Posts Tagged philanderer

Geoffrey Fieger

Last year, we found out some of the nation’s most public figures were serial philanderers.  It turns out Tiger Woods had more cocktail waitresses than major golf titles.  ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips lost his job after he took advantage of the intern pool at his company.

This phenomenon didn’t exclude politicians.  South Carolina governor Mark Sanford went missing for a couple weeks before returning from Argentina to confess his infidelity – which cost him a chance at the GOP nomination in 2012.  Near-President John Edwards famously fathered a love child on the campaign trail, then pinned it on one of his aides.

While the high-profile infidelity of famous athletes surely disappoints fans, the same behavior by politicians strikes at the heart of their trustworthiness to lead and makes them vulnerable to extortion. What happens when elected officials have secrets they would prefer to keep secret?

Most often that isn’t a worry because the perpetrator’s career in public service is almost certainly over.

That’s not the case here in Michigan, where one of our state’s most famous philanderers is still taken seriously. In January, The Oakland Press named Michigan gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox one of their “Top 10 Cheaters” of the decade.  In 2005, Cox held a press conference to announce that he had taken part in an extramarital affair in 2003, while serving as the state’s Attorney General.  Cox only went public with the affair after trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger allegedly threatened to expose it if Cox did not drop an investigation into Fieger’s alleged campaign finance violations.

One can only wonder what other secrets leave Mike Cox vulnerable to extortion.

Michigan Matters. Michigan deserves better.