Most of my readers will remember Republican Bruce Herschensohn, a wonderful conservative commentator, who narrowly lost a Senate race to Democrat Barbara Boxer in 1992. Herschensohn’s campaign was derailed a few days before the election when it was reported that he had visited strip clubs and viewed pornographic materials. The allegations were the central focus of media attention in the closing days of the campaign.

As California pollster Arnold Steinberg notes, “By the time Herschensohn had lost against the unimpressive Barbara Boxer, it turned out that the Republican was indeed guilty of � what? Along with his girlfriend and another couple, the four had attended a show at a Hollywood strip club.” Herschensohn also admitted that he occasionally read Penthouse magazine.

Now comes word, according to this Star-Ledger article, that former New Jersey governor James McGreevey visited go-go bars so frequently before he became governor that “his advisers admonished him to stop, warning that he risked political immolation.”

McGreevey’s taste for go-go bars already was well-established when he made his first run for political office, winning an Assembly seat in 1989 at age 32.

Indeed, aides say he wasn’t especially secretive about the strip club visits, which continued with regularity even after his 1991 marriage to Kari Schutz, a librarian he had met on a singles cruise to Bermuda, and even as he began a run for mayor of Woodbridge.

Three long-standing political allies said McGreevey sometimes broke away from campaigning for hours at a time to visit go-go bars in Sayreville, South Amboy, Old Bridge and Rahway. The trips were common enough to merit their own euphemism around the mayoral campaign: “McGreevey is out knocking on doors in Sayreville.”

Which raises the question: Why, if Herschensohn’s single visit to a strip club was worthy of front page headlines, did McGreevey’s frequent visits to similar clubs receive little or no media attention?

(Thanks to reader Richard Davis for bringing the Star-Ledger article about McGreevey to my attention.)

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