Has the net ended the drawn-out political dumping?

It would be easy to think that in these fast-paced times that long gone are the days of the drawn-out political dumping. It certainly does seem that most political scandals recently are resolving themselves quicker but who is to blame? Impatient voters, bad timing, savvy politicians who know when to quit or should we just blame the internet?

Many commentators in America are pointing to the online world for the most recent case, Republican congressman Christopher Lee who now likely holds the title of quickest career down the toilet. At 2.33pm on Monday, online gossip merchants Gawker published the story of Lee, a married, "family values" congressman, sending a shirtless photo to a woman he'd met through the personal section of a classifieds site. On the site he had described himself as a 38-year-old, divorced lobbyist, and "fit, fun, classy guy" when in fact, he is a 46-year-old married congressman and slightly naive guy. About three and bit hours later, he had resigned.

Of course, it's nothing new to hear about a socially conservative politician getting caught doing something hypocritical, and it is worth looking at Ranker's list of top 10 anti-gay activitists caught being gay. But what is remarkable is the rapidity of Lee's resignation and many have taken this example to mean the internet is speeding up political scandals. As one reporter put it "he (Lee) was a rising star in Congress at lunchtime — and out of office by dinner".

Advertisement: Story continues below There certainly has been a prevalence of swift dismissals in Australia in recent times. We only have to look at our national leadership change. Even though there was no scandal involved, just bad polling for Kevin Rudd, the prime minister was gone in 24 hours.

NSW Labor, too, has provided us with more than its fair share of quick bootings. Most recently, a key political adviser, married to NSW Education Minister Verity Firth, was caught buying ecstasy at 5.30 one Friday afternoon and handed in his letter of resignation to the Premier by the next morning. And poor David Campbell, former NSW transport minister, even resigned an hour before Channel Seven aired footage of him entering a gay sex club. NSW MP Matt Brown was police minister for only about 50 hours. He got the sack after allegations emerged that he removed most of his clothing at a late-night party in his Parliament House office.

In the case of the NSW embarassments, the internet played no major role, but the key factor was the low tolerance the voting public already had for its leaders misbehaving.

Sometimes a politician's timing is just all wrong. In 1977, politician Glen Sheil's ministerial career was over before it had started. Then prime minister Malcolm Fraser's ministry was named at 5pm on December 19 with Sheil getting Veteran's Affairs, but Sheil was dumped from the position 43 hours later, after making supportive noise for the apartheid system. Since Fraser had made strong comments against South Africa's segregated system, he lost little time cutting Sheil adrift.

Concrete proof and the popularity and power of the person involved is also a factor to consider and have meant scandal-ridden careers have held on against impossible odds even in these times of 24 hour news cycles. Bill Clinton and the American public agonised for months over his scandal with Monica Lewinsky but even after all that, left office with a popularity rating of 68 per cent.

And we have the soap opera that is the prime ministership of one Silvio Berlusconi's and his series of misdemeanours. Many are now predicting he won't last his full term, but his popularity helped him stay in power thus far.

Cases like Congressman Lee's show that 21st century communications may be making the political scandal more quickly exposed, but one cannot ignore other factors — a political figure's power and popularity, the burden of proof and scandal fatigue among the electorate.