One of the perversities of public life is that disgraced politicians seeking a comeback rely on clownish self-parody, while entertainers cloak themselves in moral — and immoral — seriousness....Wrong, vulgar and shaming. That’s the least of it, but these days, in Hollywood and Washington, it’s the price of re-entry.
It's an interesting attempt to look at the intersection point between celebrity and political culture as they've drawn culture to each other, I suppose. But the problem is, they aren't actually parallels. Tom DeLay isn't going to be able to get back into politics on the strength of his cha-cha (his comments about acting "prissy" are simultaneously totally unserious and an unnerving reminder of his attitudes towards gay people). Rod Blagojevich isn't ever going to be elected to anything ever again: his scrabbling attempts to get onto reality television simply magnify his delusions, and magnify them to audiences who might have only thought of him before as a vaguely corrupt politician from somewhere in the Midwest. What worked about Bob Dole's Viagra commercials is precisely that they were the act of a man who was done with his political career, and as a result could afford to demonstrate that he had a sense of humor (and provide fodder for Arlen Specter. Ladies and gentlemen, I have seen the Senator from Pennsylvania doing live standup, telling Bob Dole Viagra jokes, as well as the doorbell jest that features in this episode of Freaks and Geeks. The man can wear a plaid sport coat and drink a martini.). Stanley's column doesn't work because for the politicians she cites, there aren't any roads back, much less ones that involve sequined vests.
We let artists come back, and we love it when they end up revealing and working from something truly and deeply degrading because that's part of what we turn to art for. We want artists to embody both our most embarrassing, personal, emotions and experiences and to demonstrate that it's possible to overcome them. Whitney Houston may be a hot mess who can't take responsibility for her drug use, but her edited voice still has some dignity to it. As long as some of us can relate to it, we can welcome artists back from it.
It's not the same with politicians, at least not entirely. Bill Clinton can come back from adultery because he was sufficiently apologetic without sacrificing his dignity himself, however humiliating and dorky the Star Report may have been. David Vitter can survive a prostitution scandal because he never seemed that credible or serious in the first place, which lessens the fall a bit. But both men proceeded with the business of their lives, without awkwardly shaking their hips while wearing old-man sweatpants on national television. Despite their self-inflicted wounds, they refused to sacrifice their dignity. Both men are seriously flawed, but in their own ways, they managed to hang onto their political careers because they behaved as we expected politicians to behave: soberly and steadfastly. Tom DeLay may have shimmied himself back into the spotlight, but it's not the same one he had on the past. There may be currency to be had in being on the Z-List as well as on Congressional voting lists. But no one should mistake star power for political power.