Sex scandals through the years, from Washington to Lincoln

How much of a sex scandal does it take to force a politician out of office?

That question is playing out in Lincoln with State Sen. Bill Kintner given until Friday to resign or face the consequences for his admitted sexual encounter through the use of a state laptop computer.

We've come a long ways since the days when Washington reporters observed some sort of "gentleman's agreement" to look the other way while JFK engaged in extramarital affairs.

Gary Hart dared reporters to follow him around, then was forced out of the presidential race when they observed a young campaign worker at his house and photographed while seated on his lap aboard the chartered yacht, "Monkey Business." That affair was never admitted to, but appearances were enough to end his presidential ambitions.

He's now a special U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

Bill Clinton's presidency blazed new trails in political sex scandals, his affair with a White House intern leading to his disbarrment, fines and impeachment but not his removal from office.

Despite the scandals, he's somehow become an elder statesman with an odds-on chance of moving back into the White House.

Former congressman Anthony Weiner has been an utter failure at rehabilitating his political career, and unlike Bill Clinton, it's costing him his marriage, to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton with her own good chance of spending time in the White House.

Abedin announced she was leaving Weiner after more lewd photos showed up sent from his phone, the same problem that forced him to resign from Congress in 2011 and to drop out of the race for New York mayor two years later.

An outspoken conservative, Sen. Kintner admitted an online sexual encounter on a state computer while he was in Boston July 30.

It turned out the woman involved had ties to an Ivory Coast crime syndicate, and threatened to expose Kintner unless he paid her $4,500.

During the online encounter, Kintner expressed reluctance to hurt his wife of seven years, Lauren Kintner, Gov. Pete Rickett's top policy adviser. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer shortly after he returned from Boston.

Realizing he was scammed, Kintner immediately reported himself to the Nebraska State Patrol. He was later fined $1,000 by a state accountability board for using the state computer in the encounter.

The Legislature's executive board voted 9-0 Monday to send Kintner a letter calling for him to resign by Friday.

If he refuses, as many expect, it would require 33 of the 49 state senators to vote to expell him from the Legislature.

An avowed Christian, the Omaha senator has made many enemies through inflammatory comments such as comparing fellow senators to monkeys, comparing lobbyists and politicans to prostitutes and using the term "wetback" during a debate on immigration.

If Kintner doesn't resign, fellow Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers threatens to keep the issue alive by reading the transcript of the encounter on the floor of the Legislature, writing poems full of puns and double entendres and other methods.

It's true the scandal is a distraction from the Legislature's important business, but we wonder where the issue would be were Kintner's politics to fall farther to the left.