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By Theodore
Fischer, Washington Sidewalk
Hollywood
must have had a crystal ball when it made Wag the Dog,
a satirical comedy about an elaborate cover-up of a
presidential sex scandal. In fact, around these parts missteps
by POTUS (the in-the-know acronym for president of the United
States) are simply part of the scenery. The latest sex scandal
grew out of a daylong encounter between the FBI and Monica
Lewinsky, former White House intern and alleged Clinton
paramour, in a room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at the Fashion
Centre at Pentagon City. During breaks, the FBI and
Lewinsky, whose mother has an apartment in the Watergate
complex, went window-shopping at Crate & Barrel and ate
dinner at Mozzarella's Cafe.
Bill
Clinton: A
scandal involving top adviser Dick Morris' toe-sucking
sessions at the Jefferson Hotel (Suite 205, 16th and M
streets N.W.) with hooker Sherry Rowlands broke the night of
Clinton's renomination. Rowlands' toes must have been Teflon
coated because Clinton was renominated anyway.
George
Bush: In
September 1989, Bush delivered a get-tough-on-drugs
speech in Lafayette Square, in the shadow of a
purported cocaine bust near the White House. This dog-and-pony
show was later exposed as a setup by zealous Drug Enforcement
Administration agents who had lured a bewildered coke dealer
into the park.
Ronald Reagan: The basement headquarters of the
National Security Council in the Old Executive Office
Building was the incubator of the Iran-Contra scandal, the
place where Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall,
shredded reams of classified documents describing the scheme.
Richard Nixon: Can you spell Watergate?
Lyndon Johnson: On Oct. 7, 1964, a month before the
presidential election, chief White House aide Walter Jenkins
was busted in the men's room of the "G Street Y,"
the YMCA at 1736 G St. N.W. (now the site of FDIC offices) for
"disorderly conduct," a '60s term of art for
homosexual activity. Within a week, Jenkins resigned and
Johnson was re-elected with 61 percent of the popular vote.
John Kennedy: JFK is alleged to have had trysts in the White
House with Marilyn Monroe, among others. Mary Pinchot
Meyer, a woman with whom Kennedy was having an affair, was the
victim of a still-unsolved October 1964 murder on the C&O
Canal towpath in Georgetown. As a senator, Kennedy kept a
suite at the Mayflower Hotel, now the Renaissance
Mayflower (1127 Connecticut Ave. N.W.), for strictly private
business.
Franklin Roosevelt: One FDR mistress was Missy Le Hand,
a personal secretary who lived and worked in the White
House until she became ill in 1941. The president's long
affair with his wife Eleanor's former social secretary, Lucy
Mercer, lasted until his death; she was with Roosevelt when he
died in Warm Springs, Ga., in 1945 but departed when Eleanor
showed up for the funeral.
Warren Harding: While serving as a senator, Harding
impregnated his mistress, Nan Britton, in his office at the U.S.
Capitol. On the eve of his presidential inauguration,
Harding's aides guarded his room at the Willard Hotel
to make sure he didn't slip upstairs to a lady friend's
chamber. Harding used a since-demolished tunnel under 16th
Street from the Hay-Adams Hotel to escape official
functions for less savory haunts.
Photo/image credits: Kit
Alderdice, Washington Sidewalk
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