The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Am I the Only One Without an Open Marriage?

This morning is a flashback to 1998, toward the end of Lewinsky hell, when Bob Livingston decided not to run for speaker because someone had figured out he'd had an affair. And then came all sorts of rumors about who else Larry Flynt was going to out. And then it turned out Newt Gingrich was also getting some. (Newt Gingrich! Who would ever get steamy with him???) Back then, I had the same thoughts I am having now: Am I a conservative? Am I socially conservative? Am I the last person in America without an open marriage? Or who hasn't had an affair? What got to me today was not the McGreevey driver threesome story (which seems to fit right in with this Ashley Dupré moment)  or the more-than-I-needed-to- know details about the Patterson marriage and the Days Inn. It was the blasé comments, by both Paterson and the anonymous New York city officials. "Like most marriages," Paterson began his confession. Most marriages go through periods where both spouses are having open affairs with other people? And then: It's "commonplace" for Albany officials to keep mistresses or have second families in the capital, said NY officials. Really? Second families in the capital are commonplace? Where else is that commonplace, that I don't know about? At the DoE? The IMF? On K street? In Kansas? 

These last couple of weeks have been a real end of innocence for me. First Client 9. Then in Sunday's NYT, call girls who drink mint tea, carry NPR bags, and read Junot Díaz.  Today, the driver threesome, and the Days Inn. What will I learn tomorrow? That Nancy Pelosi's a madame?