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The context is a wee bit over my head.. I do read the NYT as a news source but seldom stumble on its literary pages.
I did like some of the writing here - especially the comments relating to sexual attitudes and behaviours, which seem to create such enormous sound and fury and obsessiveness - as in the never-ending WJC saga, which apart from its amusing details would be very small potatoes in most European countries - including the nominally Catholic ones, where mistresses are de rigeur and alternative sexual preferences well-known, if sometimes left unspoken of.
This was funny though and I liked especially:

"To the average American the word “morality” means sex, period. If you don’t cheat on your wife, you’re moral. It is part of our national genus to have no tradition of public morality. We are pleased to dismiss politics as entirely corrupt, if not financially, intellectually. Cheating the government of its taxes, and one another in business, is not only natural but necessary to survival. Now I would suggest that a man’s relation to society is a matter of greater moral urgency than his sexual dealings which, after all, are a private and relative matter. When a writer convincingly shows us, as Brammer does, young politicians devoted to right action, I am profoundly moved and morally edified. Prescott misses the moral point, preferring to dig for sex."

To which I add my loud "hear, hear!"
And a recommendation for a listen to Ian Dury - alas no longer with us :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY1PpnaGwMk

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