If Vanity Fair's current takedown of former President Clinton is any measure, a new standard of campaign journalism has taken root: We will now learn not just about politicians who have affairs. We will learn about politicians whose associates are afraid they might be having affairs.
That's the foundation of a good part of a lengthy Bill Clinton profile featured in the July issue of the glossy celebrity-centric magazine, which is due to hit newsstands today.
The article, "Comeback Id," explores many paths Clinton has taken since he left the White House, but a principal one would have us believe that the Big Cat is still catting about. Or at least believe that some smaller -- and thoroughly anonymous -- cats think he might be still catting about.
Clinton lashed out Monday at the story's author, calling Todd Purdum "slimy," "sleazy" and "dishonest." His fury may have been charged, in part, by the knowledge that the writer is married to his onetime presidential press secretary, Dee Dee Myers. (A spokesman later said Clinton regretted his intemperate words.)
It may be of small solace now -- as his wife's chances at the White House and his time in the campaign spotlight fade away -- but Clinton at least has company this election year. He is the second politician tainted by what might be called "apparent adultery syndrome."
In February, the New York Times revealed in a quadruple-byline investigation that top advisors to Sen. John McCain "intervened to protect the candidate from himself" when they became convinced during his 2000 campaign that McCain had become romantically entangled with a Washington lobbyist, a charge that both vehemently denied.
Both the Vanity Fair profile and the earlier New York Times story offer not a smidgen of direct evidence (i.e., video, frothy e-mails, lipstick-smeared collars, anything) to prove that either politician cheated on his wife.
But the new Clinton piece, in particular, offered plenty of innuendo. Vanity Fair relies on "Hollywood dinner-party gossip" and equally obscure sourcing to hint at possible liaisons between Clinton and an actress, "a female friend" and "a woman in a bar."
More threatening to the former commander in chief's legacy, Purdum asserts, is his tendency to run with a "fast crowd," including a pair of tabloid-land Lotharios, Los Angeles supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and movie-and-music producer Steve Bing.
