You are the man! -- 2 Samuel 12:7

It has become fashionable to pretend a separation of private from public lives. You know how it goes: "What I do in private is nobody's business ... Keep your nose out of my affairs! ... There's no connection between a person's private life and her or his profession ... What I do on my own time is of no concern of yours ... We're not a reincarnation of the Soviet Union! ... He's doing a good job! So leave him alone! Everybody deserves a private life!" The assumption suggests it's possible to be publicly productive even if privately perverted. Certainly, revelations from Pennsylvania Avenue have generated our recent obsession with the issue in an increasingly more seamy than serious way.

While tabloids, the tobacco industry, and Saturday Night Live are benef…