Oh, those frisky politicians who can’t keep it in their pants! One after the other, politicians from Eliot Spitzer to Bill Clinton have been busted for cheating on their wives. But even if it disgusts you, does it affect the way you view their public service? We sent our girl Lori out onto the streets to see whether a politician’s personal life affects your vote.

At this point, it’s redundant to dissect the various political sexcapades of late (although, if you can’t get enough, there’s a great new book of um, politician erotica out called Sex for America). But all that talk of cheating has many of us civilians looking over our partners’ shoulders. And I think every woman cringed a little when we saw Silda, tear-stained yet stoic, standing by the man that publicly shamed her. Would you do the same?

Some people attract commitment-phobes. Others attract loveaholics. I, on the other hand, attract a mutant combination of both: taken men who keep on looking. At first I thought this was merely a bad luck streak. But after being hit on, pursued by, or inadvertently involved with seven attached men in half a year’s time, I have determined that infidelity is not just something in the air. This is cosmic revenge.

Who better to answer relationship conundrums than random people we found on the street? Lori posed the tough questions, and they answered pretty brilliantly. Enjoy!

When I think of virtual reality, I think of those goofy Star Trek-looking visor/headsets that people thought would transport them to their ultimate fantasy world back in the early ‘90s.  I certainly never thought the term would apply to my life. And yet, for more than a year, I was involved in what can only be deemed a virtual affair – a torrid, explicitly sexual relationship with a dude whom I never screwed, kissed, or even touched in real life.

Well that’s not entirely true. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like one of those Internet relationships that are sparked by desperate people in the wee hours of the morning in singles chat rooms. This was a guy that I knew. That I’d met. That I’d flirted with in real time and felt instant, palpable chemistry with—the kind that you can only really feel if you are in the same physical space. But our “relationship” was never consummated. Not even close.

If you think America is hard on our cheaters, philanderers have been stoned to death in Iran up until this year.  Although there has been a moratorium on the harsh capital punishment since 2002, last year, Jafar Kiani, who was accused of adultery, died by stoning when local authorities took justice into their own hands.  His lover, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, remained in prison with their son for over a decade. But Ebrahimi managed to beat the odds of facing the same fate yesterday in court. The 34-year-old mother not only had her death sentence repealed, but immediately released. Ebrahimi was in such disbelief she told her lawyer, “It may be a trick—they aren’t going to release me, I can’t believe it.” Although death by stoning is still set in stone in traditional Iranian law, with twelve people still in jail awaiting their sentence to be carried out, this victory is truly groundbreaking. [BBC]

Thanks to Feministing for reminding us to mention something that’s been hardcore bugging us about this whole Eliot Spitzer scandal. Why do the wives of these politicians have to get up on stage with them while they confess their sins to the public? Chances are they probably just found out the truth themselves and instead of getting to behave like normal betrayed women (whether that means crying, screaming, breaking glasses, plotting revenge, decapitation, or all of the above), they have to do the whole “stand by your man” thing. So unfair! Is that the price you have to pay as the wife of a public official? Can’t these ladies at least chill in the green room scowling and clutching a glass of bourbon, their dignity intact? It’s such a bummer to have to play supportive wife to these cheating scoundrels. Anyway, this is indeed a good excuse for a lil’ Tammy Wynette. Enjoy!

Oh Eliot Spitzer, what were you thinking? The Governor from New York admitted yesterday that he had been linked to a prostitution ring and government officials are pushing for him to resign or risk impeachment. But what’s really got our goat is the fact that this is yet another case of a powerful guy with a solid family risking it all for a little fun playing doctor with a hooker. In an article in AM New York, a psychotherapist says that high-powered people with fast-paced jobs and responsibility like dangerous, illicit, illegal behavior because it gives them that rush that they can’t get from anywhere else, since they’ve developed such a high-threshold for mental and emotional stimulation. Okay, fine, get that, but why are they also so stupid? “All reasoning and respect for the law go out the window,” says Jonathan Alpert.

A study published in February’s Psychological Science found that women in relationships are more likely to consider cheating with single men when they’re fertile, but they’d go after attached men when they’re not. Researchers think this might be because nature wants us to make babies, and if a man’s not as willing to get busy, he’s a waste of time. When women are not in a baby-making moment, they want someone who could nicely replace their current partner, and men who are already in relationships show that they can commit. Single women, on the other hand, don’t give a crap whether a man’s single or attached. They just wanna make out. [Nature News]

Admit it—we’ve all done something we’re not proud of. Maybe you’ve never said it out loud, but we all have the capacity to be cruel. The Bad Girlfriend is a friend of ours who we love for being trustworthy and smart, funny and exceedingly loyal…to her girlfriends, that is. But boyfriends? That’s another story. We pity the fools who end up on her arm—give it a few months, a year, even three, and suddenly they won’t know what hit ‘em. We don’t expect you to love her, but we do expect that you may, begrudgingly, see a bit of yourself in her bad deeds.

I admit it; I’m a bad girlfriend. I’ve lied, cheated, and stolen from my boyfriends. Still, I always learn a valuable lesson after each new breakup.

Lie detectors are such a load of crap that they’re not even admissible in a court of law, which is why the premise of the Fox show The Moment of Truth is so ridiculous while at the same time totally addictive. On the show, contestants have answered a series of questions while hooked up to a lie detectors—whether they were telling the truth or lying was noted off-camera. On camera, the contestants sit in front of three loved ones and answer 21 of the questions at random—the more questions you answer truthfully, the more money you win, with an eventual jackpot of $500,000. Too bad the questions range from “Have you ever jay-walked?” to “If you could cheat on your wife without getting busted, would you?” Awkwardness ensues, as seen in the clip above! While we’d like to think we have no skeletons in our closet, we don’t think we’d ever be brave enough to go on this show—after all, just because you have checked out another chick’s tits in the gym showers, doesn’t mean you’re a perv. [You Tube]

Sure, this time of year is generally when people tend to remember what they’re thankful for—things like health, work, family, and friends—but the holidays are also ideal for cheating on your significant other. Who knew! With holiday parties and frantic shopping sprees as excuses, we have plenty of opportunities to deceive each other, which is really sad, because if you can’t be faithful around Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza, when can you? We think cheating around the holidays would make someone an even bigger ass than he would be if he cheated at any other time of year, so if you have a bad feeling about someone being a scumbag, here are a few things to be on the lookout for (and how we think you can prevent such suspicious behavior)…

The National Enquirer is reporting that a woman who was allegedly having an affair with Presidential candidate John Edwards for over a year is pregnant with his child (though she, Edwards, and the man she says is the father are denying it). Elizabeth, Edwards’ wife, has been sick with cancer for the last few years. [National Enquirer]