Ever notice how the adultery scandals always manage to draw Sally Quinn out of the society-maven closet?

Quinn awhile ago sorta donned her tatty and never-particularly-good old journalist’s hat back to co-author Newsweek’s "On Faith" column — which, true to form, has always been awfully short on actual faith and long on moralizing. What made Quinn an expert on faith? Who knows. But adultery scandals, well, that’s another parlor game altogether.

So of course, given the chance this week, she used her "On Faith" column space to weigh in on her favorite subject — adultery. The John Edwards foofara was perfect grist for her lofty moral mill — though she manages to discuss it with nary a reference to "faith," other than the marital kind:

Yes, I want to smack John Edwards across the puss. But more than that I want Elizabeth Edwards to do it for me. Not just for me but for all of us.

Oooh, yeah, smackin’ those hound-dog men around just feels sooo good. And smackin’ the wife around for lettin’ him hound-dog feels even better!

Note, as Megan Carpenter does, that we’ve heard this before: Sally Quinn said almost precisely the same thing about Hillary Clinton when Monica erupted — and is still saying it about her.

Why the obsession with adultery? Well, maybe it has to do with Quinn’s own marital history as a husband-stealer:

At the time Bradlee was married but separated; Quinn was living with journalist Warren Hoge, who would later work for the Times. Quinn and Bradlee became an item, Bradlee’s marriage failed, the two were married in 1978 — and Sally Quinn’s career took off.

Ah, those moral paragons of the Beltway. They always know better than the rest of us.