I agree with most of this article by one of my favorite political writers, Gene Lyons. I agree (and have probably written somewhere on this blog) that we don't know as much about the private lives of political figures as we think we know…and by the way, how many times now have the tabloids headlined that Bill and Hillary (or George and Laura) were but hours away from the messiest divorce ever? The private lives of public officials are rarely reported accurately and even when they are, those matters are rarely the public's business.
Where I'd take issue with Mr. Lyons is in one gigantic leap. I agree that the whole Monica Lewinsky matter was a trumped-up, none-of-our-biz scandal and that every person who cheered on the "investigation" deserves to have their most intimate, private secrets made public. But I wouldn't theorize that but for it, we'd surely have had President Gore and that if we'd had President Gore, we wouldn't have had 9/11. It's possible but that assumption seems to me about as solid as most of what people assume about the off-stage marriages of our elected officials.