Political Peccadilloes

On the day in 1983 when Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Cecil Parkinson, resigned from Mrs Thatcher’s cabinet, I was in a meeting with a delegation from the Bophuthatswana Department of Tourism. The Minister for Tourism addressed the meeting. “I do not understand. In my country, when you get a woman pregnant, you are congratulated. In your country, you get the sack.”

As I write, the Stormy Daniels story still commands news headlines. Her appearance on the CBS programme, 60 Minutes, helped to foster the brouhaha of Mr Trump’s extra-marital behaviour. This is a rare occasion when I feel this President is being treated unfairly. Mr Trump denies Ms Daniel’s allegations. I consider that whatever happened in 2006, a time when he held no public office, is irrelevant to the 63 million people who voted for him. It was an event in his private life. It has nothing to do with his role as President.  What Mrs Trump has said will no doubt sting Mr Trump far more than the bad publicity he is getting and he deserves everything he gets from the First Lady. However, even if Mr Trump has lied about the relationship, there is precedent to argue that the lie is not an impeachable offence. Bill Clinton lied in a deposition about his private life and was not punished.

I like the French attitude to this sort of thing. Francois Hollande, the country’s premier from 2012, conducted an affair in the public gaze with journalist Valerie Trierweiler. The French electorate were hardly bothered, which cannot be said for Segoline Royal, Hollande’s mistress of many years.

Let’s return to America. You may think my attitude to Trump’s extra-marital conduct is permissive but I have precedent on my side. Lots of it. I limit my arguments almost exclusively to the conduct of past Presidents who transgressed the rules of society.

·         George Washington (1) conducted an affair with Sally Fitzgerald, a married woman, when he was engaged to Martha Curtis, who became his wife.

·         Thomas Jefferson (3) had a long-term affair with Sally Hemings, a slave at Jefferson’s home in Monticello. They had four children together. Jefferson’s apologists say Jefferson’s wife had died before the affair started but at this length of time, who can say for sure?

·         James Buchanan (15) was the first and, so far, only gay President. He lived with Senator (and later Vice-President) William King for 23 years, including his time at the White House when they shared the same bed, according to Washington gossip.

·         James Garfield (20) conducted a liaison with an 18 year-old reporter, Lucia Calhoun, amongst others. His womanising was prolific. The 1880 election campaign was rocked by revelations that Garfield visited a New Orleans prostitute.

·         Grover Cleveland (22 and 24) was caught in a scandal when he was accused of rape by Maria Halpin. When she told Cleveland she was pregnant by him, he abused his power by having her arrested and committed to an asylum. The son she bore him was placed in an orphanage.

·         When an academic at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson (28) had an extra-marital relationship with Mary Peck, which he characterised as “a passage of folly and gross impertinence.”

·         Warren Harding (29) was a notorious womaniser, conducting affairs with many ladies including Carrie Phillips, a married woman. During the campaign for the 1920 Presidential election, Mrs Phillips was paid $20,000 and sent with her husband on an all-expenses paid trip to Asia to keep her out of the public gaze. When in the White House, he had an affair with Nan Britton, who was 30 years his junior. He had a private study built next to his main office, purportedly to give him peace and quiet to work but he used it for liaisons with his numerous ladies.

·         Franklin Roosevelt (32) was well known for his infidelity, for example with Lucy Mercer, the social secretary to Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor, too, was no slouch. She had a long-standing relationship with reporter Lorena Hickock.

·         Dwight Eisenhower (34) had a long relationship during World War II with his driver and secretary, Kay Summersby. His wife, Mamie, also got involved in extra-marital relationships. Both stopped their affairs when Ike ran for President.

·         John Kennedy (35) had a long list of extra-marital dalliances, for example with Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson. He also “shared” the company of Judith Exner with Sam Giancana, the Mafia boss of bosses. When JFK tried to bring Herbert Hoover, the FBI Director, to heel, Hoover rocked Kennedy when he told JFK that his affairs would be disclosed, as well as the President’s drug habit.

·         Lyndon Johnson (36) had many affairs after he married Lady Bird. He would brag, “I’ve had more women by accident than JFK ever had on purpose.” Alice Glass, the wife of a major supporter, fell under LBJ’s spell. So did Madeleine Brown with whom he had a twenty year affair and a son.

·         George Bush (41) came in for bad publicity when The Washington Post reported that Bush political aide, Jennifer Fitzgerald, “had served the President-Elect in a variety of positions.” Bush issued a denial and nothing was proved.

·         Bill Clinton (42): the stories concerning and accusations by Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and others are well known. “Slick Willy”, as he was called by the less respectful press, got himself out of trouble but you can imagine the tongue-lashings given by Mrs Clinton. Clinton was impeached for perjury, lying in a deposition in the Paula Jones case, but he was acquitted in the Senate trial.

The story that tickles me most is Gary Hart’s. He ran for President in 1987 but stories appeared in the press about an extra-marital affair. He denied them but the stories would not go away. He was forced to suspend his campaign when the press caught up with him aboard a yacht, alone with girl-friend Donna Rice. And the name of the yacht: “Monkey Business.”

Those who know me are well aware of my disdain, antipathy, dislike, aversion and contempt for this pompous, arrogant, conceited, pretentious, egotistic and smug man, who by a twist of political madness has become President of the United States. Affairs with the fairer sex should play no part in public life. Certainly they demean the office of President but they do not provide grounds for removal. Thus far, I can see no flagrant impeachable offence that has been committed by Trump which would result in a vote in the Senate to remove him. "Emoluments" is not enough to overturn millions of votes. However, the Mueller investigation may prove otherwise.