Does adultery end political careers?

South Carolina Republicans flubbed their test earlier this year by voting for Mark Sanford, who showed himself unfaithful to his wife and his constituents but is nevertheless back in Congress. Now New York City Democrats have a double-barreled chance to show politicians that flagrant adultery means an inescapable end to voter trust.

Regarding prostitute patronizer Eliot Spitzer, The New York Times reported yesterday that “an unlikely coalition of business leaders, women’s groups and labor unions is vowing to finance an ambitious effort to thwart the former governor’s ambition.” Those groups are pledging to raise and spend at least $1.5 million to fight Spitzer’s bid to be elected comptroller, New York’s chief financial officer.

Business leaders despise Spitzer because he grandstanded by treating so many of them as crooks, often not distinguishing between economic freedom and fraud. Labor leaders dislike him because they contributed to his campaign and he didn’t stay bought. Feminist groups have a love-hate relationship with him: They loved his promotion of abortion but the prostitution scandal, which forced him to resign the governorship in 2008, made him damaged goods.

Conservatives have long disliked Spitzer for many reasons, including his aggressive attacks on pregnancy resource centers and his support for same-sex marriage. The same goes for Anthony Weiner, who as a congressman had pleased Democratic constituents and married key Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, but quickly proved unfaithful to her.

ABC News reported yesterday, “Bill and Hillary Clinton increasingly see Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign as an embarrassment and potential liability, and are signaling through associates that they are eager to see him exit the race.” It appears the Clintons are “bristling at the comparisons between Weiner and Bill Clinton.” Clinton, after all, only committed adultery with an intern in the Oval Office, and was beyond the multiple-adultery, exhibitionist phase that Weiner has still been going through.

What was OK for the big goose, it seems, is not OK for the gosling: “Obama adviser David Axelrod called Weiner’s continued candidacy ‘absurd’ and declared, ‘it’s time for him to go away.’”