A reader in Portland, Oregon, remarks about a recent sex scandal involving Portland mayor Sam Adams, and asks Matt whether he believes there is, or should be, a dividing line between the public and private lives of our politicians.

Matt responds:

As we know in our country, there is the perception of privacy but not the reality of privacy.  Our democracy is laid out such that, unless you can live up to everything you supposedly are, you better be prepared to face whatever comes your way.

You could say that’s fair or unfair, that it’s all perception, that there are some countries where sexual promiscuity doesn’t mean anything; that it’s like whether you write with your left or your right hand; it’s immaterial...

But here, it seems that with all the news stations, there’s a constant, 24-hour quest to report on which way the fly is going to fly off the horse manure, and suddenly that becomes the news of the day.

Anyone who gets into politics, I believe, shouldn’t be surprised if they’re called on the carpet for every part of their being.  One of the things President Clinton was asked on an MTV debate was what kind of underwear he wore, boxers or briefs.  I imagine today they would ask a candidate how many bowel movements they have every day.

So if you’re going to play the game, you have to live by the rules of the game.

I was watching a half-hour program about the Roman Colosseum and how tens of thousands of animals and people were slaughtered to the glee of the populus.  It seems to me that with our televisions, we now have the same thing.  Who are we going to take and make a martyr or a victim out of now?

The only problem with that is, with time, everything becomes moot and marginalized.  There might be 50 people killed by gunfire in a city, and it starts off on Page 1 but winds up on Page 12, and then we’re on to the next thing.

In terms of what’s fair and what isn’t fair, I happen to believe that if you go into certain things, you should be prepared for all the consequences.  If you do something wrong, the first thing you should do is shout it out the window, tell it to your dog, then hold a press conference, then be on your way.

It’s a matter of the culture we live in, the way we look at things.  We are such a diverse nation that one person’s news is another person’s drivel.  One person’s fact is another person’s lie.  So we all look at it through our own filters and make of it whatever it is.

Luckily, every two and four years, we have elections, and nobody has to get forcibly carried out of office kicking and screaming.  Our democracy works remarkably well for such a diverse population with so many races, creeds, passions, loves, and hates.  It’s a marvelous way to live under the great umbrella called democracy.  Even if we get pissed off, we don’t run out into the street with guns, or call for some mass anihilation.

We should thank our Founding Fathers for following their bliss.

Matt