Sexual morality among the high and mighty.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.

Most people usually lead a fairly moral life with respect to sexual matters such as adultery and fornication. They may stray, but, for the most part, not often. They expect their leaders and famous people to do the same, but, in this, they are disappointed.

As long as it is in the news, take the American presidency, for example. Supposedly, Thomas Jefferson had an ongoing love affair with a slave he owned. Franklin Roosevelt had his paramour, Lucy Mercer, in many a tryst at Warm Springs, Ga., and elsewhere. Dwight Eisenhower had liaisons with Kay Summersby, his Jeep driver during World War II. Lyndon Johnson had his affairs, and John F. Kennedy had so many one-night stands, his father once remarked that the family should have emasculated him as a teenager. (Sen. Gary Hart's fault perhaps was one of overly anticipating, in that he tried infidelity while not yet holding presidential office, but only seeking its candidacy.)

The late French politician, Francois Mitterand, had a mistress whom his wife apparently condoned, and he declared in his will that she should attend his funeral together with his wife. Not even the aloof royal house of Great Britain is exempt from sordid trysts, with Prince Charles and Princess Diana in supermarket tabloid headlines. Then, of course, there are the escapades of Pres. Clinton.

When we first learned of these affairs, a number of us were shocked, if not incredulous. Many thought they were deliberate and scandalous lies meant to tarnish our heroes and just couldn't be true. First Lady Hillary Clinton, in defending her husband, suggested a smear conspiracy theory that right-wingers were out to get him.

These were such great and brilliant men, we told ourselves, they wouldn't do things like that. The hard facts, though, are that they did! We hate to admit it, but there is a huge gulf between intellectual acumen and leadership and that of emotional drives. The Greek philosopher Socrates was dead wrong when he maintained that virtue is knowledge and vice is due to ignorance. One might even argue that knowledge provides more opportunity for immorality than ignorance.

Great thinkers, such as the French writer Voltaire, and great artists, such as Pablo Picasso, had their extramarital love affairs. The former once remarked that men who think they are becoming virtuous after the age of 40 simply are suffering a loss of energy! Mathematician-physicist Albert Einstein had a mistress whom he later married. All the above...