Americans and their views on sexual misconduct: Tiger, Tiger Woods Ya’all…

According to some commentators, Americans seem rather, well, prudish when it comes to sex outside of marriage, and they aren’t afraid to categorize the indiscretions  either.  Yahoo ran an article talking about the newest Tiger Woods issues, and the sides seem split between outright pity and a bit of laughter at how the mighty have fallen:

CBS sport columnist Gregg Doyel, meanwhile, took an ironic look at Americans’ obsession with the downfall of a legend.

“This is Tiger Woods, people. Probably the most famous athlete in the world,” he wrote in his column.

“I’m supposed to be interested in his club selection from 176 yards (161 meters) out… but not in his voracious sexual appetite? Please.”

Americans have been peppered with sex scandals involving conservative and liberal politicians alike, including blue-eyed 2004/2008 Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards, who admitted having an affair while his wife was fighting cancer.

South Carolina’s conservative Governor Mark Sanford, once a potential Republican contender for the 2012 presidential race, was caught cheating on his wife in Argentina, after he told his staff he was hiking in the United States on the Appalachian Trail. His wife has since filed for divorce.

In 2008, then New York governor Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, lost his job after revelations he had been a client of a prostitution ring unleashed a wave of public outrage.

A year earlier, Republican senator Larry Craig rocked his party when he pleaded guilty after a police sex sting operation caught him inviting a homosexual encounter in an airport bathroom.

And then there is the infamous Monica Lewinsky affair: the young White House intern who almost costpresident Bill Clinton his job in 1998 and tainted his legacy.

If Americans’ sensibilities, imbued with puritanical values, demand that politicians act beyond reproach in both private and public life, they are not shocked by the extracurricular activities of Hollywood stars and starlets.

Well, perhaps Americans are puritanical, but really, if the sex scandals weren’t so titillating…

I can add to this Michigan’s latest list of sex scandals.  Here is a starter list, by no means comprehensive, because I am sure I haven’t found all the pervs that may be in Michigan yet, and maybe they aren’t all pervs, maybe they just look that way:

1. Kwame Kilpatrick:  used government money as the mayor, as in $8 million, to help him keep up his extramarital affiars
2. Mike Cox:  current Michigan Attorney General, running for Michigan governor, admitted to adultery in 2007 while prosecuting another man for adultery, currently under investigation for involvement in stalled investigation into crimes committed at one of Kwame’s parties
3. Michigan Attorney : prosecuted and license suspended for trading fees for “services” on his “couch of restitution”
4. Grand Rapids Prosecutor:  offered to trade sex in order to lower DUI charges, has since been fired
5. Grand Rapids Fire Department:  employed a known pedophile who has been charged more than once on charges of sexual misconduct against children