WASHINGTON, January 23: Real or rumored, Presidential peccadilloes draw more media scrutiny than ever before, but history is rife with tales of sexual dalliance by occupants of the Oval Office.In the past, most such allegations were kept quiet until after the President in question had died.
None faced the intense glare trained on President Bill Clinton and his associates following accusations this week that he had an affair with a White House intern and then asked her to lie about it under oath.Clinton has vehemently denied all the allegations against him.
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States from 1801-09, was repeatedly accused by political opponents of fathering illegitimate children by Sally Hemings, one of his slaves. Grover Cleveland, President from 1885-89 and a bachelor, was also accused of fathering an illegitimate child. The charge gave rise to a popular chant: ``Ma, ma, where's my pa? He's in the White House -- ha, ha,ha.''
Franklin Roosevelt, President from 1933 untilhis death shortly before the end of World War II, was reportedly involved with Lucy Mercer during his marriage to Eleanor. Mercer was Eleanor's private social secretary.
Dwight Eisenhower, President from 1953-61, allegedly had an intimate relationship with Briton Kay Summersby, his chauffeur during World War II. Reports of that dalliance were hushed up until after Eisenhower's death.
John Kennedy, President from 1961 until his 1963 assassination and Clinton's avowed role model, was linked after his death to many women including Hollywood bombshell Marilyn Monroe and mafia-linked beauty Judith Exner.
Kennedy's escapades have been widely reported since the 1970s, most recently in a 1997 book by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Other political figures have seen their political aspirations abruptly quashed by dubious lapses in judgment involving women to whom they were not married.
Among the most famous:
Former Democratic Senator Gary Hart, a 1988 Presidential contender who dared the
media to find evidence of an extramarital affair -- then provided it by romping on a sailboat with leggy model Donna Rice. Former Republican Senator Bob Packwood, ousted from the Senate in 1995 after his colleagues found he had harassed or molested some two dozen women. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, John F Kennedy's younger brother and a one-time Presidential hopeful, has been haunted since the 1970s by his late-night drive with a young woman who died when their car veered off a bridge.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
