While the basic affair is bad enough, the horrifying mess is doubled when the politician in question fathers an illegitimate child. This isn't surprising; after all, being dishonest is one thing, but being dishonest and a poor provider is something else entirely.
Maybe this is why Grover Cleveland (top left), probably the most prominent politician to have fathered a child out of wedlock, was still able to make it to the White House. While critics taunted him with the refrain: Ma, Ma, where's my pa?, they also had to acknowledge that Cleveland was very generous when it came to child support. After his election in 1884, supporters answered the goad with a refrain of their own: Down in the White House, ha, ha, ha!  Other philanderers haven't been so lucky. For example, the revelation that Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C., top right) fathered a child with campaign worker Rielle Hunter ended his hopes of nabbing the vice presidential slot under Barack Obama. And when it came out that Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y., bottom left) had fathered a child outside his marriage, he decided to not seek reelection.
Edwards and Fossella join a long, if not particularly distinguished fraternity: Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind., bottom right) admitted that he had an illegitimate child, while famed segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) was later found to have fathered a child with a then-underage black woman who worked for his family.