You can’t answer this question without knowing who the politician is and what the political circumstances are, what party she was in, whether the party was in power or in trouble at the time, etc. I’m not going to say that a woman wouldn’t be treated somewhat differently, I’m sure there would be a degree of sexism…I guess the parallel you could draw would be somewhat the same as the way a female teacher is treated if she sleeps with a teenage student vs. how a male teacher is treated if he does the same…there seems to be more of a “wish I was that guy” mentality vs. the “what a creep” mentality a guy is confronted with. There is still a double standard when it comes to sex vs. men and women in general, and it certainly depends on what the person looks like….a Janet Napolitano would be treated differently than a Sarah Palin.
But in terms of political fallout, I think people in general are less accepting of hypocrisy in their politicians than they are of infidelity. In my view, and it seems to be the generally accepted public view as well that if it doesn’t have to do with their job, then it’s a separate issue. When you make “family values” a cornerstone of your political beliefs, then that really irritates people. If you use public money to fund your indiscretions, then it’s a violation of the public trust. If you’re an effective leader, people care less.
We also have to look at the parties…the Republicans would attempt to destroy any Democrat at any cost, we’ve seen that. Democrats have never really taken the “family values” high ground so they can’t complain about the rotting of our values by keeping this person, but if that person was a “family values” candidate, they too would go in for the kill. Dems would also stand by their own if there were no hypocrisy or misappropriation of public funds and would defend the person based on her ability to do her job. Republicans tend to be less likely to justify these indiscretions at all, but they will if they are in a position of power and this person is too valuable to lose, as Republicans tend to be based more on loyalty and they look at these issues as more absolutes whereas Dems look at things as circumstantial.
So, if Pelosi were to be caught in an affair, she would be treated MUCH differently than Palin, for a number of reasons…Pelosi would fare better in that she is less tied to the family values, where Palin would be torn to shreds over her hypocrisy. Pelosi would also be treated more “seriously” because guys don’t by and large fantasize about her, being older and less attractive than Palin, whereas Palin would be subject to a LOT of snickering behavior. And Dems would defend Pelosi, Republicans would probably send Palin to the wolves because she doesn’t really do anything for them these days. Now, if she were to become the nominee in 2012, Republicans would have to bite their tongues and defend her.