Opinion: How the mighty -- and not so mighty -- have fallen

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The resignation Wednesday of Geraldine Ferraro as a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton got us thinking. There have been an awful lot of staff/advisor resignations from presidential campaigns this cycle, people done in by everything from unleashed tongues (Ferraro) to sex scandals (see below).

So, let’s review, in alphabetical order, shall we? For the sake of fairness, we’ll separate the ones who fell through impolitic talk -- the Ferraro group -- and those whose troubles involved lawyers. If we left some out, let us know in the comments section.

But remember, we’re focusing on those who were forced out of presidential campaign roles, so people like Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana are not included because he was not forced from his role in the Rudy Giuliani campaign over revelations of old liaisons with prostitutes.

Without lawyers involved:

Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, both bloggers, dropped off the John Edwards campaign more than a year ago after complaints surfaced about pre-campaign, anti-Catholic blog-posts.

Phil Martin, one of four co-chairs of Fred Thompson’s campaign, stepped down in November after revelations of a criminal records. Martin had pleaded guilty in 1979 to selling 11 pounds of marijuana, and entered a ‘no contest’ plea in 1983 to cocaine trafficking and conspiracy charges. Until he quit, Thompson was using Martin’s private plane to get to campaign events.

Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author for her book on genocide, ‘A Problem From Hell,’ quit as a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama last week after ...

her rather undiplomatic description of Hillary Clinton as ‘a monster.’

Judy Rose, a Clinton volunteer coordinator in Iowa, was forced out in December after she forwarded a chain e-mail that alleged that Obama was a Muslim intent on destroying the U.S.

Bill Shaheen, a key Clinton advisor and husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Sheehan, packed it in in December after making comments about Obama’s admission that in his youth he had used drugs.

With lawyers involved:

Bob Allen, a state legislator and co-chair of McCain’s Florida campaign, was dropped after he was arrested in July offering to pay $20 to a man in a public park to let him perform a sex act. Turns out the man was a cop on a burglary stakeout. Allen denied the charge and remained in office until his conviction late last year.

Larry Craig withdrew as the liaison between the Romney campaign and Senate Republicans after the news broke that he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct -- soliciting sex from an undercover cop in a Minneapolis airport bathroom stall last June. He has since denied the accusation, despite the guilty plea.

Kristian Forland, a field director for Bill Richardson’s campaign in eastern Nevada, resigned in August after it was discovered he was wanted on a felony warrant for skipping out on bad-check charges in Los Angeles County. Oh, and he was once investigated, and apparently cleared, over complaints he was short-paying the help at a legal Nevada brothel where he worked (Eliot Spitzer had the opposite problem).

Alan B. Fabian was dropped as a Romney fundraiser in August after he was indicted on 23 counts of money laundering, fraud and other alleged financial transgressions. Fabian pleaded innocent and the case is pending.

Jay Garrity, the ‘body man’ for Romney, quit in July amid accusations that he had impersonated a state trooper, and had pulled over a reporter following Romney’s entourage to an event. No charges resulted.

Norman Hsu was dropped as a fundraiser by the Clinton campaign after The Times reported that he had been a fugitive for 15 years, despite his high profile in Democratic political circles. He also had raised cash for Obama and other Democrats.

Thomas Ravenel, South Carolina state treasurer and chair of Rudy Giuliani’s campaign there, was dropped in June after he was charged with cocaine-trafficking. He struck a deal and pleaded guilty; sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

-- Scott Martelle