From the Wool-sack
| Publication year | 1987 |
| Pages | 2195 |
| Citation | Vol. 15 No. 9 Pg. 2195 |
1987, December, Pg. 2195. FROM THE WOOL-SACK
You can tell your friends you read it first here. That will be reward enough for my readers of long standing who wonder when, if ever, they will get anything worthwhile from this paltry monthly piece. What you are about to read has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with politics. It is a primer on turning politics into something everyone will enjoy---not just the candidates. It will also increase citizen participation in the process to an until now unheard-of degree. Here it is.
A recent story suggested that presidential hopefuls are uneasy about the prospect of questions on adultery. Their discomfort comes from uncertainty as to where that line of inquiry will end.
Jimmy Carter, for example, confessed that he had lusted in his heart. Imagine what would have happened had he been asked to disclose the object of his secret lust and refused to do so. Reporters would have spent weeks searching for the answer, instead of reporting on the Iranian hostage crisis.
If questions about adultery and secret lust become an accepted part of campaigns, reporters will not be content if candidates say they have neither committed adultery nor secretly lusted. There will be follow-up questions.
Candidates will be asked about movies they rent from video shops. If they rent only "PG" movies, motel records will be checked for evidence that, when away from hometown scrutiny, the candidates watch the X-rated in-house movies.
Although the results of such investigations might produce good viewing (especially if the evening news shows run selected portions of the movies candidates are discovered to have watched when travelling), there is an alternative. It is suggested by, of all things, the Pentagon. The Pentagon has come up with a way of getting the information sought by reporters about the sex lives of people it is concerned about without the fuss the press goes through. This is how the Pentagon does it.
At the time of routine review of security clearances of Pentagon employees and contractors, individuals being reviewed...
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