Do Scandals Matter Anymore in Politics?

Now that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned after being linked to a prostitution ring several years ago has said he'll run for New York City Comptroller, there seems to be a line of thinking that scandals, sex scandals in particular, don't matter like they used to in politics.

This thinking started with return of former SC Gov. Mark Sanford, who ran for and won his old congressional seat in May. 

Former congressman Anthony Weiner, who also left office in shame, is now running for mayor of New York City.

At first glance, the returns of these men--we're still waiting for our first sex scandal involving a female politician--seem to indicate that scandals aren't as damaging as they used to be.

But let's also consider that Sanford, Weiner and now Spitzer made their returns by running for offices that are tailor made for their ideologies. SC1 is a 55-45 Republican district and New York City is overwhelmingly Democratic.

True, the candidates have to survive a primary, but in a primary most every political expert will tell you the advantage of name ID is second only to the advantage of money. And Sanford, Weiner and Spitzer have both.

Furthermore, if scandals don't matter, why did they have to leave office in the first place?

And, will we "forgive" a woman elected official when she is involved in a sex scandal, because that will eventually happen?

Therefore, isn't it presumptuous to say that voters don't think scandals matters anymore?