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DN Editorial: Sex pol roll call!

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress, in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Thursday. Weiner quit, saying he cannot continue in office amid the intense controversy surrounding sexually explicit messages he sent online to several women. (AP Photo / Richard Drew)
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress, in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Thursday. Weiner quit, saying he cannot continue in office amid the intense controversy surrounding sexually explicit messages he sent online to several women. (AP Photo / Richard Drew)Read more

ANTHONY Weiner.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Edwards.

Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford.

Larry Craig and Mark Foley.

Jim McGreevey and Bill Clinton.

These are just the bold-faced names of elected officials who were caught in sex scandals; Rep. Weiner, the newest member of the hall of shame, stepped down yesterday. This list doesn't even include Rep. Chris Lee, Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bob Livingston, and others going back over the last decade or so.

What do these men have in common?

Besides an inability to keep their pants on, they're all middle-aged white men. Is it a coincidence that this is also a species whose cultural extinction has been tracked for the last few decades? We don't think so. Consider: When animals, like birds or bears or foxes, are threatened, they often fluff their feathers or fur to make themselves appear bigger. The animal who puffs up the biggest wins the territory. Scientists call it "threat display."

Maybe we should further follow scientific protocol with our political class and capture them, study them, and insist they mate only in captivity. *