Politicians Who Were Caught Cheating

In life, there are three certainties: death, taxes, and politicians who cheat on their wives. We've rounded up a few particularly gross scandals that will make you feel all icky inside. Read 'em and weep, and pray that one day Washington D.C. will learn to keep its pants zipped.

Of all the scandalous affairs on our list, it really doesn't get bigger than the time in the '90s when President Bill Clinton hooked up with Monica Lewinsky, then a twenty-something White House intern. By then, sitting presidents engaging in sexual activity with women other than their wives wasn't exactly a new thing (JFK, anyone?). However, the reason this became the definitive political scandal of the '90s is because Clinton went and lied about it under oath. Clinton was subsequently slapped with charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for his false testimonies, launching a nasty and tabloid-friendly investigation that would forever taint the rest of his political career. Things eventually got so bad for Clinton that he became only the second president in U.S. political history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. By the time the charges reached the Senate, voting members went all, "OMG, this is getting ridiculous" and acquitted Clinton of both charges. But to this day, no one who lived during this scandal will ever be able to look at a blue dress the same way again.

Former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards' political career came to a screeching halt in 2008 after it was discovered that Edwards had fathered a baby with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to document his bid for the presidency in 2008. The affair was especially disgusting for multiple reasons, but mainly because it occurred partially while Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, was suffering from terminal cancer. Edwards was later indicted on six felony charges for allegedly using campaign money to cover up the affair. He was found not guilty on one of the charges; the judge subsequently declared a mistrial after the jury couldn't decide on the remaining five.

Back in the early 2000s, if you asked a group of people who might become President of the United States one day, many would have said New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. That all changed in 2008 when the New York Times reported that Spitzer had been spending a whole lot of money on escorts. Spitzer resigned seven days after the report broke; his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, received a reported $7.5 million divorce settlement in 2014. Despite a scandal that ended his career, Spitzer has kept his head well above water. Late last year, after the death of his father, he dove head first into his family's multi-million dollar real estate business, adding that much more money to his already lucrative bank account. Insert eye roll here.

Jim McGreevey was forced to resign as the Governor of New Jersey in 2004 after it was discovered that he had been cheating on his wife with an Israeli nationalist named Golan Cipel. People first grew suspicious of McGreevey's relationship with Cipel after McGreevey appointed Cipel to be his homeland security adviser, even though he wasn't, you know, a U.S. citizen. Naturally, all hell broke loose from there: McGreevy's political career ended; and his wife, Dina Matos, filed for divorce. Shortly after the scandal came to a close, McGreevy met Australian financier Mark O'Donnell, whom he is still dating.

Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned from Congress in 2006 after e-mails and instant messages he sent to an underaged male page were exposed to the public. Foley opened up about the scandal in a 2008 interview with The Associated Press, saying, "There was never anywhere in those conversations where someone said, 'Stop,' or 'I'm not enjoying this,' or 'This is inappropriate' ... But again, I'm the adult here, I'm the congressman. The fact is I allowed it to happen. That's where my responsibility lies." Uh, yeah.

Former Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford disappeared for a full six days while in office, only to return and admit that he had been shacking up with his Argentinian mistress in her home country the whole time. Crazy, right? Not as crazy when you consider that, despite subsequent impeachment proceedings, Sanford actually managed to finish the remainder of his second term as Governor with little more than a slap on the wrist (aka he was censured by The South Carolina Republican Party). Even crazier: Sanford actually returned to politics when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013.

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 after reports hit that he'd been engaging in online-only sexual relationships with multiple women around the country. Weiner did the whole "I'm seeking treatment" song and dance, then re-emerged a candidate for Mayor of New York in 2013. That bid was squashed shortly thereafter when it was uncovered that, whaddyaknow, Weiner had engaged in another sexting relationship during the summer of 2012 under the pseudonym—wait for it—Carlos Danger. Ironically, Weiner was hired by a New York City public relations firm in 2015 to help clean up PR messes; perhaps less ironically, he left the gig after just two months.

U.S. Senator from Idaho Larry Craig was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport in 2007 after he allegedly tried to solicit sex from an undercover cop inside a bathroom stall. At the time, Craig tried to claim he just had wide stance, but yeah, no. Although he was able to finish out the rest of his term, Craig opted not to seek re-election in 2008, and has remained out of politics ever since. In 2014, Craig found himself back in the headlines after a federal judge ordered him to pay $242,000 to the U.S. Treasury for using campaign money to pay his 2007 legal fees.

In 2007, Louisiana Senator David Vitter was outed as being one of the clients on "DC Madam" Deborah Palfrey's list. Allegedly, he was into wearing diapers, but we're not going to get into that one. Despite the bad amount of press, Vitter's political career has remained in tip-top shape. He's one of the frontrunners in the race for the 2015 race Governor of Louisiana, proving once and for all that the American political system really does suck.