No time will be taken off for maternaty leave.

Problem solved!

This is a perfect solution, unlike hers. Women can cheat, men can't get pregnant.

At only a slightly lower rate than men.

For every heterosexual man that is cheating there is a woman doing the horizontal bop with him and they usually are aware at some point that the man is married, certainly Sanford's mistress knew he was married.

Personally I think it has more to do with the type of personality that gets involved and prospers in high level politics, narcissists mostly.

Women are as capable of infidelity as men, and this is all about some stereotyped woman who is not any more real than the housewife in the kitchen. The gym? Seriously? I don't want my politicians worried about the gym. All this family values stuff aside, I'd kind of prefer they weren't worried about younger kids, either. I want them to be worried about their office. No matter what their gender.

We should elect more women because women make up roughly half the population and there ought to be as many qualified women as men. We should make sure women can get those qualifications, where there is any lack of qualified women. But we should not elect women because we have some idea that any given female candidate has a "safer" love life than any given male candidate.

Men and women are equally capable of fidelity. We cannot argue gender equality and then go on to say that women deserve to be treated equally because men suck. It doesn't work that way.

(drum roll)

a woman.

Research has shown that women are just as likely to be unfaithful as men, so I'm not sure that electing more women is a viable solution here. Everytime someone brings up the alleged superiority of women, I remember those photos of the female soldier gloating over her the prisoners at Abu Grabe. No high horse here.

...to show that many of the character flaws attributed mainly to men (ie: philandering politicians) are actually human flaws and not gender-based.

I'm not being glib - only when we see that our common strengths (and weaknesses) our much greater than our differences will the "gender wars" be called off.

Incidentally - there's nothing about the democratic system that suggests that representation proportional to a particular demographic is part of the plan. Our leaders are picked by the vote, and the limited presence of women in politics show that women are more likely to vote for men than the men for women. If it broke down on strict gender lines, we'd have a mostly female government that won by a narrow margin.

Further - who cares what Dana Perino thinks? By being the soft-sided, low-content mouthpiece of a dangerous administration, she's done more harm to the nation than Sanford's indiscression. Not being from South Carolina, Sanford hasn't affected me in the least, and I can't say the same for Perino.

I find the double standard delicious.

It is about damn time us men get to experience the unfairness of double standards, couldn't have happened to a better bunch ;-)

Ever heard of Helen Chenoweth? Wasn't she embroiled in a sex scandal of her own before she left Congress?

Maybe the real solution is just stop electing Republicans in order to end sex scandals.

Women probably cheat too -- who knows, they don't confess on camera much -- but powerful men sure get a lot of sympathy for it. How many times have we heard in the last few days, including right here in Salon, "The poor guy is only human;" "I must say I have sympathy for the poor guy;" "This is a tragedy, a TRAGEDY [at least until the Michael Jackson TRAGEDY hit]." And always from another member of the club: a man. Gotta stick together.

If this had been a cheating woman public figure, it would have been a different story.

It's a man's man's man's world.

Are we to assume that women are less likely to cheat because of their stereotypical lower sex drive or their stereotypical propensity for being better behaved? Either way, it's patronizing and insulting to men and women. Not all men in politics are phillanderers. Some that are, may also be very good at governing.

My rule of thumb is: If they aren't having sex with me, I'm not interested in whom they are having it with, whether it is one or more people, same or different gender, same or different continent. That goes for politicians, celebrities and reality show idiots.

One thing is certain -- if Gov. Sanford's were a Democrat and his paramour were the same gender, and he installed that person, a non-citizen, as Special Counsel to Homeland Security, much of the media would be as forgiving of Sanford as they were of Jim McGreevy.

does a politician having a fun time have to do with his fitness for office?

seems to me women push that line that somehow this is wrong for men to enjoy life. would be women to then push the line that somehow they are superior even though they're not only the button pushers, but also despicable themselves.

//How many times have we heard in the last few days, including right here in Salon, "The poor guy is only human;" "I must say I have sympathy for the poor guy;" "This is a tragedy, a TRAGEDY [at least until the Michael Jackson TRAGEDY hit]." And always from another member of the club: a man. Gotta stick together.//

Um, so I just gotta ask, you do know that broadsheet is written by women, right? And that most of the commenters on broadsheet posts are also women? Is this the piece you're complaining about: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2009/06/25/mark_sanford/index.html

That was written by a woman.

Most men I know hate Mark Sanford and have zero sympathy. He's a two-timing ass, not to mention he's been having hot, international sex and we aren't.

Don't studies show married women cheat as much as married men? Males hit their sexual peak at 19, women at 35 - Dana Perino continues to be an idiot.