Long time friend Jack wrote asking if we've ever before had a president involved with a porn star, suggesting perhaps Benjamin Harrison. I responded in long form and decided to share some of those thoughts with COTTonLINE readers.
My thoughts about horny presidents run back with some vividness through those I remember, including as a child. FDR was a life-long womanizer, and died in the company of one of his lady friends in GA. Both he and Eleanor came from a stratum of society in which one married for dynastic reasons and found love elsewhere, which both did.
Ike had his Brit driver Kay, Kennedy apparently bonked any willing woman, famously including Marilyn Monroe and a mobster's girlfriend. Johnson was a raunchy dude who Doris Kearns Goodwin seems awfully fond of.
One wonders about Reagan and Peggy Noonan, about G.W.Bush and Dana Perino. Clinton was a notorious horndog, with catholic tastes and semi-poor judgment.
Now we have Trump who has married three supermodels, none of whom badmouth him - can you say that about your exes? Does anybody who is paying attention believe Trump is too pure to take a fling at a friendly lady? Have you checked out how stunning Hope Hicks is?
History suggests, but does not prove, that Washington and Jefferson both had extramarital interests. I rest my case. Womanizing presidents are neither new nor particularly scandalous. What is semi-new is porn stars or prostitutes who are proud of their career choice, willing to de-closet themselves and identify their partners.
We understand presidents and other wealthy or powerful men attract a lot of more-than-casual interest from women, what is that about? It is the dream captured in the Cinderella story, an evergreen favorite. The "marry up" notion that resembles a woman winning the lottery. Moths to a flame where, as #MeToo has noted, many moths are burned. It is a story as old as time.
