Sex Scandals and Politics

Recently, between Gingritch and Shwarzenneger, it seems like there have been a lot of politician sex scandals on the news. I am not quite sure why it matters whether or not a politician has had an affair; I beleive that a person's personal life is usually not a good indicator of the politician they will be; a good man can be a terrible governor, president, etc., and vice versa.

I guess sex scandals touch on the question: How important is a politician's personal morality? I do beleive that while the answer is generally: "Not that important.", there is an exception to that rule: It is important if a politician commits a gross immorality in their personal life, because that does indicated that their code of ethics is such that they might act immorally once in power, either by a) acting in their own best interest and not those of the state or b) not remaining loyal to supporters/not tyring to adhere to the platform on which they were elected, thus sabotaging the entire democratic process, which hinges on the principal that by choosing candidates, you are choosing policies. (At least in the US; there are countries where you vote for parties, not candidates, and those are a different cup of coffee.)

If one takes this exception to the rule, then it would matter whether or not a politician stole a large sum of money, but not whether they once shoplifted during a drunk night in college. It would matter to me whether they had a history of treating those in positions below them like crap, because that speaks to a basic lack of respect for humans, which I view as a gross immorality. While I do view affairs as immoral, I would not hold a politician who had a one-time affair politically responsible for his action, provided a) he did not lie b) he appeared genuinely contrite about it - as Shwarzenneger appears to be. I would however, hold politicians with multiple affairs (bespeaking not a one-time mistake, but rather a way of life/general attitude towards their marriage) or who dealt poorly with their affairs (example: Jon Edwards) or had affairs in particularly immoral situations (ex. Gingritch, who supposedly had an affair when his wife had cancer - I can not find a reputable source for this) politically responsible.

I can not decide if those who castigate politicians for their personal lives are holding our politicians to a higher standard, or simply define any affair as a gross immorality. Mostly however, I suspect that they are either just muckracking, or muckracking in the hopes of discrediting whichever politician/political party they happen to oppose. That makes me very sad.