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Washington people are very excited by reporter Marc Ambinder's claim that there is a whole lot of secret sex going on in the city. "The number of times that one would hear of, reliably, a member of Congress having some sort of affair with a lobbyist, or not even an affair if they’re single, having a romp or a rendezvous with a lobbyist or senior congressional staff members doing the same," Ambinder, who is a contributor to The Atlantic, explained on Bloggingheads. "It happens on the campaign trail to a significant degree, the cohabitation between the staff and journalists. It happens in the most storied corridors of power, cohabitation between Secret Service agents and White House staff." Politico's Patrick Gavin gushes that Ambinder has "pulled back the curtain on Washington’s secret sex culture." A string of words that causes Daily Intel's Dan Amira recoils in horror. The Atlantic Wire is skeptical. It seems more likely Washington is full of boring people who like to think of themselves as naughty.
Sure, nerds have sex, too. But how do we know Washington is not more sexed than the rest of the country? Let's look at the facts.
Fact: Wealthy people are not more sexed than the rest of us. In fact it's just the opposite. The Senate is becoming a millionaire's club, and Vice President Joe Biden has been mocked as a "relative pauper," what with his puny $2 million home. But all that money doesn't buy a sex life. The Washington Post notes that "poorer women are more likely to cheat than wealthy women," according research by Boston College economist Donald Cox. (Congressmen want to control poor people's sex lives by regulating contraception because they think somebody out there is having a little fun that they're missing out on, according to my mom, who could give David Brooks a run for his money on the pop sociology beat.)
