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"\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\n\n\n Five years ago, Eliot Spitzer became the \"Love Gov\"\u2014a kinky tabloid cover star with a penchant for prostitutes and leaving his socks on during (unprotected) sex. Now he'd like you to forget, or at least forgive all of that, as he launches a political comeback. At a major demotion from his last job, he's running for New York City comptroller. And he actually has a shot.\"Two words: Mark Sanford. If Mark Sanford can win, everybody can win,\" Larry Sabato, director of University of Virginia's Center for Politics, told Cosmopolitan.com. \"Look at how Bill Clinton rehabilitated himself after lying and putting the country through all that. If he can do it, they can all come back.\"By \"they all,\" he means a motley crew of disgraced comeback kids, led by former South Carolina governor Sanford, who claimed he was \"hiking the Appalachian Trail\" when he was really visiting his mistress in Argentina. After a fall from grace and a two-year break, he recently won a House of Representatives seat in his home state. And of course there's Anthony Weiner, the congressman who tweeted erection pics and sexted online supporters, and is now a frontrunner in the New York mayoral race.If three's a trend, Sanford, Weiner and Spitzer prove that f*cking around on the job doesn't necessary mean political suicide. Although the voters have yet to speak on Weiner and Spitzer, there's an \"everybody loves a comeback\" (subtext: \"boys will be boys\") vibe in the air\u2014and a distinct double standard underlying it all. Because chances are, a female politician could never bounce back from a male prostitute scandal or live down sexting her cleavage to a young male supporter. \"Not a chance,\" Sabato said. \"We either haven't progressed or regressed to the point where a female politician would be treated the same in this sort of situation. One major slip-up and they're out\u2014whereas based on all of the recent examples, men can screw up and keep coming back over and over again.\"Not that we're wishing for Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand or Barbara Boxer to get embroiled in sordid affairs, then pull a Sanford and return in less prestigious roles. To the credit of women in office, Sabato cites a number of studies indicating that female politicians are viewed more positively than men, because it is assumed that if they're braving the old boy's club of politics, they're doing so with the best of intentions.As a 2011 New York Times piece written in the wake of the Weiner scandal said, \"Women in Congress are still really in a situation where they have to prove themselves to their male colleagues and constituents. There's sort of this extra level of seriousness.\" \n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\n(That, and as Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has pointed out, \"Who has the time? I don't have enough time in the day to take care of the responsibilities I have between work and family.\")In a perfect world, shouldn't politicians\u2014regardless of their gender\u2014be held to the same standard of honesty and duty to their constituents? But God Bless the U.S.\u2014because we do have a choice, via our vote, in the matter of re-electing the same smarm. \"We have to attract better people,\" Sabato says. \"Period.\"Follow Michelle on Twitter."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a13997/eliot-spitzer-double-standard/>