Choosing a Politician's Mistress

The recurrent circus that passes for Italian politics is beyond understanding, but it must be at least entertaining for the seekers of la dolce vita!  Silvio Berlusconi, whatever his merits or otherwise, gives reliable fodder to both the respectable and disreputible journals of said country.  And he manages to surround himself with beautiful women that serve to stuff the magazines with photo ops!  And so it is with the politics of other countries, save possibly Germany and England.

And it seems to work!  After all, Silvio seems to come back, like some character from an Arnie movie!  No hasta la vista, Baby for him!

I think that he manages because of entertainment value.  After all, didn't a recent French head of state manage to solidify his position by marrying a beautiful Italian actress?  Maybe American politicians should take a page from Silvio's playbook.

Consider our recent major players in politics, Presidential and otherwise.  They uniformly projected an image of oppressive rectitude, like the Puritan Fathers had some 350 years ago.  At least we don't burn witches nowadays; they're even feted in California.

Well, not entirely true.  Sometimes playmates of politicians come to surface, but largely at the hands of investigative reporters.  But, after the initial excitement of the disclosure, there comes a lingering sense of disappointment.  Didn't some people wonder after some disclosures about a former President, "Hey, couldn't he have done better than that?"

Basically, it's because our major politicians don't have much experience in mistress selection.  And also because running for political office seems to be a full-time job!  However, I have a solution to this problem: a specifically American solution:

Assign the task to a committee!

Obviously, this committee might be staffed by representatives in whatever constitutency might be involved.  If we're talking the Presidency, we should make it bipartisan, maybe the House majority and minority members, a Supreme Court justice or two, and toss in a few media pundits.  It makes them feel important and it sweetens the media deal.  Besides, we can't have our President at a image disadvantage when it comes to functioning on the world stage!

In the case of political candidates, it makes good sense to balance the committee so as tap the maximum impact when the word gets out.

And, who knows, when we eventually elect a woman to the Presidency, she can have a First Dude!