Grover Cleveland Admits to Illegitimate Son

In our scandal series, imagine hearing the following chant at a campaign rally:

“Ma, Ma, where’s my pa?”
“He’s going to the white house. ha ha ha!”

Grover Cleveland had a pretty spotless reputation when he nabbed the Democratic nomination for president in 1884, but his opponents would soon use his personal life against him. The media exposed him for having an illegitimate son by a woman named Maria Halpin. Legend has it that Halpin was involved with several of Cleveland’s married business partners and that he took financial responsibility for the boy to save his colleagues’ relationships. When opposition protesters chanted “Ma, ma, where’s my pa” at his campaign rallies, Cleveland, who still won the election, chuckled, “On his way to the White House.”  The unofficial story, however, may be uglier. The Daily Beast reports that Cleveland’s one-night stand with Halpin, a young widow with two children from her marriage, may not have been consensual. She also was reportedly institutionalized briefly and had the child taken away from her. Yikes. http://www.nickiswift.com

How do you think this would go over today?

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Woodrow Wilson’s Scandalous Engagement

Sex has long played a role in the world of presidential sex scandals. Woodrow Wilson, famed for his role in the progressive movement and World War I, was not without scandal. His sin, however, was not sex per se but simply an engagement. His first wife, Ellen Louise Axson, died in August of 1914. The next spring Wilson met Edith Galt and by May they were engaged. This was seen as scandalous at the time; rumors began to fly about the President including that he had even murdered his first wife in order to marry Galt (although they had not met until after Ellen had died).     http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/

If this happened today, do you think it would even been an issue? What say you?

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More of a gaffe than a scandal, but still funny enough to put into our scandal series:

Don’t tell Howard Dean, but “HeeHaw” was a tv show, not a battle cry for a presidential candidate. One reporter described “The Scream” this way:

It was more of a rallying cry to buoy a roomful of disappointed supporters than the raving of an out-of-control zealot. But it quickly became known as the Scream, and it lives on as a case study of how a brief gaffe, given saturation coverage by the media, can cause deep damage to a politician’s image. The incident happened on the night of the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses, Jan. 19, 2004. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, had been promoted in the media for weeks as the Democrat to beat, riding a tough anti-war message, an outsider’s critique of Washington, and what he described as an army of angry insurgents. But as the returns rolled in, it became clear that Dean and the media had badly overestimated his strength and that the air was leaking fast out of his balloon. In the end, Dean lost…behind winner John Kerry and runner-up John Edwards.

That evening, Dean appeared before a crowd of downcast supporters in West Des Moines. He took off his suit jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his blue shirt, and acknowledged, “I’m sure there are some disappointed people here.” Then he tried to motivate them to continue the fight. Getting revved up by the crowd’s cheers and chants, he promised to take his campaign on to New Hampshire, South Carolina, California, and a string of other states, the names of which he shouted out like a cheerleader at a high school pep rally. His face reddening and his right hand balled into a fist, Dean shouted: “And then we’re going to Washington, D.C.—to take back the White House—YEEEEEAAARGH!” (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/17).

Here is our favorite Dean Scream Remix:

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Crooked Cabinet Member Sentenced to Prison for Fraud

As part of our scandal series, does anyone doubt that there has been political scandal involving oil? smh

The Teapot Dome scandal was an early example of the military industrial complex, when an elected official uses his/her political influence to secure military-related business deals that are advantageous to his/her own pocketbook. Between 1921-22 President Warren G. Harding supported the efforts of his Secretary of Interior (Albert Bacon Fall) who leased Navy petroleum reserves in Wyoming and California to private oil companies at low rates – without competitive bidding. The lease terms were very favorable to the oil companies, which secretly made Fall a rich man (over $6 million today). He attempted to keep his actions secret but forgot that officials might suspect his recently-improved standard of living. Fall was investigated and convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies. Harding’s reputation suffered because of his involvement with “friends in low places” and he died in 1923.  The Supreme Court ruled in 1927 that the oil leases had been corruptly obtained. In 1929 Albert fall was found guilty of accepting bribes, and became the first Cabinet member to go to prison. Teapot Dome would be regarded for decades as the “greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics.” A significant outcome of the Teapot Dome Scandal explicitly established that Congress has the power to compel testimony.

Footnote: In February 2015, the oil field at Teapot Dome was sold for $45 million to Stranded Oil Resources Corporation, after the U.S. Department of Interior had eventually extracted 22 million barrels of oil from it.

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Next up on our scandal series:

This guy was busy! Check out the chronology of the scandal that unfolded during the 2008 presidential campaign of former US Senator John Edwards:

2004 – N.C. Senator John Edwards runs for POTUS with the support of his wife, attorney Elizabeth Edwards, but does not win the nomination for the Democratic party. Instead, he is chosen as John Kerry’s VP running mate. George W. Bush wins the election.

2006 Dec – Edwards announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. Filmmaker Rielle Hunter is hired as a member of Edwards’ political entourage. The Edwards campaign paid Hunter’s production company, Midline Groove, over $100,000 for a series of short documentary films that ended up on YouTube.

2007 Mar  – While campaigning with husband, Elizabeth Edwards announces the return of Stage IV breast cancer. Tabloid National Enquirer publishes a report that former US Senator John Edwards was involved in a long-standing illicit affair with Rielle Hunter. Huffington Post and New York magazine publish similar stories within days.

2008 Jan 30 – Edwards suspends his presidential campaign.

2008 Feb 27 – Rielle Hunter gives birth to a daughter. Both Edwards and Hunter deny Edwards’ paternity. However, Edwards asks political ally Andrew Young to 1) get a doctor to provide bogus DNA results, and 2) steal a diaper from Hunter’s baby for DNA evidence to confirm if Edwards is, in fact, the sperm donor. Edwards pays Andrew Young to claim publicly to be the father, but Young later recants.

2008 July – Mainstream media publishes details of Edwards’ affair; after the DNC Convention, the media identifies him as a potential Obama VP or AG candidate.

2008 August – David Letterman and Jay Leno allude to the Edwards affair in their respective opening monologues. Edwards admits to extramarital affair but denies paternity of Hunter’s child but is seen in a newspaper photograph holding the baby; Hunter’s sister publicly discloses that Edwards is the father and demands he take a DNA test to verify, while apologizing to Elizabeth Edwards for her sister Rielle’s behavior.

2009 – Federal grand jury investigates Edwards’ use of campaign funds to support Hunter and to cover up their affair; Hunter testifies before the grand jury.

2010 January – Edwards admits to paternity; Elizabeth Edwards files for legal separation; an explicit Edwards/Hunter sex tape emerges.    

2010 Mar – Announcement that Elizabeth’s cancer has returned and is incurable.

2010 Dec 7 – Elizabeth Edwards loses her battle with cancer.

2012  – Edwards stands trial for using campaign funds to cover up his mistress and love child; he claimed the money was used to hide the affair from his wife, not from the government. He escapes a 30-year prison sentence with a hung jury decision.

2012 June – Rielle Hunter publishes her memoir, What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter, and Me.

2013 Oct – Rielle Hunter publishes her REVISED memoir, In Hindsight: What Really Happened…

What did really happen?

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