Scandal? Just Don't Resign

Matt Yglesias notes that the contrasting fates of Eliot Spitzer and guys like Bill Clinton or Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) "shows that Spitzer's problem was much simpler than that -- he resigned. When a reasonably popular public official is hit with a scandal of a personal nature, the natural immediate first reaction of his same-party colleagues is to want to get rid of him."

"But if you resist that first wave... Suddenly all your same-party colleagues have an incentive to defend you and to attack your enemies. Suddenly an incumbent Republican in Louisiana is just another guy with a safe seat. An incumbent President presiding over an economic boom is super-popular. And I bet an incumbent Democratic governor in New York could have cruised to re-election."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PoliticalWire/~3/Is5prYB0EjQ/scandal_just_dont_resign.html

CHARLIE RANGEL CHARLIE WILSON CHELSEA CLINTON CHICAGO (ILL)