John Steele Gordon: A Short History of Political Suicide

Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power" (HarperCollins, 2004).

Woodrow Wilson's most famous piece of political advice was "Never murder a man who's committing suicide." Rep. Anthony Weiner's critics might keep that in mind. The Twitter disaster has undoubtedly ended his hopes of being New York City's next mayor and may well cost him his seat in Congress.

But as a scandal it pales before Eliot Spitzer's descent into political infamy when he was identified as being "Client No. 9" in an upscale prostitution ring. Within a week there were T-shirts for sale proclaiming "I'm Client No. 8!" and he was forced to resign as governor of New York. As he drove to make his resignation announcement, his car was tracked by helicopters through the streets of Manhattan like O.J. Simpson's famous ride in a white SUV through Los Angeles....

Alexander Hamilton had a reputation not unlike Bill Clinton's when it came to women. (Martha Washington even named one of Mount Vernon's tomcats Hamilton.) In 1791, Hamilton, then secretary of the Treasury, began an affair with a woman named Maria Reynolds. When her cuckolded husband blackmailed him, Hamilton paid hush money to keep his wife from learning of the dalliance. But when James Reynolds was arrested for counterfeiting, he tried to swing a deal with the Jeffersonians, offering to expose corruption in the Federalist Party....