No, this little public titillation bores me. It makes me yearn for the days when someone caught in a so-called sex scandal acted with integrity. Someone who could actually become a role model because of the way they conducted themselves in public after having their private life exposed. And someone like that happens to be a personal hero of mine.

The year was 1983 and a huge sex scandal was brewing in Washington, D.C. Only instead of the White House, it was Congress' behavior that was under the magnifying glass. You see, 3 or 4 members of the House had been caught with their "members" in places they weren't supposed to be: in Congressional Pages (those young adults who act as gophers around Capital Hill). The whole mess was called the "Page Scandal".

One of the jokes at the time: How do you know if a Congressman has been reading a particular book? All of the pages are bent over!

One of the representatives implicated in the scandal was a Republican from Illinois who made the Christian Coalition have wet dreams: he was a staunch conservative who heralded "family values". He also had a lovely wife and several toothy children. And he had been caught having relations with a young female page.

Another of the representatives charged with inappropriate behavior was the exact opposite. Rep. Gerry Studds was a Democrat from Massachusetts who's voting record was very liberal. He was single. And he had somehow managed to find the time to have an affair with a male page.

Eventually the House of Representatives censured (an official reprimand and shaming) all of the representatives who had been implicated. Both the conservative and the liberal representatives had to stand before their peers and listen as the bill for censure was read.

Our Illinois conservative cried. He held a press conference after the censure and stood beside his wife and children and wept. He also begged and pleaded for forgiveness (he pulled a "Swaggart"). He asked God to forgive him too. And although I am sure that God did, the voters did not. In 1984, by a wide margin, his district voted him out of office (Reagan was elected President for the second time in 1984; a Republican incumbent not re-elected says a lot).

Rep. Studds handled things differently. As his colleagues in the House read their censure of him, he turned his back and ignored them. He too held a press conference afterwards. Standing beside him was the male page with whom he had the relationship. And instead of apologizing, both Studds and the page said that what had happened between them was nobody's business but their own. The twosome pointed out that they had been consenting adults acting in private. And if people had a problem with that it was just too bad, because it was none of their business.

Basically Rep. Studds told his colleagues, the media, and the voyeuristic elements of the American populace, to fuck off. And considering that he had just become the first openly gay member of Congress, that took not only integrity, but balls too!

He was easily re-elected in 1984 (and five more times after that) by his constituents.

So what lesson should Bill Clinton take from the Page Scandal of 1983? Perhaps that Americans don't like hypocrites (and considering most of us knew we were getting a President with a roving eye, his behavior is not hypocritical). And that we can respect someone (even if we don't agree with them) who stands up for themselves and their right to privacy.