Blame It on the Primal Brain of Homo Politicus

If politicians have long been held to a higher moral standard, why do so many flawed and fallible men seem driven to take it on as a career? One reason is because they've got the ideal personality for it. Psychologists believe that certain types of personalities are more likely to engage in infidelity -- and that those traits uncannily overlap with traits common to politicians.

"Extroverted, prone to be socially dominant, those are traits associated with infidelity and with good politicians," says David Schmitt, a professor of psychology at Bradley University. "The ability to compartmentalize -- not necessarily to viciously lie, but to hold back some truths in one context and then tell those truths in a different context, that's almost the definition of a politician."

Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, Bob Livingston, Newt Gingrich -- chatty extroverts all. Until, of course, they're caught. After the downfall of these men, the public never got so much as a wave hello from the naughty rascal who caused all the trouble, even though everyone knew the naughty rascal was in there somewhere. Nary a peep about the rich, perhaps rococo set of yearnings, desires and weaknesses that led to failure in the first place.

We're left in the dark. How does the sheriff in Spitzer tolerate his dark side? Does Sheriff Guy have contempt for Dark Side Guy? Or vice versa? Does it even make sense to talk about two Spitzers? And if it does, how often do they talk?

Often, and in a state of great turmoil, say sex therapists. The evolutionary psychologists emphasize the inevitability of the Spitzer scandal, but that doesn't mean it's fun. Ask shrinks who deal with cheaters on a regular basis and they'll tell you: These people are unhappy.

"They're worried, they're anxious, a lot are depressed," says Katherine Rachlin, a sex therapist in Manhattan who's treated her share of wayward spouses. "I hear them say all the time, 'I can't get caught because it would be too disastrous.' " Rachlin isn't convinced that Spitzer is one of the tortured. He might have felt entitled to an extramarital dalliance now and then, she suggests, and perhaps figured that as long as he didn't get caught he wasn't hurting anyone.

But Greg Dillon, another psychiatrist in New York, doubts that Spitzer found his own conduct anything but appalling. He's too smart, Dillon says, and too acutely aware of his own hypocrisy to feel anything else: "It's always the ones loudest about morality who are bothered most by their moral failings."