Black Woman Brags about 'Cuddling' With Former Treasury Secretary

I know Iris Mack, a former derivatives trader who is now boasting about her interlude with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. I met Mack (whom I believe is actually a math professor, or at least has a Ph.D. in a quantitative field) at a conference for mathematics graduate students in 1996. I noticed immediately that she was more ambitious than most, speaking a great deal about her mingling with the rich and powerful of America. "Rich people live in a way that the rest of us can't imagine," she said to me over lunch. I was both impressed and disturbed by Ms. Mack. I was impressed by her obvious intellect and the fact that she was so seasoned as a professional in our field. I was disturbed by her bold and somewhat arrogant demeanor, added to the fact that she seemed incredibly hungry to be connected to those with money and power. In other words, I was not surprised to read her blog post bragging about her sexual encounter with Rubin.
Robert Rubin was Treasury Secretary during the Clinton Administration. In what some perceive to be a rambling article on HuffingtonPost.com, Mack describes her interaction with the older and married Rubin during the time that he was chairman at Citigroup. She claims that they first got together in January 2008:

Things were much more relaxed by the time I walked him back to the Ritz - which was along the way to my South Beach condo. When we passed a homeless man along the way he made a bit of a show of opening up his fat leather billfold and producing a dollar -- "There but for the grace of God..." he remarked melodramatically -- and I gave him a lot of heat for that, because who exactly did he think he was kidding? I said give the man a job. Heck, you're the head of a bank! But when we reached the hotel entrance, the tension returned. He got this funny look on his face, and asked:

"Do you want to go upstairs and...cuddle?"

So that's what this is about. For a moment I was totally speechless and had to dig into my Harvard trained PhD brain to figure out what the hell he meant by "cuddling"! What can I say; once a teetotaling math geek, always a bit slow to pick up on signals from the menfolk. So the former Treasury Secretary had a "crush" on me! And not long afterward the former Treasury Secretary had his tongue down my throat and hands everywhere sort of like an octopus. But as soon as the thought entered my mind -- the former Treasury Secretary has his tongue down my throat?! -- I came to my senses a bit and awkwardly went back home before we both got too carried away. This is to say, I said to myself that there would be no other former Treasury Secretary appendages entering any other of my orifices.

But there were dozens more phone calls from Bob Rubin over the next year, and one more dinner -- this time in a private dining room in his Ritz Carlton hotel suite. Yes, I am sorry to confess, human weakness got the best of both of us and there was more "cuddling". However, when I finally came up for air and came to my senses, I bluntly - in his face - asked the obvious "So, are you married?" question. Of course, I'd read his memoir and figured Google would let me know if he'd officially split from his (very attractive) wife, but I'm also vaguely aware how much time and money it can take for these things to make the transition to "official" from "de facto." But his reply suggested that either his marriage was far from any stage of finished, or that he was just kind of creepy.

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I don't have much else to say about the "sexploits" of Iris Mack, except to say that some might consider this public conversation to be downright tacky. Most women wouldn't go to these lengths to tell the world what they do in her own bedrooms (with the exception of the long line of women connected to Tiger Woods). Either way, some might find this "love story" to be more interesting than math class, so perhaps Iris has found herself a new career.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.