Schwarzenegger not alone in love child land

When the Los Angeles Times broke the news Tuesday morning that former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had done just that, the first comparisons made were to former presidential candidate John Edwards. Edwards, as we all know too well, fathered a daughter with his campaign staffer Rielle Hunter and, like Schwarzenegger, didn’t acknowledge early tabloid reports. But Edwards isn’t the only one in the political-baby-daddy club.

University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato notes that the most famous historical example was President Grover Cleveland. An unmarried Cleveland took responsibility for an illegitimate child during his first run for the presidency in 1884. The line “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?” was used by Cleveland’s opponents, with supporters responding,”Gone to the White House, ha! Ha! Ha!”

“The irony was that the lady in question had several suitors, shall we say, and the child may not have ever been Cleveland’s,” Sabato told Yeas & Nays. “Very gentlemanly of him.”

Others on the list include Rep. Dan Burton, who admitted an illegitimate son in 1998 in the aftermath of President Bill Clinton‘s affair with Monica Lewinsky. Sen. Strom Thurmond had an illegitimate daughter, who revealed herself in 2003 after his death.

Add to the list Rep. Vito Fossella, whose mistress picked him up from jail after a DUI arrest in 2008. The couple’s daughter was three years old at the time. During the 2010 New York gubernatorial campaign, it came out that Republican candidate Carl Paladino had fathered a love child as well.

Sabato reminds us that you don’t discuss the politics of love children without looking at how John McCain‘s 2000 bid for the Republican presidential nomination was affected by just the mere hint of one. McCain’s presidential aspirations were quashed when an anonymous smear campaign took hold, convincing some that McCain had fathered an illegitimate child. It was later revealed that he had not, but the damage was already done.