Late-night comedian David Letterman (who is still nursing a petty grudge against Jay Leno for losing the bid to succeed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show) has found himself at the center of an extremely embarrassing sex scandal, one born out of extortion.

After a CBS producer, the same network that employs Letterman, blackmailed Letterman into giving him $2 million or face public detail of his many affairs with staffers, Letterman decided to publicly acknowledge the affairs instead of letting himself be a victim of blackmail (the producer has been arrested and charged with extortion by New York prosecutors).

Letterman spoke on last Thursday in front of his audience (the day before the said arrest) and acknowledged that he had, in fact, had sex with women on his staff. Letterman’s face made it clear the act of statement was very uncomfortable, and stated that he had to deal with how this will affect his family and even his job. CBS is currently investigating whether Letterman’s actions constituted sexual harassment and/or abuse of work-place status.

Letterman should not be fired, but his actions were entirely unacceptable. Even though the sex was consensual, it was the closet thing to rape without being so. When a woman does not have a say in sex, like a prostitute, it is rape. No matter what. Even if she verbally consents. Letterman’s case isn’t that bad, because the woman could have said no.

But understand the context: your powerful boss comes onto you and you’re a young women at a big network. Do you say no and face some arbitrary firing later on or risk losing a promotion or do you just have sex and then advance your career or at least still have the potential to do so? Maybe Letterman would not have held a grudge against women who turned him down. But the women don’t know that. This is a asymmetrical relationship.

Letterman abused his position, it is unethical, selfish, immoral and as he put it “creepy.” He, by virtue of who he is, was overbearing and corned these women. Office sex in these situations is often cause for firing. Though I still believe Letterman should not be fired, unless more incriminating evidence is released (which is unlikely since this will be, or intend to be, handled privately).

Furthermore, Letterman just now comes off as a horny douchbag. While having these affairs he had a girlfriend of many years and a son with her. It is believed he finally ended such casual sex “relationships” when he married his girlfriend of 23 years this past March. But that isn’t confirmed.

On Monday night, Letterman did something he should have done Thursday: apologize to his wife:

David Letterman apologized on the air Monday to his wife, Regina, for his revelation last week of his sexual relationships with staff members, saying she had been “horribly hurt” and adding, “I’ve got my work cut out for me” to mend the relationship.

As I ready said, I always liked Leno better. Letterman did not do anything illegal, and his relationship with his wife is private; but his actions were immoral and unethical and may even be reasonable cause for firing.

Letterman tired to make a few jokes about his affairs stating that this morning when he got into the car “even the navigation lady wasn’t speaking to me.”

Letterman went onto thank his staff for standing by him during his “stupid” mistake as he put it.

If Letterman amends himself properly, then he should continued to be embraced by America.