Let's go back in time for some context.
The French
never understood why President Bill Clinton was
impeached for the Monica Lewinsky scandal following
disapproval by those "puritanical Americans." Sure, he
may have lied about the dalliance under oath, but he was
just lying about sex. In French culture, it shouldn't
have been the voting public's business as long as he was
still competently doing his job. (Not that we ever
really know how much more competent a person might be in
executing his duties in the absence of the extramarital
sex; why is the assumption always that they were giving
it their all?)
As disinterested as the French may seem about top-level
politicians' sexual dalliances, they're ultimately far
less accepting of the results. Former French President
Francois Mitterrand managed to hide a second family from
the public, even as taxpayer resources were being used
to support them. The daughter born to Mitterrand and his
mistress out of wedlock is now a 37-year-old author and
university professor, Mazarine Pingeot, and she's still
being confronted in the French media about having been
secretly raised on taxpayer funds.
Similarly, the French were happy to ignore former
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique
Strauss-Kahn's extramarital sexual hyperactivity for
years, until it became impossible to ignore. That
happened when a Manhattan hotel maid's accusations
caught the attention of legal authorities and the
American press. Strauss-Kahn has since returned to
opened floodgates in France and is currently facing
"aggravated pimping" charges in Lille, in connection
with a prostitution ring.
It's not as if the French typically have the option of
paying attention to such things before they spin out of
control. The French media is prohibited by law from
publishing personal or private details about a public
figure without the public figure's permission. Even when
sex merges with a scandal that happens to be in the
public interest, French jurisprudence mandates that
anything belonging to the private realm must be
carefully parsed out of all media coverage.
So, essentially, the French are cool with whatever
public officials want to do sexually -- affairs or
otherwise -- because they don't really have a choice,
since their media are prohibited from reporting such
things. If they eventually do find out about such an
incident, there won't be any fallout from it unless the
misbehavior was accompanied by gross incompetence and
not just a lack of productivity.
And here's where the Petraeus affair becomes a very
interesting case for the French. Chatter is divided
between those who feel Petraeus should be able to sleep
with whomever he wants because he has demonstrated
competence in his job, and those who believe the case
demonstrates incompetence on Petraeus' part by
potentially compromising national security.
While French presidents such as Mitterrand, Jacques
Chirac and others have had affairs, their side pieces
were compartmentalized well away from matters requiring
security clearances. Clearly, your love life has
spiraled out of control when you're the CIA director and
things have gotten to the point where Mistress No. 1 --
when she isn't giving speeches that may or may not
include items from your pillow talk, like the possible
existence of a secret CIA prison in Benghazi -- is
harassing Potential Mistress No. 2 to the point that
Potential Mistress No. 2 asks the FBI to get involved.
When your wife throws a lamp at your head, it's your own
personal business. But when the FBI has to step in to
untangle your "Love Pentagon" and offers you a sword on
which to fall, and you can't imagine anything short of
swan-diving on it, then things have reached the point of
no return. The French book tour awaits, Mon General!
COPYRIGHT 2012 RACHEL MARSDEN