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<DIV class=timestamp>May 18, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">The Year of Living
Adulterously</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per title="More Articles by Gail Collins"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/gailcollins/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>GAIL COLLINS</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>What is it with Republicans lately? </P>
<P>Nobody wants to run for the presidential nomination. Mike Huckabee said God
told him to stay on Fox News. NBC told Donald Trump to stay on “Celebrity
Apprentice.” </P>
<P>Whatever happened to putting your country first? Our forefathers would never
have passed up the presidency for anything less than the Charlie Sheen role on
“Two and a Half Men.” </P>
<P>The Republicans are terrified that they’ll wind up with Mitt Romney, who has
been fund-raising like crazy and seems to be planning a campaign based on the
slogan: “Money can’t buy love, but it can definitely purchase a grudging,
defeatist acceptance.” </P>
<P>Some party leaders are looking hopefully at Mitch Daniels, the governor of
Indiana, who’s promised to make up his mind this month. If he runs, one thing
you are not going to get from Mitch Daniels is the politics of joy. Have you
ever seen “Game of Thrones” on HBO? It’s about a mythical kingdom that sends
some of its young men to the remote tundra to live in perpetual celibacy and
guard a 700-foot-tall wall of ice. Their reaction is very similar to the way
Mitch Daniels looks when he talks about running for president. </P>
<P>Daniels is apparently worried that a presidential run might prove
embarrassing to his wife, who ditched him and the kids and ran off to California
to marry a doctor and then later recanted everything and came back. I think it
is pretty safe to say that this topic might come up. </P>
<P>Which brings us to sex. What is it with Republicans lately? Is there
something about being a leader of the family-values party that makes you want to
go out and commit adultery? </P>
<P>They certainly don’t have a lock on the infidelity market, and heaven knows
we all remember John Edwards. But, lately, the G.O.P. has shown a genius for
putting a peculiar, newsworthy spin on illicit sex. A married congressman
hunting for babes is bad. A married congressman hunting for babes by posting a
half-naked photo of himself on the Internet is Republican. </P>
<P>A married governor who fathers an illegitimate child is awful. A married
governor who fathers an illegitimate child by a staff member of the family home
and then fails to mention it to his wife for more than 10 years is Republican.
</P>
<P>A married senator who has an affair with an employee is a jerk. A married
senator who has an affair with an employee who is the wife of his chief of
staff, and whose adultery is the subject of ongoing discussion at his
Congressional prayer group, is Republican. </P>
<P>We haven’t even gotten to Newt Gingrich yet! </P>
<P>Gingrich is the best-known of the second-string Republicans who are ready,
willing and eager to take on Romney for the nomination. The question is whether
social conservatives will resent the fact that he was having an adulterous
relationship with his current wife while she was a House of Representatives
staffer and he was trying to impeach Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky
affair. Also, this week, Politico reported that in 2005 and 2006, Gingrich had
an account with Tiffany’s that sometimes ran to $500,000 in debt. </P>
<P>Never have we had sex issues with so many layers. It shows you how far we
have evolved as a nation. In the old days it was: Warren Harding making whoopee
in the presidential coat closet: yes or no? </P>
<P>Really persistent sexual misbehavior says something about the character of
the person involved. In Gingrich’s case, we have a failure-to-settle-down
problem that extends way beyond matrimony. He can’t even hang onto a position on
Medicare for an entire week. This man is a natural for an occupation that
rewards attention deficit. Maybe God actually meant to tell Newt to stay on Fox
News, but accidentally shipped the message to Huckabee. </P>
<P>As to Governor Daniels, the voters are unlikely to give a fig about the
interesting past of his wife, Cheri. But if he wants to protect her from the
embarrassment of being asked about it 24/7, perhaps he could just declare her
off limits. The news media has generally respected those kinds of rules when it
comes to presidential candidates’ children, as long as said offspring don’t show
up on reality shows or as teen-abstinence ambassadors for a shoe store
foundation. </P>
<P>Of course, a wife who is off limits would not be able to campaign for her
husband. I think that would be terrific. Finally, we could end the tradition
that a presidential candidate’s spouse is running for something, too. If we want
a first family to obsess over, we should just hire a king and queen. </P>
<P>Don’t know how the social right would feel about this. But there’s always
Mitt Romney. </P><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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