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Sex and the Politician -now cancelled!
This was going to be the second part of a 'double-bill' Fight Club in Chicago on October 8th, but has now been cancelled. The event will still take place but will be solely on the subject of "Should Marijuana Be Legalized?". The "Sex and the Politician" debate will be kept until sometime in the future. In the meantime, the links below still make interesting reading.

Background
Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Clinton years in American public life is the disappearance of any privacy. There is literally nothing in a politician's private life that isn't now fodder for mainstream journalism. Past victims include Bill Clinton, Illinois' Jack Ryan, and more recently New Jersey's James McGreevey who resigned because his homosexuality became a press feeding ground. In this election cycle things have just become sleazier, and John Kerry may become the next victim.

It is easy to blame the press, but is it not still right that we should know about our politician's skeletons in the closet? Don't we want to know if the people we most trust are lying to us? Does the future of the US depend on what the definition of "is" is..?

Pro (politician's private lives matter)

This essayist states that it is the lying not the deed that is immoral.
http://www.freeessays.cc/db/20/egn40.shtml

This article opinionates that sex and scandal is all part of the political merry-go-round
http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200402171113.asp

The Smoking Gun is clearly for freedom of the press and often go where others fear to tread. They rushed to publish Ryan's divorce papers as soon as the scandal had hit:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0622041ryans1.html

This writer reacts against a recent TV poll where public opinion swayed toward protecting politician's private lives: "Only people with something to conceal beseech us to let them have their 'privacy' or 'personal life'."
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_12.14.00/columns/necro.html

This ex-editor describes his conflicting opinions on the matter of privacy, but is nevertheless clearly a supporter that "the private lives of politicians are often fair game".
http://slate.msn.com/id/3627/entry/23721/

Contra (politicians lives don't matter)

Here, the writer concludes "Sex is a private matter and it is wrong for the government to ask the questions about sex, and it is wrong for citizens to answer the questions about sex."
http://www.perkel.com/politics/sex.htm

Homemade video tapes of a female Taiwanese Parliamentary candidate with her husband lead to censorship and a discussion on the freedom of the press in Taiwan.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1735739.stm

This Chicago Tribune writer argues that "in a case like Ryan's no-sex scandal, I question the public's need to know". Ironically it was the Tribune that filed the lawsuit that unsealed Ryan's divorce records that lead to his resignation.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0406300136jun30,0,6582244.column

This writer argues "If the cost of public life is that you can have no privacy of any kind, then not only do you deter good and talented people from running for office, you also ensure that only complete asexual or saintly freaks get to positions of power":
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/print.php?artnum=20040704

Both Sides

This newspaper reports on peoples' opinions on whether politician's private lives matter:
http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/021998/does.shtml

This article shows that scandals were effective in ousting politicians in the 18th and 19th century, but there was a respectful silence of the press in the 20th Century from Woodrow Wilson right up to the 1970's
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/scandal.cfm

Here's an informative list of political scandals, from Thomas Jefferson to Jack Ryan:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/American%20political%20scandals

This Blogg forum tosses between opinions in support and against the public opinion of Jack Ryan's sex scandal:
http://www.bopnews.com/archives/000906.html

CNN's report about the New Jersey Governor's resignation:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/12/mcgreevey.nj/

Oregon's Neil Goldschmidt resigned over an underage sex scandal in '91 but was not charged, and is now a successful businessman.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31711-2004May16.html

The writers in this forum have an interesting discussion on the subject:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/a2k-post770909.html&highlight=
and here too:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/about28153.html&highlight=

This article runs us through a brief history of political sex scandals worldwide.
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2001/01/07/stories/1307046r.htm

Portugal recently had a political scandal over an ex-minister involved in a child sex ring.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ex_minister_held_in_child_sex_ring_case.html

Politician's can also point the finger back: "German politicians tell men to have more sex"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5295432/?GT1=3584

And in Sweden one politician wants to promote pornography on TV:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_664604.html

Humorous look at sex and politics: 100 Reasons Why Sex is Better Than Politics
http://www.angelfire.com/nj/nflcheer/politics.html