C'mon, Dave Letterman Is No Bill Clinton

These days you can't drink and smoke in the office like the ad execs on Mad Men, but when it comes to affairs with young women, working men are still living in the 1960s, writes Maureen Dowd. David Letterman is only the latest boss to fall for the interns and secretaries at his workplace, writes the New York Times columnist, but he's no Clarence Thomas: "We haven’t heard that the curmudgeonly comedian forced any staffers to listen to tales of pubic hairs on Cokes or Long Dong Silver."

"In an ideal world, bosses would refrain from sleeping with subordinates," but Dowd acknowledges that's impossible—even Barack Obama had an office romance, though he went after his superior at the firm. Letterman, still a prim Midwesterner despite his decades in New York, doesn't deserve instant forgiveness, but to compare a comedian's confession to the deceptions of a Bill Clinton makes no sense. Politicians deserve far greater scrutiny, and anyway, "Letterman trusted the public—and his bond with them—enough to tell the truth." (More David Letterman stories.)