A sex scandal for the Internet age
For generations, congressmen and senators have cheated on their wives in Washington, but the Web has changed the rules of the game, said Michelle Cottle on TheDailyBeast.com.
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Michelle Cottle
TheDailyBeast.com
In the long and glorious annals of Washington sex scandals, said Michelle Cottle, U.S. Rep. Christopher Lee has truly made history. Lee resigned last week just hours after the gossip website Gawker posted a story revealing that Lee, a married conservative Republican from upstate New York, had sent a shirtless photo of himself to a woman advertising for a boyfriend on Craigslist.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It was, in many respects, a sex scandal completely defined by the Internet age: Lee answered an online ad, sent some cheesy e-mails and a laughable beefcake photo to the woman (“I promise not to disappoint,” he boasted), and since he used his own name, the woman discovered that he was a married congressman simply by Googling him. When she notified the gossip website, Lee resigned “before the mainstream media could clear its throat.”
For generations, congressmen and senators have cheated on their wives in Washington, but the Web has changed the rules of the game. Today, a philanderer “can be brought down by a sex scandal before he even comes close to having sex.”
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 24 September 2023
The Week’s daily digest of the news agenda, published at 8am
By The Week Staff Published
-
Crossword: September 24, 2023
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku hard: September 24, 2023
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Why Rubio isn’t a hero to Latinos
feature Latinos know that “the GOP’s rock star” supported Arizona’s harsh immigration law and opposed the DREAM act, said Ruben Navarrette Jr. at The Dallas Morning News.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Viewpoint: Thomas Sowell
feature From NationalReview.com: “The purpose of American immigration laws and policies is not to be either humane or inhumane to illegal immigrants....
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The price we paid for torture
feature A former U.S. military interrogator in Iraq says it isn't necessary to use torture to extract information from hardened terrorists; it instills foreign jihadists with a desire for revenge and costs the lives of American soldiers.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Best columns: The real lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis
feature If the Cuban Missile Crisis is to be used as an example of presidential leadership during a nuclear showdown, then it's necessary to separate history from mythology, said Michael Dobbs in The Washington Post.
By The Week Staff Last updated