The revival of Gavin Newsom’s affair to remember

Sex and politics make strange bedfellows. Sometimes, revelations of the affair destroy careers; sometimes they make interesting reading, and the scandal blows over. 

The latest on the firing line is presidential hopeful Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of California — just as he lives out his final year as governor — with his erstwhile extramarital lover reviving a 20-year-old tale of forbidden congress. 

Newsom is not alone in his infidelity. The Biblical David had seven wives before he met Bathsheba. He also had a few wives afterwards. 

When Grover Cleveland ran for president in 1884, Republicans alleged he had sired an illegitimate child. Their slogan was “Ma, ma, where’s my Pa?” When Cleveland won the election, the Democrats had the last laugh, capping off the slogan with “Gone to the White House, Ha, ha, ha.” 

Nan Britton claimed she had been the mistress of Warren G. Harding throughout his presidency. She said he was the father of her daughter, a claim his family denied but later confirmed by DNA evidence. Britton said she had intimate relations with Harding in the cloakroom of the White House. 

John F. Kennedy’s dalliances are legion. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan quoted him as having said, “If I don’t have a lay for three days, I get a headache.” When the Washington socialite Mary Pinchot Meyer — said to be the love of his life — was murdered in a Georgetown park the year after he was, conspiracy theories abounded. Her ex-husband was a CIA agent. Another CIA agent broke into her house looking for her diary, which was later burned.

Was the murder a CIA hit to conceal her story........

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