Politicians who crossed the line are…
Politics isn’t exactly known for being squeaky clean, but some politicians don’t just bend the rules—they straight-up shred the rulebook, light it on fire, and dance around the ashes. These aren’t your everyday corrupt suits. These are the ones who went full-on off the rails, somehow thinking no one would notice. Or worse, they just didn’t care.
Let’s take a ride through 11 jaw-dropping, head-shaking cases of politicians who crossed the line so hard they couldn’t even see it in the rearview.
Richard Nixon – Watergate and the Art of the Cover-Up
Nixon didn’t need to spy on the Democrats. He was already winning. But no, he had to go full paranoid and break into the DNC like it was Mission Impossible. Then he tried to cover it up like a kid hiding a broken lamp behind the couch. Spoiler: it didn’t work. He resigned in disgrace and left a permanent “DO NOT TRUST” sticker on the presidency.
Ted Stevens
Long-serving Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was convicted in 2008 of failing to report gifts, including home renovations paid for by oil contractors. Though the conviction was later thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct, the damage to his reputation was irreversible. He lost his re-election bid and remains a cautionary tale about transparency, ethics, and the legal tightrope politicians walk.
Bill Clinton
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Oh, Bill. You did. And the blue dress told the truth. Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky wasn’t just a scandal—it was a national obsession. It led to impeachment, late-night jokes for a decade, and probably the most awkward marriage moments in White House history. He stayed in office, though. Because charisma, apparently, beats consequences.
Jim Traficant
Jim Traficant was loud, weird, and kind of fun to watch—until you found out he was also corrupt as hell. Bribery, racketeering, tax evasion… the guy was practically a one-man crime ring with a Congressional pin.
He got kicked out of Congress and landed in prison. But he always stuck to his line: “Beam me up, Mr. Speaker.” And honestly, somebody probably should’ve.
Anthony Weiner
Congressman Weiner shared explicit pics and messages with multiple women on Twitter, then lied about it—until his “bulge in boxer briefs” hit the press. He resigned in 2011, tried a comeback in 2013 under the alias “Carlos Danger,” and eventually shared lewd content with a minor, earning a prison sentence—21 months behind bars.
Christopher “Matt” Gaetz
The Floridian congressman has been under federal investigation since 2021 for allegedly sleeping with a 17-year-old and sex trafficking. He denies everything and claims it’s part of a political hit—but hey, “never let the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy theory,” right? .
Herman Cain
This 2012 GOP presidential hopeful was blindsided by multiple harassment and affair claims—one woman even alleged a 13-year-long relationship. Shrugged it off at first, but pressure forced him to drop out.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Oversight and approval of California’s state budget, which saw its deficit swell to $45 million during Schwarzenegger’s last year in office despite cost-cutting measures including state worker furloughs, eliminated holidays, a shortened school year and early “nonrevocable” parole for low-level prisoners.
He was accused that he had an affair with a long-time member of the household staff and of fathering a child with her before his first term as governor. That child is now believed to be 14 years old.
Larry Craig
Flashback to 2007: an Idaho senator caught in a Minneapolis airport bathroom sting for trying to meet up in the men’s room. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge—and his career basically died on the spot. Denials and reversal attempts didn’t save him .
John Edwards & Rielle Hunter
The golden-boy Democrat fell hard in 2008 when he admitted he’d knocked up campaign staffer Rielle Hunter—while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer. To make matters worse, he allegedly used campaign money to hush it up. His career and reputation cratered in epic fashion.
Barney Frank
Massachusetts’s outspoken congressman in the 1990s got scolded by the House Ethics Committee after it came out his partner was running an escort service out of Frank’s house. Yep—political scandal with a side of irony.
Eliot Spitzer
Once the crusading “Wall Street Sheriff,” Spitzer got blindsided by his own hypocrisy when The New York Times outed him as Client 9—a big-time user of the elite Emperors Club escort service. He dropped thousands on escorts like Ashley Dupre, resigned in shame in 2008, and has since been a cautionary tale about preaching morality while dipping your hands in the cookie jar.
James E. McGreevey
New Jersey’s governor hit the headlines in 2004 when he not only admitted to cheating on his wife but also came out as gay—and told his husband he’d met through the Homeland Security Office. Full public meltdown ensued, complete with resignation and press scrutiny.
Walter Jenkins
This one’s wild: LBJ’s top aide got caught having sex with a man in a YMCA bathroom in 1964—right before a presidential election. He resigned in a flurry, the church gasped, and the scandal was kept under wraps for all of five minutes.
Dan Crane & Gerry Studds
In 1983, Congress went wild when two representatives—Crane from Illinois and Studds from Massachusetts—were rebuked for having sex with 17-year-old congressional pages. Not prison material, but career-ruining enough to force House reprimands.
Wilbur Mills & Fanne Foxe
The 1970s saw a topless stripper (Fanne Foxe) choking Congressman Mills after a booze-fueled ride into Washington’s Tidal Basin. Picture it: powerful politician, drunk, stripper, wind in your hair—then a national scandal so juicy it practically wrote its own headlines.
John F. Kennedy
Kennedy was one of the politicians who crossed the line, starting to release his files full of sex scandals involving the president himself, one by one, as soon as it became apparent that he was going to fire FBI Director Edgar Hoover.
Hoover, in his increasingly pathological rage, had recorded all of the president’s phone conversations with his sex-play girlfriends, including the famous Marilyn Monroe, whose bedroom was occupied by both Kennedy brothers, and eavesdropped on every “love nest” that Kennedy had with them.
Domenik Strauss-Kan
Domenik Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF, was recently embroiled in a sexual scandal. The former head of the IMF was among a “squad of rapists” at a hotel in Washington in 2010, according to a Belgian prostitute. Although Strauss-Kahn has refuted the allegations, the 63-year-old was charged with participating in a prostitution ring with three other individuals.
Despite being thrown out as a case, the rape accusation cost him his political career because, before it, he was considered a possible presidential candidate in France. His arrest has been the subject of several theories, including “a conspiracy.”
So… What Do We Learn From This?
You can do a lot of messed-up stuff in politics and still bounce back. Cheat, lie, steal, vanish, smoke crack—it’s all been done. And in some cases? Voters just shrug and say, “Well, at least he’s entertaining.”
That’s the weird part. Scandals don’t always kill careers. Sometimes they supercharge them. It’s like the more unhinged a politician gets, the more headlines they grab—and the more people remember their name. Good or bad? Depends on how cynical you are.
But here’s the deal: These 11 folks didn’t just cross the line—they did cartwheels over it, set off fireworks, and dared anyone to stop them. And sometimes, nobody did.
Check out: Resurfaced: 5 Clinton Scandals Still Harm US Politics.