I often develop theories. Many of them are wildly off-base or miss some specific point which would completely undermine their validity. Or they're just very obvious but I'm so self-adoring that I believe I'm the first one to have come up with them. Anyway, thanks to the magic of crowdsourcing, I can test them out in public, right here on The Awl! Here's the latest:
If you are a politician whose career has been damaged or derailed by a sex scandal, the period of your rehabilitation is directly correlated to the popularity of your immediate successor. Think Spitzer and Paterson, obviously, but it also kind of works for Clinton and Bush. Conversely, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey was followed by the immensely popular Richard Codey, so he had to go become a priest. Washington Senator Brock Adams left office under eight different clouds of sexual harassment, but everyone loved "mom in tennis shoes" Patty Murray, and he died a forgotten man. Etc.
Whaddya think? Does it hold up? I'm wondering if the McGreevey thing may also have something to do with the fact that his sex-scandal was a same-sex scandal; there's been no rush to rehabilitate Larry Craig yet. But who knows? Just thinking out loud here. Gotta keep that posting frequency consistent.
This does explain why Julius never recovered from shacking up with Cleopatra.
Everyone loved Augustus.
Also, he was dead.
So much for your theory.
If we want to go all classical, Tiberius chose Caligula as a follow-up. "I am nursing a viper in Rome's bosom," he is said to have remarked about his succesor, knowing that it would be a disater and make him, by comparison, look better. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: I move, henceforth, we call this political slight of hand "Balkinization."
A reasonable theory. I once thought it had more to do with the relative hotness of the non-political element of said sex scandal. The Clinton imbroglio made that position seem untenable. Perhaps, though, it's the exception that proves the rule vis a vis the slickness of the Willie.
Pretty convoluted way to proposition me.
You may have to develop a corollary to account for the iterations of this theory in the Florida 16th.