The post-war era of politics in America has not provided much cause for pride. The McCarthy witch hunt of the 1950s comes to mind, when innocent people were driven from their professions, some never to work again, because one Congressman believed that anyone with sympathies toward Communism was un-American.

Future presidencies were not unscathed. One thinks of President Lyndon Johnson and the secret escalation of the war in Vietnam; Richard Nixon, with his legacy of lies and hatreds and enemies lists. Then there was Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair, but that business of illegal arms deals and laundered money in some far off place called Nicaragua was simply too complex and labyrinthine to ever catch on as a popular outrage.

In fact, that is why no scandal in modern political history has reached the elevations of the current Lewinsky matter. It was not the absence of lies or deceptions of breaking of laws. The Oval Office - a pristine place never before contaminated by any form of inelegant speech or behaviour, if one believes the current commentaries - has been at the centre of it all, including tales of a drunken Nixon stumbling about, railing at his demons. It is simply that as a nation we possess a very short attention span. If we can't figure out what the story is about in under three minutes, we grab the remote and change channels.

But now we finally have on the polity's centre stage a matter than everyone can be an expert about. One doesn't need to be informed about history or adept at understanding balance sheets. One does not need to have an education or even a menial job to be an expert on sex. Indifferent to class and race, gender or sexual orientation, we finally have a scandal for the Jerry Springer era. Democracy as game show. Pick the wrong door and you're out!

Prosecutor Kenneth Starr could never nail Bill Clinton on the Whitewater land deal, in part because it was such a convoluted and boring matter about cheap real estate in Arkansas that nobody cared about it. But Starr was savvy to bide his time and pursue Clinton on the things that everyone would understand, sex and lying.

The simplicity of this pursuit was surely and understandably irresistible to Starr and to Clinton's political opponents.

The problem, however, which goes far beyond this one man and his depressing weaknesses, is that this scandal has forever changed the rules of politics here. It is not a reform for the better.

Behaving as though this is now just another day in The Game and all is fair in love and war, the White House has been accused of leaking stories about the sex lives of Republican Party politicians. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a 74-year-old veteran, has been forced to admit that he had an extramarital affair 30 years ago.

Last week, Helen Chenoweth, a 60-year-old Congresswoman from Idaho, was forced to admit she had an affair with a married man that ended back in 1984. (That man, Vern Ravenscroft, is now 78 and was also forced to go public.)

A Congressman from Indiana, Dan Burton, had to acknowledge fathering a child during an extramarital affair in the early 1980s.

THIS circle of forced confession just before exposure has now grown to include the heartland beyond Washington DC. A 50-year-old Indiana State Senator (a position roughly equivalent to serving on the county council) admitted to an affair with a 21-year-old intern this week, just before the local newspaper was prepared to run with the story.

It is easy to suppose that every politician in America is corrupt on some level. But that is too easy a conclusion, and a wrong one. Most people who run for office here initially do so with the idea that they want to improve their communities. I worked as an aide in the New York State Senate years ago, and later briefly in Washington, and was shocked to discover that most politicians on either the right or the left came to the business of government with a fairly passionate notion of helping people, of doing something for others.

In America, and this does distinguish us from other countries, there are many ways to become rich and powerful. Politics, especially becoming one of a crowd of 435 members of the Congress, is not the easiest nor the most lucrative.

Now, in the wake of this scandal, any adult wanting to serve their country must be prepared to have their entire personal life and sexual history investigated and exposed. Any moment of indiscretion or questionable judgment will be on the table.

This atmosphere will surely not produce the best and brightest to lead this nation. Moreover, the White House will not avoid an impeachment inquiry by turning Mr Starr's tactics on Mr Clinton's opponents. All they will do, if such a thing is possible, is cheapen politics even further.

For now, those considerations for the future are not foremost. Senator Diane Feinstein, a powerful politician from California and a past supporter of Mr Clinton, says her office has received 12,000 telephone calls in a week, with most people calling for some Congressional action against him. Ms Feinstein says she will support the continuation of this "process" in Congress.

One wonder if Ms Lewinsky herself is pondering the damage inflicted on the political landscape. It seems unlikely. According to sources here she has been spending her weekends poolside at the home of a Los Angeles publicist.

She is so grateful to him for providing her sanctuary that he has excitedly told friends she is busy making him a scarf.