Bad politics or stupid script?

What endlessly annoyed me throughout this movie was the claim that this would somehow hurt his career as a politician. As someone who has worked in politics, in New York, I can tell you this would be campaign GOLD. Dating a Puerto Rican maid in New York state is a no lose situation. Helps with the hispanic vote and helps erase the 'elitist' label, which this guy, it would appear, might suffer from. And at the end when some reporter says "This will ruin his career", that was just way too much for me. I know it is just a stupid date kind of movie and it is enjoyable on that level to some degree with solid performances by the supporting cast, but it was just too much for me. I have no problem with leaps of logic at times but when such a vital part of the plot is based on pure moronic fiction it is a major problem. If anything the concern if such a real life situation would be that he was using her for political gain.
I love Wayne Wang. 'Smoke' is one of my all time favorite movies. When I saw that he had directed it I was dumbfounded. Did he suffer a major head injury?