According to the Washington Post (WaPo to those inside the beltway), Barbara Walters is going to provide steamy details of an affair she had with politician Ed Brooke in the 1970's. Who's Ed Brooke, you ask? Well he was a Massachusetts Senator. Not like Teddy Kennedy. Brooke was a Republican. And black. In fact, Mr. Brooke was the first black man popularly elected to the Senate.

Holy Moses, indeed. Brooke was winding things down with his wife and Barbara Walters was on the road to a second divorce when the 2 hooked up. Walters' memory of the affair was that she wanted to marry him but friends on both sides cautioned that ethnic tensions could scuttle both careers.

Brooke later lost his 1976 race, errrrr election and went on to work for the GOP in a more behind-the-scenes capacity. Always a mold-breaker, the former Senator went on to beat breast cancer and raise awareness of the disease in men. Let us get this straight, there was a black guy from Massachusetts? And he was a Republic Senator (in Massachusetts) who had breast cancer? And he had an affair with Barbara Walters? And he won the Presidential Medal Of Freedom? What a badass, how is Will Smith not all over this?

Unbeknownst to us, Babs has also been linked to Alan Greenspan and possibly John Warner. It sort of makes former The View co-panelist Star Jones relationships with Al Reynolds and (probably not but possibly) Dwyane Wade look pretty pedestrian. We might have to pick up her memoirs, Audition, when it hits stands. Let this be a reminder to be very careful having affairs with journalists, they're a crafty bunch and hindsight is 20/20. Ugh.