The final — and perhaps most important — factor is psychological. Some politicians are cripplingly embarrassed by public exposure of their hypocrisies, while others rise buoyantly to the surface.
In the 1990s, a onetime national aspirant like former Sen. Charles Robb (D-Va.) seemed to shrink visibly with shame after confessing that he had enjoyed “a massage” at the Pierre Hotel in New York with beauty queen Tai Collins. But it never seems to have dawned on Republicans Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani that their extramarital affairs (with women they later married) should limit their presidential ambitions.
In the end, the decision whether to flee or fight in the face of scandal is intimately personal, said Lloyd Constantine, a former adviser to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and author of the insider’s account “Journal of a Plague Year,” about Spitzer’s sudden downfall after revelations that he had been a customer of a prostitution ring.

See the full article from “Politico”



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