Across the meeting table recently, two friends talk about Republican presidential candidates and the front-runners. One noted that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had been married three times. That shouldnt matter whether he can govern as president, the other firmly retorted. Thats a mans personal life unrelated to the talents of leadership, he insisted.Marital stability, once virtually expected in such candidates, seems to be a marginal issue. When there was more chatter about Giulianis three marriages, including his first one to his second cousin, it was also learned that his current wife, Judith Nathan Giuliani, was in her third marriage, not her second has it had been thought. It was never clear why her first marriage at age 20 in 1974 and lasting five years had been overlooked.This week, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., acknowledged that his name was on the a madams escort service phone records in Washington, D.C., which the D.C. Madam made public amid as she fights her own legal battles. Vitter has become the latest public official to go public with his infidelity. He said he was sorry for his serious sin and had made peace with his wife.This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible, the senator said Monday in a written statement. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Unlike some discoveries of immorality of public officials in which loved ones and the family find things out together, Vitters family learned this some years back and had settled it then. So out of respect for them, he opted to not talk further. I will keep my discussion of the matter there with God and them. In recent decades, the behavior and misbehavior of public figures politicians, entertainers, business executives and sports figures — have gotten such relentless news coverage that it doesnt shock anymore. In fact, there is a near-expectation that political candidates come with baggage and scandals. In our cynicism, we seem resigned to believe that virtually all folks who reach pinnacles of power and influence have had their ruthless moments or cut some corners to get an upper hand. Choir boys are not elected president of the United States. Power comes with at least a modicum of corruption.Politics is a dirty business, beset with temptations, pressures and ambitions. Many talented people wont venture into public service out of fear of their private lives being made public or something being trump up regarding their reputation. So, theres a notion that those willing to go into public office are vulnerable to ambush and theres less surprise when it happens. The Christian Science Monitors Daniel B. Wood on Thursday reported that American voters dont automatically dismiss candidates involved in sex scandals, but the circumstances matter. Written in the aftermath of the Vitters revelation and infidelity revelations of Los Angels Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the article (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0712/p03s03-uspo.html)said voters are willing to forgive under the right circumstances. Wood quoted a Philadelphia political science professor, Mary Ellen Balchunis-Harris, that times have indeed changed. Americans have gotten over the fact that their politicians arent perfect.A Gallup Poll in May found that 91 percent of those polled regarded adultery as wrong, but that two watershed events that dominated the media the infidelity of two highly effective politicians may have created greater resigned acceptance. One was the 1988 frenzy over then-Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., whose presidential hopes were doomed by his affair with Donna Rice. The other was the affair of President Bill Clinton with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, made public in 1998. Clinton survived it and had personal approval ratings for his leadership performance. If Clinton could hang onto the presidency after that, then it weakens the argument that any lesser public official could be removed from his position," the writer quotes Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.Further, pollsters seem to have found the public are facing a kind of reality. In a February Pew poll, 56 percent of those who say they vote said that an extramarital affairs made no difference in whether they would support a candidate. On the other hand, 39 percent noted they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who had been unfaithful. Republicans were far less willing to consider voting for such a philanderer. Sixty-two percent of Republicans versus 25 percent of Democrats said they were less likely to give them their votes. And how swiftly politicians responded and how remorseful they seemed are keys to ultimate public reaction, Wood reported.

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