The most entertaining campaign in my lifetime has managed to get even more hilarious with the news that Ted Cruz has a string of women on the side. The holy roller getting jammed up with hookers has happened so often that it is now a hackneyed bit that even bad comics avoid. We are pretty close to the point where being a holy roller is disqualifying on the assumption there is a scandal lurking in the closet.

The National Enquirer is a tabloid so you always have to be wary, but they are not the only people with the story. That linked piece suggests several outlets had the story and held it for reasons as yet unexplained. I looked at the twitter accounts of the women named in the stories and they have suddenly gone quiet. Nowadays, that is a good clue when trying to validate these things.

A sex scandal is always a good time for political junkies because it lets us have some fun at the expense of a big shot. This one could be hilarious because of the whipsaw effect. The media, conservative and liberal, hate both Trump and Cruz. In fact, they have turned themselves into pretzels trying to hate both men as bashing one inevitably helps the other. If I had to guess, conservative media hates Trump more than Cruz, but liberal media truly fears Trump.

As of this writing, all of the major media is giving this a good leaving alone. Part of it is they hate following the lead of the Enquirer. We saw this with every sex scandal since Gary Hart. But sex scandals sell and eventually they have to cover it so they will dick around pretending to do their own reporting for a while to keep up appearances. There is also a legal issue, in light of the Gawker verdict.

Then there is the fact that some of the principles are fixtures in political media. Amanda Carpenter is a gadfly who turns up on all the chat shows. She has also been quite partisan in her support for Cruz. Her animosity toward Trump is off the chart. Another one of the Cruz women is a spokeschick for Fiorina. Another works for Trump and is on the chat shows ever day. Calling these women “Cruz Bimbos” is going to make for some uncomfortable moments.

That is the real story here. These people all hang out with one another. A story like this reveals the truth of political media. It is all a show. Two people spend a segment calling each other Hitler and then go out for drinks or more. Newt Gingrich called it Hollywood for ugly people and he was right. Nothing is on the level and everything is for sale. Both sides are just in it for the cash.

Katrina Pierson, one of the alleged bimbos, is a pretty good example of the sort of people in the chattering classes. She was an Obama supporter in 2008, but then joined the Tea Party in 2010. She worked for Ted Cruz when he was running for senate. Now she is working for Trump. She also has a habit of taking things that do not belong to her.

Putting the politics aside, the hard part for the chattering classes is this story a truth about women in their business. All of these “strong, independent women” are chasing after the high status males like the “stupid prol” women they love to mock. Say what you want about Sarah Palin, her old man is not catting around on her and she controls the checkbook. Amanda Carpenter could learn a few things from Palin.

Of course, all of these women are full of it. One of the weird parts of politics is just how many women are there to snag a man. The adventuress is a fixture in Washington. They love the action, but they also love competing with other women for high status males, even the married ones, especially the married ones. There are normal women too, but the adventuress-to-normal is off the charts, compared to anywhere else.

One last bit from this that is worth mentioning. Ted Cruz is what the man-o-sphere calls a “sigma male.” Like the alpha male, the sigma enjoys locking horns with other men and chasing women, but they prefer to operate on the fringe. Instead of climbing the status tree to be the top dog, they work solo and eschew building a following. They often go out of their way to piss of the establishment as a part of the strategy to score women.

This is a pattern we see with Cruz. Senators are famous for sticking together, but he has gone out of his way to piss in the cornflakes of his peers. Even when he was working for Bush, he had a reputation for being a jerk to everyone. But his bad boy rep helped him with the ladies. Now we can assume it is part of his seduction strategy. It is also the reason he will be dropping out the race sooner rather than later.