Presidents Day: Celebrating Monica Lewinsky, Judith Exner and other man-made celebs

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Presidents Day, which honors the births of Washington and Lincoln, seems to be commemorated now with a day off work for some and a light commute for the rest of us -- plus, of course, sales on furniture and cars. But isn’t there something more dignified to it all?

We should, in theory, spend some time thinking about what our presidents have done to give us the country we have today, right? And yes, we thought about it. And then we decided that we were less interested in presidential achievements than we were in regular folks who achieved fame, or infamy, thanks to an association with a leader of the free world.

In that spirit, the Ministry has compiled a Presidents Day photo gallery of average Joes -- or, more often, average Janes -- whose names we know thanks to high-level improprieties. Click the photo of CIA agent Valerie Plame, right (whose relationship, admittedly, was more with the White House in general than with a president in particular) and take a trip down memory lane with the likes of Monica Lewinsky, Judith Exner, Sally Hemings and more.

RELATED:

John Edwards engaged to Rielle Hunter? His camp says no

Tucker Carlson prefers dogs over Michael Vick or President Obama

Suspended Keith Olbermann is irreplaceable on ‘Countdown’ -- or is he?

-- Whitney Friedlander