Political Sex Scandal and Rehabilitation, Italian Style: Weiner & Marrazzo

The recent announcement that Weiner is taking some time away to go to that sex addiction treatment facility where Tiger Woods went has me thinking a lot about the differences between Italian and American political cultures and sexual mores. Weiner-gate has struck me as underwhelming, the public response as frightening in its glee as it watches another man undone by his impulses.

When I arrived in Rome in the fall of 2009, the big political scandal of the day was such a doozy that it beggars belief: two police officers attempted to blackmail the governor of Lazio, Piero Marrazzo, with video of him consorting with multiple transexual (and most likely illegal immigrant) prostitutes and doing a lot of blow.
The police officers were arrested for blackmail, the tranny prostitutes who videotaped the gatherings and consorted with Marrazzo died in suspicious circumstances, and Marrazzo stepped down from his post.

Piero Marrazzo and his "friend" Brenda.

As part of his contrition to his family and to the public, Marrazzo wrote a letter to the Pope to beg for forgiveness and then allegedly scampered off to a monastery for a few weeks of contemplation and spiritual cleansing. He has since gone on to work in television, where he started his career.

It seems that the American script of get caught, get sorry, get out, get back into the world is becoming more universal.

Then again, there's always Silvio, who has never apologized for any of his antics with women.