‘Ethicist’ Columnist Thinks ‘Character’ In Marriage Is ‘False’ — But If You’re a Cheating Conservative, ‘Go Straight to Hell’
The topic was Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it sounded a lot like the Year of Monica Lewinsky on NPR's Diane Rehm Show on Wednesday morning. Randy Cohen, the former writer of “The Ethicist” column in The New York Times Magazine, mysteriously announced that “I would argue against this notion of character” when it comes to the marital fidelity of politicians. “There are many people who would've preferred a philandering JFK to a monogamous Richard Nixon. That I think this notion of character that we're purveying is sentimental but false.” That is, unless the unfaithful one was a social conservative, like Newt Gingrich. Then Cohen pounced: “If you had an ounce of integrity, you would have to withdraw from public life or burst into flames or go straight to Hell and, you know, reserve a spot for simply being flamboyantly dishonest.”
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on May 18, 2011. Filed under