Posted on 05/01/2008 5:56:37 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
In 1931, when Franklin Roosevelt was considering whether he should, and could, run for the presidency, he called in three physicians to advise on his physical capability. They reported that the man who had contracted polio ten years earlier, losing all movement in his legs, was indeed in good health—and, furthermore, that he had "no symptoms of impotentia coeundi." "In plain English," writes historian Joseph E. Persico, "he could sustain an erection."
It is a significant detail for Persico, given the questions he seeks to answer in his new book, "Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life": Did he have an ongoing relationship with Lucy Mercer (later Rutherfurd)? Was it sexual? Was she the only one? His answers to each are yes, undoubtedly, and no.
The charming, pretty Lucy was employed by Eleanor Roosevelt as her social secretary in 1913. Five years later, a stricken Eleanor discovered a bundle of love letters from Lucy to her husband—at which point, Eleanor wrote, "the bottom dropped out of my particular world." She offered Franklin a divorce, but his mother threatened to disinherit him, and his political adviser cautioned that accepting it would destroy his chances of becoming president. FDR returned to his wife, promising that he would never again share the marital bed—or see his lover, who married a man 29 years her senior.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Will Hillary soon say that she offered Bubba a divorce?
one gem post to the article
Posted By: jimn25 @ 05/01/2008 8:36:34 AM
Comment: Interesting parallel to the Clintons... Mayby history will be repeated in 50 years when the future historians look back on the succes of their two presidencies....
What an assbag...
In all fairness, criticizing FDR for stepping out on a wife like Eleanore Roosevelt would be like criticizing Helen Thomas’s husband for cheating on her.
Yes, I found that very interesting.
I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the motivation of this book, or at least this article about it, is an attempt to justify the Clinton sham marriage by placing it in this historical context.
What else could it be?
>>FDR had a host of close female companions... included his cousin Daisy Suckley, his secretaries Missy LeHand...
C’mon, you can’t MAKE UP names like that!
Would that this had become public knowledge in 1931. The puritannical electorate would probably have considered F. Roosevelt unsuitable for office, and we would have been spared the results of his Presidency.
If FDR started with a “Lucy” then progressed to a “Suckley” and ultimately to a “LeHand” he was obviously scaling back his infidelity.
Daisy SUCKLEY? ...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
I do criticize millions of Democrats and their sympathizers for not knowning the difference between (1) a sexual encounter in private between consenting adults and (2) purjury, obstruction of justice, intimidation of witnesses, sexual assault, and rape.
I believe he and Eleanor were cousins — maybe first cousins.
They were fifth cousins, once removed.
So, if Franklin wasn’t the father of Janet Reno and Billie Jean King, who was?
Thank you, Non, for the correction.
This whole barf piece must be getting us ready for Monica's public stoning, Hillary's election or nObama has a honey on the side!
Exactly. Obama is probably in the little black book of Madam Palfrey who convienently committed suicide.
You probably know this.
For obvious reasons... Helen Thomas never married.
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