The Political Double Standard

I've long been peeved about this - when a politician is accused of wrong-doing, only the Republicans lose their jobs. The Democrats get a pass.

None of this even takes into consideration the non-criminal, but just as politically destructive, double standard of driving Republican Senator Packwood from office for making unwanted sexual advances (i.e. kissing) several females, while giving Bill Clinton a pass for, shall we say, considerably more effort in this same regard. Or that child predator and notorious Homo Republican Mark Foley, who sent suggestive text messages to an over-18-year-old Congressional page. He too was driven from office for the public good, unlike Democrat Congressman Gary Studds, who actually had sex with an underage Congressional page. Rather than be portrayed as a dangerous homosexual predator, Studds was hailed as a role model for Gay Rights, with his and the young boy's "affair" nothing more than a meaningful expression of love between two consenting almost adults.

Notice the trend here? Not yet? Well, let me lay it out a bit more clearly. The same Federal Prosecutor who went after Karl Rove and had to settle after two years for Scooter Libby while ignoring the real perpetrator of the original "crime" of outing Valerie Plame, prematurely ended an investigation against a sitting Democrat governor when the Obama White House stumbled into the conversation. Better to go public now with overwhelming evidence against Governor Blago, than risk having Rahm Emanuel get caught on tape saying something criminal — even if it means going back to court a few days after going public with your overwhelming evidence to ask for more time to prepare your case.

Still don't see it? Well, consider the political affiliation of those recently in the news who forgot to pay their taxes, even though they currently head a powerful economic Congressional committee, were the leading Senator on Capitol Hill for a number of years and wanted to become an Obama Cabinet official, and were in charge of the most powerful Federal Reserve in the country and slated to become the next Secretary of Treasury. Because you won't find an "R" after any of their names, Charles Rangel still faces no consequences for his actions, Tom Daschle was forced to pay his back taxes — but only the magnitude of his oversight made him withdraw his name from consideration with no further condemnation nor consequences — and Turbo Tax Timothy Geitner is now the head of the U.S. Treasury in charge of collecting the taxes he originally decided not to pay. And this doesn't even take into consideration the ability of a Democrat Congressmen to keep his seat in Congress after the Feds found $90,000 in illegal campaign contributions hidden in his New Orleans house. Rather than being drummed out of office, he continued to stay in Congress until defeated in an actual election.

Expect that mud-slinging against potential Republican contenders in 2012 will be horrific - Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin, Mark Sanders, et al.