Scandals in politics inevitably lead us to ponder the age-old chicken-or-the-egg question. Are some politicians corrupt before they enter office, or is it the nature of the system that turns some into poor excuses for human beings? Either way, it turns out that voters around the world are sometimes surprisingly forgiving when it comes to their elected officials’ transgressions, electing them even after a scandal comes to light. Witness a remarkable list of politicians who overcame their troubles to take office again, for better or worse.
Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy (1994-95, 2001-06, 2008-11)
Ah, Berlusconi. Where to even begin? During the course of his political career, he has been involved in 20-plus court cases ranging from suspected mafia association, and bribery of judges to tax fraud, perjury, and much, much more. But it is “bunga bunga” sex parties for which Silvio is most famous, especially those involving underage prostitutes. Berlusconi’s previous charges (including two convictions!) never resulted in jail time, and did very little to halt his career. His coalition came in a close second in the 2013 election, receiving 29.1 percent of the vote, and Berlusconi still acted as the leader of the Center-Right Coalition.
While serving as Deputy President of South Africa from 1999-2005, Zuma was involved in several controversies that led then-President Thabo Mbeki to relieve him of his duties. Among others, he was accused of accepting bribes, racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud. Had he been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment of more than one year, he would have been ineligible to serve as president, but charges were declared unlawful on procedural grounds and were dropped. He was also charged with raping a 35-year old woman from a prominent African National Congress family in 2005, but was found not guilty. Zuma received much-deserved criticism for saying that he did not use a condom with the woman, whom he knew to be HIV-positive, but took a shower afterwards to cut the risk of contraction. Zuma was heading the National AIDS Council at the time. None of this stopped him from winning the presidency in 2008 and again in 2012.
Sex scandals were around even in the time of the founding fathers, and Thomas Jefferson set a precedent for them just not mattering. In 1802, a journalist published allegations that Jefferson had fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings, and the story was repeated by the Federalist Papers in 1802 and 1804 (not to mention for two centuries after that). Historians believe that Jefferson privately denied the rumors in 1805, but modern-day DNA tests have shown that Jefferson did in fact have a relationship with Hemings. Despite this, Jefferson won re-election to his second term in 1804.
One of the longest-serving senators in American history, Ted Kennedy was a much-beloved Democrat respected by both sides of the aisle. But in 1969, he was embroiled in the infamous Chappaquiddick incident and ended up serving a two-month suspended jail sentence. After accidentally driving his car off a bridge into a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, he swam away and neglected to report the accident within nine hours. His female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died in the vehicle. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. The incident became a national scandal, and while it may have influenced Ted’s decision not to campaign for president, the Massachusetts electorate actually encouraged him to stay in office and reelected him to the Senate in 1970.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and fall of the Taliban, Karzai was elected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a two-year term as the Interim President, then won the state-wide general election in 2004. Under Karzai’s administration, electoral fraud suspicions have reached such a level that the status of Afghanistan as a democratic state has been called into question. He has also been accused of nepotism, protecting his brother from opium trafficking charges and amassing suspicious amounts of wealth through murky, potentially embezzlement-related means. Karzai won re-election in 2009 anyway, although some say there’s a chance he rigged the election. So much for state-building.
Newt Gingrich has taken a lot of flack for some of his ideas through the years, such as his plan to build a colony on the moon, or to roll back child labor laws to give kids a better work ethic. But it is his commitment to marriage, or lack thereof, that may have received the most attention, and the somewhat-overlapping three wives. In 1980, Gingrich left his first wife, Jackie Battley, after beginning an affair with Marianne Ginther while Battley was recovering from surgery related to multiple sclerosis. Ginther didn’t last forever either. Gingrich began an affair in 1993 with Callista Bisek, who was 23 years his junior. The situation was tough to swallow from a man who had run his campaigns on upholding traditional American values. He continued to win re-election until 1999 (and served as Speaker of the House from 1995-1999), until he resigned from Congress for unrelated reasons.
Only in the Czech Republic would the country’s biggest newspaper report a president’s extramarital affair with pride, stating that most people would be impressed, given that having a mistress is a sign of a real man. Klaus had a history of affairs with aviation professionals – first with a stewardess in 1991; then another in 2002 with a 24-year-old who worked on his official aircraft. A month after starting his second term in office in 2008, he confessed to yet another affair with a young flight attendant. Before he even won the presidency for the first time in 2003, he was forced to step down as prime minister in 1997 under accusations of funding irregularities in his party.
For a man who may not have even won his first election (as we fondly remember Florida and the hanging chads), it’s impressive that he won again four years later. That doesn’t even begin to address some other infamous points from his first term, including the fact that it was painfully clear just weeks into the Iraq War that the Bush administration had lied about WMDs and had sent U.S. troops into a hopeless quagmire. Declaring victory with “mission accomplished” in 2003 wasn’t a great idea either. Regardless, he beat out John Kerry for a second term in 2004 and recently, a Texas complex was built in his honor.
After the infamous Twitter pic was released, the unfortunately-named Representative Weiner resigned from his position in Congress. He’s recently been publicly musing a possible run for Mayor of New York City in the upcoming election in November 2013. At the very least, it could pave the way for a future campaign for another office if he’s able to re-invent himself as a politician and not an internet troller. Given voters’ history of forgiveness, Weiner just might have a shot!
