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. The man who for years mocked politicians such as Clinton for their sexual acts makes many of them look decent in comparison.

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 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.

I always liked Leno better.