While he gave her $20 before she left, perhaps to keep quiet—the girl went home and immediately called the police. Dobbins pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment, and was sentenced to one year probation.

#6, Brock Adams

Democrat
U.S. Senator
March 1, 1992
For two decades, Adams used drugs and alcohol as aids in sexual abuse of female employees, according to eight anonymous women who cooperated in a 1992 Seattle Times article. Despite the anonymity, all eight signed statements confirming the veracity of their stories. One woman told paper, “I have no doubt he drugged me. I have no doubt he raped me.” Officials were more circumspect: Adams was never charged, but he served just one term in the Senate, choosing not to run in the 1992 election.

#7, Gary Becker

Democrat
Mayor (Racine, Wisc.)
January 16, 2009
Becker was arrested after meeting with an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl, after they had communicated online and agreed to meet at a local mall. Becker pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault of a child and child enticement-sexual contact.

During sentencing it came out that Becker had an affair with a former secretary and used city funds for a rendezvous. He got three years in prison for the sexual-assault charges—a relatively light punishment considering the maximum 45 years he faced.

#8, John Edwards

Democrat
Former senator/presidential candidate
October 10, 2007
The squeaky clean presidential candidate’s image took a 180-degree turn when the National Enquirer improbably broke the story of the senator’s affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, which happened while his wife was battling cancer. One illegitimate child, a tell-all book, countless ruined reputations, and a lawsuit later, the scandal is still making headlines, complete with an as-yet-not-public sex tape.

#9, Mark Foley

Republican
U.S. Representative
September 28, 2006
When a concerned congressional page received a series of emails from Foley asking his age, what he wanted for his birthday and a photo, he wrote to a staffer, “Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out.” ABC News released salacious and inappropriate virtual messages between Foley and a string of male pages, while more of Foley’s former pages came forward with stories of the congressman’s unsolicited virtual advances.

#10, Larry Craig

Republican
U.S. Senator
June 11, 2007
Craig was arrested by an undercover officer during a sting operation to investigate misconduct in a men’s restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Craig sat in the stall next to the officer and began touching his right foot to the officer’s left foot. He then waved his hand beneath the stall barrier, all part of an alleged ritual at the airport in which men pick up men for encounters. According to the official report, during his police interview, Craig gave the officer his business card identifying him as a U.S. senator and said, “What do you think about that?” Apparently, not much as the investigation continued and Craig later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

11-20 are after the jump!

#11, Daniel Inouye

Democrat
U.S. Senator
October 17, 1992
Inouye’s misadventures in sex scandal-land began when Hawaii State Senator Rick Reed played on television a secretly recorded tape of Inouye’s hairdresser saying he forced her to have sex with him in 1975. The hairdresser recalled a visit to the senator’s apartment where he grabbed her, took off her clothes, and forced himself on her. Inouye, however, denied the charges. “I’m not suggesting that she is lying,” Inouye said, according to an Associated Press article. “She’s put on the spot like this and I don’t know why she’s saying these things.” The hairdresser said she didn’t consider the incident rape and demanded the ad pulled. Inouye’s political career survived.

#12, Bill Clinton (Lewinsky scandal)

Democrat
President
January 1998
The cigar, the stained dress, all the sordid details—the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton affair remains the biggest sex scandal to ever hit Washington. Newsweek portrayed Lewinsky as an attention-hungry, driven, and slightly delusional young intern who would hang about the Oval Office, eager to catch glimpses of Clinton. Lewinsky and Clinton’s relationship was detailed in recorded phone conversations Lewinsky had with friend Linda Tripp. Clinton, of course, survived impeachment on related perjury charges and, with a faithful Hillary, went on to reclaim his public reputation. Lewinsky evaporated from the public eye, and in 2006 earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

#13, Eliot Spitzer

Democrat
Governor (New York)
March 10, 2008
After a political career spent pursuing others’ wrongdoing, Governor Eliot Spitzer stepped down in 2008 after details emerged that he’d spent thousands while in office on an upscale prostitution ring known as Emperors Club VIP. Client 9, as Spitzer was known, was especially fond of Ashley Dupré, an aspiring singer and model. Dupré has benefited from more than 12 million pageviews on her MySpace page to date and now writes for the New York Post. Spitzer has re-emerged as a columnist for Slate.com.

#14, John Ensign

Republican
U.S. Senator
June 16, 2009
Ensign called for Bill Clinton’s head in 1998, but said he had no plans to resign when he admitted to an extramarital affair last summer. Between December 2007 and August 2008, Ensign carried on a relationship with one of his female campaign staffers, who happened to be married to an employee in his Senate office. He remains under investigation for allegedly trying to find lobbying work for that mistress’s husband.

#15, Eric Massa

Democrat
U.S. Representative
March 5, 2008
Numerous male staffers claimed that Massa groped and harassed them, and Massa quickly resigned as soon as the the scandal broke. In an interview with Glenn Beck, he said, “not only did I grope [a staffer], I tickled him until he couldn’t breathe.” Further investigation found that Tickle-Me-Eric’s touchy reputation dates back to his days in the Navy.

#16, Jim Gibbons (Scandal 1)

Republican
U.S. Representative
October 13, 2006
In 2006, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress accused Gibbons of sexual assault in a parking garage. Gibbons has claimed innocence. In his version, he was trying to catch the woman when she fell, but his press office later released misleading information about the incident, and police inexplicably waited a day to talk to Gibbons. The waitress, a single mother, has not pressed criminal charges, though a civil suit is pending. He was elected Nevada’s governor, setting the stage for another sex scandal (see number 49).

#17, Tim Mahoney

Democrat
U.S. Representative
October 13, 2008
Mahoney seemed to forget his campaign motto, “Faith and Family—Where I Stand,” during his affair with a former staffer. Mahoney got his job after Mark Foley resigned in disgrace, but drew just as much negative coverage after his attempt to cover up his secret love interest, including an agreement to pay her $121,000 to keep quiet. Mahoney was also heard threatening to fire her on the tape of a profanity-laced call. He did not resign, but lost his seat in 2008.

#18, Jim McGreevey

Democrat
Governor (New Jersey)
August 13, 2004
New Jersey’s married governor resigned after admitting an affair with a man he appointed as New Jersey’s homeland security adviser. To make the matter worse, news reports surfaced that the governor’s secret lover, Golan Cipel, was unqualified for the job. The plot thickened when a former driver and aide claimed he, McGreevey, and McGreevey’s wife Dina had numerous threesomes. McGreevey confirmed the ménages-à-trois, while Dina steadfastly denied they ever happened.

#19, Mark Sanford

Republican
Governor (South Carolina)
June 24, 2009
When Sanford was a U.S. representative more than a decade ago, he called for Bill Clinton to resign and voted for three of the four articles of Clinton’s impeachment. As governor of South Carolina in 2009, he admitted carrying on an affair with a woman in Buenos Aires. Sanford made the announcement after a week-long jaunt to Argentina, during which he remained incognito and had his staff tell media outlets that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

#20, Sam Adams

Democrat
Mayor (Portland, Ore.)
January 19, 2009
Portland Mayor Sam Adams admitted having sexual relations with a teenage staffer in 2005, but during his mayoral campaign he denied any contact. Beau Breedlove, the teenage staffer, was a legislative intern who turned 18 in June 2005, the same year Adams took office. “In the past, I’ve characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely non-sexual and that is not true,” Adams told Willamette Week. “I want to publicly acknowledge I made a mistake and apologize for it.” Breedlove told the Oregonian days after the scandal broke that Adams kissed him twice before he turned 18, adding that he “never felt like a victim.”

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Tags | Gossip, Notables, Top 10 Lists Bill Clinton, Brock Adams, Daniel Inouye, Eliot Spitzer, Eric Massa, Gary Becker, Jim Gibbons, Jim McGreevey, John Edwards, John Ensign, Kevin Garn, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Mark Sanford, Mel Reynolds, Michael Steele, Philip Giordano, Political, Robert Packwood, Roosevelt Dobbins, Roy Ashburn, Sam Adams, Scandals, Tim Mahoney

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