Member of the dirty pol club

They just want to be loved, is that so wrong?

Dennis Gallagher, the Queens councilman recently indicted on charges of raping a 52-year-old grandmother he met at a Middle Village bar, is just the latest in a long line of New York City pols to have been accused of behaving badly.

Gallagher just latest city pol behaving badly

Dr. Fran Praver, a psychoanalyst, believes most politicians are undone by the thirst for power that leads them to public life in the first place.

"The very part that drives them to achieve can undo them," she said. "It's so easy for them. They can get away with it, and they have this charisma that draws people to them and a need to be loved and adored."

Photo from Newsday