News
Directly To
Your Inbox
Follow PJ Media

The Democratic Double Standard

Only Democrats can lie, cheat, and steal yet remain politically viable.

by
AWR Hawkins

Bio

May 12, 2009 - 12:37 am
<- Prev  Page 2 of 2   View as Single Page

And the duplicity doesn’t stop with Clinton, Kennedy, and Obama. In August 2005, just days after Hurricane Katrina struck parts of the Gulf Coast, Democrat Representative William Jefferson entered his home in New Orleans to get $90,000 he’d stored in a refrigerator. Surprisingly, the news of this money led to charges that Jefferson was “taking bribes from a company seeking lucrative contracts in the Nigerian telecommunications market.” Not surprisingly, Jefferson successfully defeated his challenger and retained his congressional seat in December 2006, although the election was held amid his “ongoing federal bribery investigation.”

If you still need more proof of the double standard for Democrats, consider Democrat Al Franken. Long before taking Norm Coleman to court in an effort to steal an election and a Senate seat in Minnesota, he was an Air America personality with a penchant for skewing the facts. When the network ran into financial problems that led to shady financial dealings, Franken claimed to be “an innocent party with no knowledge of Air America’s money woes [and secret deals to keep the network solvent].” But in 2005, Michelle Malkin uncovered documents proving Franken not only knew about the under-the-table financial deals, he actually signed them.

Were it not for the confines of this article, we could look at Democrat Representative Barney Frank’s role in the “mortgage meltdown,” including his successful efforts to keep President George W. Bush from investigating Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae during Bush’s first term. We could examine Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid’s lies about the troop surge in Iraq being unwarranted, as well as unsuccessful. We could also focus on Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow’s receipt of “several thousand dollars” in campaign donations from “Democrat illegal-money man, Norman Hsu.” (Yes, that’s the same Senator Stabenow who is now pushing for the return of the “fairness doctrine” to silence conservative talk radio.)

Folks, the list just goes on and on. And as it now stands, if Republicans like Thomas or former Representative Tom Delay are falsely accused, innocent people are trampled in the rush to be the first liberal media outlet to bring the accused Republicans down. But when Democrats like Clinton, Kennedy, Obama, Jefferson, Franken, Frank, Reid, or Stabenow are actually duplicitous or proven law breakers, they are given a pass because they’re Democrats — the party of those who can lie, cheat, and steal yet remain politically viable in the United States.

<- Prev  Page 2 of 2   View as Single Page
AWR Hawkins is a conservative writer who holds a Ph.D. in military history from Texas Tech University.

PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.

75 Comments, 75 Threads

  1. 1. tc

    Very well put my friend. However, the reader is left asking, “Why?” Why is it that a Democrat can remain politically viable and emerge unscathed, or relatively unharmed from involuntary manslaugher, adultery and bribery?

    Did you know that an officer in the military, had he committed the “sexual relations” with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky, could have been and would have been tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the charge of adultery?

    I would submit to you that the reason most Democrats get a free pass on bad behavior is that they a)rarely campaign on actual values like honesty, integrity, character and selfless service and b)hardly ever fail to live up to such standards.

    So, when someone has no standards that they themselves are willing to campaign upon or adhere to in their own life, what greater position is there than to never have a standard—and thus never be HELD RESPONSIBLE for one they never had in the first place? The public just accepts it as a fait accompli in that these Dem pols have never been held to a standard of conduct, so why start now?

  2. Chappaquiddick Island? I can forget it, although I wasn’t even born in that decade (lol). Still, it amazes me how Kennedy is treated as the victim when he left real victim to die in cold water.

  3. 3. David Thomson

    Democrats take for granted that their candidates often lie. This is why, for instance, that homosexual activists don’t give a damn if Barack Obama is officially against gay marriage. They know damn well he is lying (as was John Kerry during the 2004 contest)! He is merely telling the so-called reactionary blue collar Democrats what they wish to hear. At the end of the day, Obama is on their side. The same thing held true during the presidential campaign when University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee told Canadian officials to ignore Obama’s campaign rhetoric against free trade. He openly asserted that the Democratic presidential candidate was lying to the blue-collar union workers.

    Only a few days ago, we also found out that “A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: “I’m appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it’s the real world. I’m surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He’s a real class warrior.” In other words, this affluent yuppie voter thought that his candidate was lying during the campaign—-but for heaven’s sake he was not supposed to be lying to him. It was, however, deemed appropriate that Obama was lying to the rest of the American public.

  4. There is no mystery to this riddle: in terms of character, conservatives expect a lot more out of their political champions than liberals expect from theirs. That’s the problem with having a base that values character.

    You can outrage a conservative over the behavior of a Republican. And liberals will act like they’re outraged, too. They aren’t, of course, but they know the conservatives are.

    You can outrage a conservative over the behavior of a liberal, too, but liberals just figure the fact that he’s a liberal proves he has a good character, even if he’s cheating on his terminally ill wife and lying about that. Even if he denies Fannie Mae is in trouble while getting sweetheart loans. Even if he spends twenty years in the pews of a church that preaches hate against white people and against the country as a whole. It’s one of the benefits of working for people with no moral principles — aside from the conviction that they are the good guys by definition and thus entitled to run things.

    So do the math. Liberals always vote Democratic. Conservatives vote Republican if they can stomach the guy. Who wins?

    Who loses?

  5. TO: AWR Hawkins, et al.
    RE: Heh

    We’re talking about the ‘criminal mind’ here.

    According to reliable sources I’ve encountered, Democratic Party apparatchik spend their time trying to figure out how to circumvent the law. While Republican ones try to figure out how to stay within it.

    It’s a matter of compare and contrast the mentalities.

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress. -- Mark Twain]

  6. 6. Ed Wallis

    As #1 says,

    Agreed, but just what is/are the cause/s? …and what can be done to counteract it?

  7. 7. don

    It’s easy to campaign against those with ethical constraints if you don’t have any. It seems the party abolished them long ago. Why else would Barney Frank still be in congress? You forgot the boyfriend who ran a prostitution ring in Rep Frank’s residence (of course without the congressmen’s knowledge . . .right). If you have no morality, no ethical constraints save doing whatever suits you at the given moment (or whatever you have to say or do to stay elected) it’s easy to attack those who do when they falter. So for Barney, to lie, to cheat, to deny rights to those in opposition is perfectly all right, because that is who he is. But, an opponent who tries to live an ethical lifestyle who falters, makes a mistake . . . that is a hypocrite. The best example of the myopia of the left is Bill Maher, in his vitriol against religion he often cites the example of Mother Theresa, how on her deathbed she expressed doubt . . . so for him, this proves his point . . . any doubt, any sin, makes the religious all hypocrites. The reason people are sinners is . . . NOBODY is perfect (save Bill and Barney), without doubt faith would mean nothing. AT the end of the day we have people who by their words and actions deny the value of any faith, any word, any truth. So for them politics/ideology always trumps lives.

  8. 8. Anonymous

    Hey, honesty, integrity, character and selfless service are, like, racist, oppressive and fascistic standards of The Man to keep the people down, maaaan! (No wonder Orwell used pigs to represent Stalin and company in Animal Farm.)

  9. 9. Maewynia M

    Why this happens is not the issue. Life is unfair. That’s what we teach our children. The issue is how we deal with it. The Democrats are like a reprobate member of the family that everyone knows about and makes excuses for and actually enables to keep on being a reprobate. But just like we’d finally stop inviting slimey Uncle Al to the family dinners, we need to stop “inviting” Democrats to win elections. That’s the key. We need to organize intensely, just like they do, to win the election. At any cost. It’s not about our platform; it’s all about tactics. And when a Republican office-holder gets accused, we stand behind him, maybe even get him to admit a wrong, but we NEVER let him leave office. We need to NEVER back down. It’s no longer a friendly 2 party system. It’s a war. Enough of this perpetual talking about how unfair the Dems are.

  10. 10. JB

    Good one Hawkins. I am forever amazed that these people (Democrats) have the gall to call others to a higher standard. It’s always struck me as odd that Ted Kennedy and the rest have taken to themselves the role of defending human rights and looking out for the downtrodden while simultaneously stomping upon those rights and fleecing the poor to remain in power. Their double standard is repulsive, and even deadly for some (like Mary Jo).

  11. 11. misanthropicus

    Besides the fact that democrats have lower expectations from their candidates/political figures, they also are usually less mentally endowed than reps/conservatives, or at least less equiped as inquisitiveness or critical spirit, and more superficial.
    Then we have the schools’ vicious circle where exactlly the less mentally/culturally equipped are more exposed or prey to mind-blunting – voila! here is the democrat electorate.
    And here also lies the ages old quandary which torments now the republican party – how can you get this type of population which chronically suffers of cognitive dissonance and long term term attencion deficit to vote for the best interests of this country?
    Democracy requires to have them in the voting booth – and now, with a growing, simply unayable trillions of dollars deficit, Obama’s rating again scored a few notches up.
    Ripley’s? No, Democrat electorate.

  12. 12. NewHavenette

    I cannot fathom why journalists have forgotten the abuse of office exhibited by William Jefferson when he forced his political aide to babysit his children for a couple of weeks (!!) while he went on vacation. Several years ago an expose was shown on one of the magazine shows—I cannot remember whether it was 20/20, 60 Min., or another, but I clearly remember watching it. One of his high level aides (a female) gave her description of what happened and I found it quite shocking. This is malfeasance and could provide the perfect mechanism for ejecting him from office — if people could just resurrect this TV program. I have tried googling and cannot locate it.

    It goes without saying, in buttressing the author’s argument, that any Republican so exposed on TV would have been long gone by now.

  13. 13. I, ParkdaBus

    Most politicians have some ego imbalance. Think about what they go through in order to get power and fame. No sane person would do it. That’s all you need to know about most of them. There are a few who do have character, who believe in what they say, and who say what they mean. ALL are conservatives.

    No liberal would say what they really believe, because they could not get elected. Which just goes to show how corrupt (and devious) the liberal mind is.

    Likewise, the mental rationalizations that the liberal voter must go through in order to resolve fact from fancy ties their head in a Gordian knot.

    Which is all to say that liberalism/statism is a mental disorder.

  14. 14. William

    Way to shine the light on the Democrat’s shameless duplicity. I’ll never forget the anger I felt when Ted Kennedy came out in defense of terrorists’ rights after the so called torture of them during the Bush administration. What does Ted Kennedy know about treating people right? About worrying about the feelings (or even the lives) of others?

  15. 15. logdon

    It’ll change. Over here a few years ago not one word could be said aginst Blair and his merry lying kleptocrats.

    Now? Read our media. Look at our political blogs. Labour are finished. Maybe forever. There comes a tipping point and we’ve reached it.

    The socialist gotterdamerung will be televised. And blogged. And printed. And talked about. The omerta is shattered. Our msm Labour lovey culprit of the BBC is being hammered and will not survive in it’s present form.

    It’s how all dictatorial charlatons end. Obama is no exception.

  16. 16. RE

    There is something very sick and wrong with a society that tolerates such blatant hypocrisy. The malice and vitriol on the Left is highly corrosive and destructive. Tolerance of this moral bankruptcy will not end well for us.

  17. Aren’t the sweet puppies of Endarkenment cute when they start pretendin’ that nobody on *their* side would ever dream of doin’ so-and-so?

    Happy days.

  18. 18. fred

    I think this goes deeper and further down the food chain than just the politicians and parties themselves. Many of the very voters themselves have different standards. I can tell you with utmost sincerity, since I used to be on the Left (1977-87): the Democrats even back then were being taken over by the kind of people I knew up close and personal, and they believed that ALWAYS “the ends justified the means.” Not sometimes, like most moral people, but ALWAYS. Thus, contaminated by cynicism they expect their leaders to be miscreants, as long as said miscreants deliver the goods for them.

    They also lie and burrow into our institutions for the purpose of transforming our society into one they approve of. Deception is the air they breathe.

    I was often asked to be deceptive in that way. I refused, and those moments eventually played a part in my eventually figuring out what socialism was all about.

  19. 19. HLH

    But we keep putting these people back in office. They are not in office by birthright – they are in office because we sheepishly keep voting them back in. You need to re-run this article right before the 2010 elections.

  20. 20. MCMJR

    Why? Moral-relativisim! Morals are personal controls on power. At the extreme left there are no moral truths, only power. Also remember you cannot compromise with them either.

  21. TO: William, et al.
    RE: Good Point!

    What does Ted Kennedy know about treating people right? — William

    Look at the ‘water treatment’ he gave Mary Jo.

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [The Truth will out....]

  22. 22. Sebastian Shaw

    The MSM give the Democrats endless free passes because they see themselves in their Democratic brood; the double standard has been widening & become more apparent as the MSM’s ratings have shrunk while alternative media is booming…

  23. 23. Ms. Attitude

    Conservatives see things as black or white, right or wrong, there is no gray. Liberals only see gray, what’s right can be wrong and what’s wrong can be right.

  24. 24. Robert

    Amen AWR. Thanks for speaking the truth here.

  25. 25. BC

    You guys really, REALLY should drop your laughable stance that Republicans somehow hold and have held some sort of higher moral ground over the Democrats: http://wwwthesixthestate.blogspot.com/2008/02/republican-morality.html

    Also your bit about Anita Hill’s accusations against Clarence Thomas — “allegations were unfounded and eventually proven false” — is utter BS. David Brock, the founder of Media Matters, in his earlier life was once a hit man of sorts for right wing/conservative interests, especially in going after Anita Hill at the time of Thomas’s nomination process. Brock later recanted and admitted to making stuff up or passing along deliberate disinformation, and not just in regards to Hill:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/books/sorry-about-that.html

    And as far as Clinton and his “sexual relations” quote — he was being deliberately evasive and relying on the not completely widespread belief that fellatio is not technically having sex per se — younger people generally don’t consider it sex, but older, more conservative people do. He was being disingenuously evasive at the very least, though, but in the grand scheme of things, especially in regards to how many times that Bush and his people misled or lied outright about the much, MUCH more serious issue of justifying a preemptive invasion of Iraq, it truly was a piddly issue.

  26. 26. karstro1

    This country has lost it’s moral compass. The more that illegal immigrants flood our country with a different mind set of laws and behavior; Congress refuses to lead with honesty, we as a whole suffer the consequences of in action.

  27. 27. Joe Bison

    The Democrats are excused of evil acts because
    they are and stand for good. They are also
    probably really sorry for doing bad things.

    We feel for the suffering of these flawed
    heroes as they fight the evils of the
    Republican Party, Rush, Dick Cheney etc.
    I mean Spiderman screws up now and then but
    we don’t switch sides for the Green Goblin.
    A Republican would have been for the insane
    evil Goblin in the first place.

    By the way wasn’t the Goblin originally
    a capitalist involved with the military.
    The Goblin never changes his ways, for sure
    a Republican. We don’t condemn Tony Stark
    for wealth and carousing because he eventually
    sees the light, praise be. Probably voted
    for Obama too along with Batman.

    This is the level left wing society operates
    at. When fighting monstrous evil, flaws have
    to be excused. We are only human.

  28. 28. Bonner

    I’ll tell you all how we’re to handle to this Democrat double standard – we are to do so by calling men and women like Frank and Stabenow out by name (as Hawkins has done here) and by continuing to call them out by name until their arguments against “conservative corruption” grow laughable. In addition, we are going to have to take off work, or call in sick, near election time and campaign for conservative candidates who are not ashamed of their conservatism. Only then will drive these rats back into the holes out of which they crawled.

  29. 29. mnewman

    Why didn’t we see “I believe you, Juanita” bumper stickers?

  30. 30. Conservative Mom

    All republican candidates should be running continual ads showing people like Barney Frank telling his lies “nothing wrong in Fannie and Freddie” and then the words underneath with the truth. Or just the switching from one stance to another. People need to be reminded over and over of all the lies. I love how Hannity will not say the name “Geithner” without saying “tax cheat”. That is what needs to be done so people cannot forget and should be done with all the Obama tax cheats. People have really short memories.

  31. > BC: “You guys really, REALLY should drop your laughable stance that Republicans somehow hold and have held some sort of higher moral ground over the Democrats…”

    BC, try to follow the bouncing ball. The point of the article is not that Republicans are more moral. The point is that, unlike Democrats, they cannot get away with it.

  32. 32. William

    To Pelto: Excellent on the “criminal mind” aspect of Democrat thought. But it goes a step further – Didn’t Kennedy exceed mere criminal thought in the Mary Jo incident? Clinton surely did with his lies (thus his impeachment), and the list goes on. At some point conservatives are going to have to find the wherewithal to prosecute criminals for crimes committed. At such a time we may be surprised to find that many of the now arrogant Democrats decide they’d better get their ducks in a row (or at least get the $90,000.00 out of their refrigerator in W. Jefferson’s case).

  33. 33. Bill

    Lying comes so easily to liberals because liberalism* itself is a lie. Liberalism is an ongoing denial, in the face of all the evidence, of the Second Law of Ecodynamics: there’s no free lunch. The art of liberal politics is premised on selling the voters Something for Nothing. So we get Obama: uncounted trillions in spending, without a (legitimate) suggestion of how it’s all going to be paid for.

    When you get over to the hard Left, it gets worse, because the malignant Utopians of Jacobin stripe know that they can’t admit to the ‘necessary evils’ of the path to paradise, the guillotine and the firing squad. They won’t even admit to the horrors of Cuba or Vietnam to this day, nor would they fess up for decades to the truth about Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Give Bill Ayres this much: at least he was honest about mass exterminations in the name of the Perfect State.

    *US definition of course, not the Burkean philosophy Europeans describe by the term.

  34. 34. Matt

    Good article but its pointless to complaint about it. The fault rests solely on the shoulders of the press. The press has absolutely failed in its duty as the fourth estate- to report the truth and by doing so, keep politicians as honest as you can keep politicians. I expect politicians to be partisan, selfish and greedy. I don’t like it but I know that’s the case. But the press’s job is to be neutral and they are not. They never will be. And we see the effects – newspapers going under, low ratings for the most partisan networks. The press don’t get it and they’ve undermined our country to such an extent, I am honestly not sure we can climb out of it until the MSM goes under.

  35. 35. NewHavenette

    BC—-

    I would like to answer your claims about Bill Clinton to get something off my chest, but hopefully in a reasonable and civil manner that may even make sense to you:

    Based on many accounts and much evidence, Clinton is what we call a “serial womanizer.” That, in and of itself, is not what dooms him, either as a politician, or as a person, depending on what your world-view is (although I would not want to meet my Maker as such.)

    What dooms him is that he 1) lied as President of the US, and 2) he used the weight of the Office he held to misuse his power over a young intern under his authority. The former was the basis of his impeachment, however THE LATTER is what has been glossed over by the press and public since the very beginning of this mess.

    I gather that you do not have a 19 yr. old daughter. Anyone who has a daughter would be ready to tar and feather any middle-aged, married executive who did such a thing. Since it takes two to tango, it is clear that this Monica affair would have never occurred, had he been in control of himself and properly respected both his Office and the young woman.

    To trivialize such behavior demeans ALL WOMEN and all parents of young women. There was never proper condemnation of this because the liberal media spun it so much in his favor. But I dare any parent of a young woman (whether conservative or liberal) to declare it acceptable behavior with THEIR daughter. I know a lot of liberals, but none that would condone this, because the liberals I know are very decent people. Most significantly, he was IN A POSITION OF AUTHORITY, no less so than a teacher, a coach, a pastor, or a doctor… actually, more so.

    What the press is doing these days is forming the narrative as they please, without due deliberation, reflection, or analysis. For example, take the Terry Schiavo case. That case should never have been framed as a “right to die” case—it was, in reality, a custody battle. The “husband” had, in effect, relinquished his role as “husband” by taking on a common-law wife and creating children with her. He, according to common-sense ethics, should have never had the right to determine her fate; rather, it should have reverted back to her parents. But the press chose to beat the drum of “right to die” in order to enhance the causes of liberalism and the liberal judges agreed. The context of custody was never even addressed and never debated.

    It’s all in the narrative these days (a.k.a. “spin”) … and the result of this is ultimately complete exoneration and absolution for wayward Democrats, with the goal of the advancement of liberal power.

    I hope you now understand that these are not “piddly issues,” but rather fundamental underpinnings of human society and civilization.

  36. TO: BC
    RE: Really?

    You guys really, REALLY should drop your laughable stance that Republicans somehow hold and have held some sort of higher moral ground over the Democrats: — BC

    Show US where are Republican killed a pretty young woman by leaving her to drown in a car he was driving.

    Go on….I defy you….

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [There is no cure for 'dumb'.]

  37. TO: Williams, et al.
    RE:

    Excellent on the “criminal mind” aspect of Democrat thought. But it goes a step further – Didn’t Kennedy exceed mere criminal thought in the Mary Jo incident? Clinton surely did with his lies (thus his impeachment), and the list goes on. — Williams

    RE: Prosecution, Anyone?

    At some point conservatives are going to have to find the wherewithal to prosecute criminals for crimes committed. At — Williams

    We can start by bringing forth all the factual materials on how the Democrats have, in my honestly held opinion, committed crimes in the blogosphere. Whenever and wherever it is appropriate to do so.

    How? By keeping track of information like that AWR provides here. Then bringing it up with reference URLs and rubbing their little noses in it.

    Just like I did to BC (above).

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    P.S. Can we do it?

    Yes We Can!

  38. 38. tanstaafl

    Besides, “our cheats and liars are the good guys, so we make excuses for them”…permutations of the democrats’ double standards are wild and wooly.

    One startling example, among many…During GWB’s presidency, I couldn’t count the number of diatribes I read on the internet against (the evil) “Bush’s suppression of our freedoms” following passage of the Patriot Act, changes to FISA etc.

    But scratch one of these ranters today and there is nary a peep to be found, even though The One™ has retained many those measures.

    All of which goes to show, the Left’s objection wasn’t a protest against the Patriot Act, per se, but a lockstep response, ginned up by their handlers, as to evil tactics of the evil Bush. Those handlers today have let the subject die down and the Idjits (no longer, apparently, worried about “the FBI entering my house to see what books I have and checking my library records and listening in on my phone calls…” et al. and etc.) have fallen into line, as usual.

    It’s stunning how malleable progressives/liberals are. And a bit frightening.

    (Mr. Hawkins, I greatly appreciate your writing, here and previously.)

  39. 39. Jack

    The prince of this world is a liar and the father of lies.

    The DNC is just another example of patriarchy and nepotism in action.

  40. 40. Sebastian Shaw

    The Republicans expel their corrupt ranks (sometimes not really corrupt but politically incorrect in many instances), but the Democrats keep them in power–sometimes for years. That’s the difference.

  41. 41. Fantom

    Yin an Yang folks. The eternal struggle betwixt Good and Evil.

    In this manifestation Good is represented by Repubs and Evil by democrats. Not to say a Repub office holder cannot do evil.. just to point out that the good does not re-elect very often. Whereas the evil democrats do not care.. indeed seem to prefer to elect evil snakes.

  42. 42. Increase Mather

    You know what the difference really is…? It’s how the mainstream media plays the stories.

    Kennedy was lucky enough to kill the girl the weekend we landed on the Moon. The media played it as a second tier story.

    When Barney Fwwrank’s boyfriend got caught running his prostitution ring, Barney claimed he never knew…and the big news programs bought that explanation.

    When it’s Republicans, it’s a culture of corruption…when it’s Frank, Kennedy, Murtha, Jefferson, Hastings, Rangel,….it’s just one (or more) of those things.

    The mainstream media is hopelessly, eternally, always, biased. They have been cheering for Obama for two years…now that he’s in…there is no chance that anything he does won’t be met with their approval.

    Sickening.

  43. 43. NMSC

    For the record, I know a lot of Democrats, especially women, who are disgusted by Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton, but are often afraid to speak out because they are ridiculed when they criticize them. You’re right that the MSM and mainstream liberal men give Democratic male politicians a free pass for even the most egregious acts.

  44. 44. CanadianMike

    >>What dooms him is that he 1) lied as President of the US, and 2) he used the weight of the Office he held to misuse his power over a young intern under his authority. The former was the basis of his impeachment, however THE LATTER is what has been glossed over by the press and public since the very beginning of this mess.<<

    NewHavenette, you are absolutely right. The fact that the left rallied behind Clinton and left a 19 year old young woman twisting in the wind is utterly disgusting. Organizations like NOW also became immediately irrelevant as advocates for women at this time. In fact I believe they have officially changed their name to the National Association of Radical Women Homosexuals and Liberals or NARWHAL.

  45. 45. Jeff Weimer

    25. BC:

    You should drop your laughable rebuttals. Crooks and Liars, really? And quit laundering it through a third website, it makes you look evasive. And the last assertion about Rumsfield? Pure moonbattery. That is a list, now third-hand, ostensibly of Republicans who have committed despicable things. Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it probably was gathered from news reports on convictions – and they no longer hold office. The worst Kennedy got was a strong indication to not run for President again. There is no doubt some people do despicable things, and most are either Republican or Democrat. The subject of this article is not convictions, but the fact that many Democrats while in power have been able to get away with it with the full support of their colleagues. Trent Lott was run out on a rail for a small comment, what can Nancy Pelosi expect for having known for years about the latest “Republicans are eeevil” bugaboo – enhanced interrogations?

    The fact is, we Republicans hold our elected officials to a higher ethical standard – a standard you helped erect. We are willing to remove them from office if need be, and sometimes when it’s not warranted. However, you abandon it when it is convenient to you. Should Clinton have been impeached? Probably not – but he should not have been given a pass by NOW and other women’s groups. You love to cry “hypocrisy” at Republicans, but your greater hypocrisy is that you can’t muster the same outrage for yourselves.

    David Brock? His opinion hardly clears the air about the Thomas/Hill hearings. He talks about what he did on his side, but the other side was hardly pure in intentions or actions. Joe Biden was disgraceful in his questioning, even taking Thomas’s words out of context as part of an attack. He even said one thing in private and did the opposite in public.

    Why was it not criminally investigated? Why was it used only to cast doubt on the nominee? I get the impression that (and this goes both ways, me included) any person’s opinion of her truthfulness hinged upon their opinion of his political and judicial philosophy, not the truth.
    In that last paragraph, you’re dissembling. You can only “prove” Bush lied in hindsight. Before that, President Clinton, Senator Clinton, Prime Minister Blair, Nancy Pelosi, et al. ALL went on the record with their belief in Iraqi WMDs. Even Saddam’s own GENERALS thought they had the capability. Are they all liars, too?

  46. 46. David Thomson

    Where are the Democrats who legitimately complained about the Bush deficits? Why are they silent when Obama is doing far worse? I was consistent on the issue. I constantly criticized the previous president for too much government spending. When will democrats speak out? Of course, I am being facetious. The reality is that the Democrats were lying. They never gave a damn about government waste. It was merely a great opportunity to beat up Republicans.

  47. 47. ChipD

    OK, this was really, truly, a hilarious article- was it stolen from the Onion?

    So the GOP are all honest, law-abiding folks and the Dems are all crooks and liars?

    Your evidence is a scandal from 40 years ago, and a blow job from a decade ago- really?

    Ok, where to start?

    How about Bush lying about the WMDs, and getting about 5,000 Americans killed in a pointless war? Reagan/ Ollie North selling weapons to the Iranian mullahs?

    You must know about Newt- cheating on his first and second wives while howling for Clinton’s scalp?

    Bush Dept of Interior officials and staffers (literally) getting in bed with industry lobbyists and snorting coke?

    Duke Cunningham? Jack Abramof? Mark Foley? Bob Ney? Tom Delay? Larry Craig? Ted Haggard? David Vitter? Ted Stevens? What, you never heard of them?

    This really made my day- thanks for the chuckle

  48. 48. trapper

    ChipD. You are wrong on so much. Bush may have been wrong about WMD’s but can you prove he intentionally said what was untrue? Ted Stevens is innocent it appears with the real criminals being the prosecutors. Mark Foley and Larry Craig are just about sex, right? Is Ted Haggard a Republican official? No, he is not. David Vitter committed adultery which is not a crime. Tom DeLay has not been found guilty of anything but his career was ruined by Mr. Earl, a rogue Democrat prosecutor. And what is Bob Ney guilty of? North and Reagan did not sell weapons to Iran. That is a big Leftis lie. That leaves pretty thin gruel from your list of Republican Miscreants.
    In point of fact there is Republican corruption of course. No one denies it. But the author’s point that democrats get treated more lightly by the media and get into more trouble is certainly true.

  49. 49. Sebastian Shaw

    Chip D (#47), tell me what is hilarious about Mary Jo Kopechne’s death? Ted Kennedy is indirectly responsible, yet he gets away because of his name, Kennedy & the then blooming, MSM, to play defense.

    The other examples are no less compelling. Again, what is hilarious about death & corruption?

    I want to know.

  50. 50. JackH

    Clinton did not just have sex with Lewinsky, he raped one woman and sexually harassed others. The media made Newt Gingrich the issue. And remember, Arlen Specter and John Warner and the other Republican women of the Senate could not bring themselves to impeach him.

    Once Kennedy had recoverd a measure of respect in the late 80s, he was caught teaching his nephew William Kennedy Smith the finer legal points of comitting date rape. It was so embarrassing at the Clarence Thomas hearing because Kennedy could not say word. But Kennedy evades justice by being a reliable vote for abortion.

    Observing the rules and trying to play fair will get us nowhere.

  51. 51. Delia

    The Libs are all for ripping innocent babies [yes, FULLY formed BABIES] limb from limb out of a woman’s womb and yet worried about the scourge of the earth who were waterboarded.

    Yeah. Uh-huh.

    The leftards are so dumbed-down that they are like trying to communicate with a wall sprayed with mindless graffiti.

  52. 52. cubedweller

    As stated, the issue of the article is not that Republicans are squeaky-clean (they certainly aren’t) but that Republican wrongdoing (whether real or perceived) gets magnified to the extent that the Republican can’t run again, the Democrat wrongdoing gets ignored or blamed on someone else, and the Democrat is actually lionized and embraced more.

    One thing I’ve noticed is what the right and left use to determine morality. The right determines morality by actions — what you do/don’t do. The left determines morality by political stance. You can be accused of rape (Clinton), left a woman to die (Kennedy), engage in blatant racism (Byrd, Ray Nagin and his “chocolate city”), but as long as you espouse the sacred beliefs of the left: statism, abortion on demand, affirmative action (which is reverse-racism) you’re OK. If you don’t espouse the sacred beliefs, even if you’ve done nothing wrong, you are EVIL and must be destroyed (hello Miss California).

  53. 53. cubedweller

    I think the past 8 years, and I believe increasingly more now and in the future, we’re seeing where the REAL seat of hatred and intolerance is (hint: it’s not on the right).

  54. 54. lefroy

    Then there’s the related phenomenon of the high profile, self-obsessed individuals who prate on endlessly about virtue and good causes, but whose personal lives are as selfish and chaotic as the next man’s, and usually more so. Think pampered, and self-centred film stars who go on about injustice or global warming, without doing anything about either; politicians, judges and others who flatter themselves by proclaiming their solidarity with every fashionable left-wing cause. Ted Kennedy is, of course, exhibit A.

    These people are just driven by vanity, and confuse good deeds and good intentions. If you espouse the right cause, then you are a right-on sort of guy (and you can go on being as selfish and amoral in your personal life as you like).

    And the funny thing is, it’s a phenomenon that you mostly see on the left.

  55. 55. McBride

    OT,but having read this thread and the United In Hate thread it seems: BC and ChipD have more balls than brains.The other usual suspects: more brains than balls.

  56. 56. Jamie Irons

    Mr. Hawkins,

    If someone has already pointed out what I’m about to say, forgive me. It’s late and I don’t have time to read through the comments carefully.

    You wrote:

    drove off the Dike Bridge connecting Martha’s Vineyard … with Chappaquiddick Island…

    Actually, that little bridge crosses a small channel that connects two tidal ponds on Chappaquiddick Island, quite far from the ferry that connects “Chappy” to Martha’s Vineyard proper.

    I am personally all too familiar with the scene, as I was living on Chappaquiddick the summer in question, and was actually summoned to the scene shortly after Ms. Kopechne’s body was discovered, as my employer had Land Rovers with winches that could have been used to raise the submerged vehicle; when we arrived, however, that task had already been accomplished by professionals.

    Even at the young age of twenty-two, and as a Yale grad with a fiercely partisan Democratic party background, I recognized instantly that Kennedy’s account of what had happened was a bald-faced lie. I could go into great detail but won’t bore you; as I said, it’s late.

    Best,

    Jamie Irons

  57. 57. Milton Cooper

    Daschle, Rangel, Murtha, Pelosi, Waxman, the list goes on and on they are all scumbags. There are a good number of repubs on that list too… just about every stinking rotten politician! I can probably count the people with integrity (in federal and state politics, anyway) on my fingers and toes

  58. 58. Khiri

    When are the Demo-rats going to be held to the same moral code as Republicans? When are the MSM going to vet Democrats in the same manner they do Republicans? (We knew more about Joe the Plumber than Obama, for crying out loud!) Actually, before they do that, they need to indicate that a wrong-doing Democratic politician is a Democrat. When he/she is a Republican, they make sure there is a “R” after their name. A Democrat? Oops, I think we lost the “d” key on our computer!

    The hypocracy is choking me. The lamestream media has got to go!

  59. 59. seansarto

    But them women who are decent an’ the men who truly logve them for that are becommin’ an engangered species.

  60. 60. seansarto

    But them women who are decent, an’ the men who truly love them for that are becommin’ an endangered species. To hell with the “Masked and Anonymous” bit.

  61. 61. Sebastian Shaw

    Chip D, come out, come out wherever you are. Are you a coward? You can’t answer my simple question? It’s not a trick question.

  62. 62. shaui-jan

    crushing a modern army much larger than your own,on it’s turf,with years to prepare defenses.all the while under constant threat from chemical/biological weapons.how many weeks did that take again?
    hanging a ‘mission accomplished’ banner?the NERVE!!!
    every major western intel group agrees saddam has wmd’s.he has already used them with aplomb.
    having years of warnings to hide,sell or move them,after the invasion,none were found.how suprising.
    of course,bush is a LYING,war criminal.
    that’s the mindset of the chip d’s of the world.let us just pray they never get power.

  63. 63. Sebastian Shaw

    Shau-Jan, the subject is Barack Obama. Stay on the subject or keep your fingers away from the keyboard.

  64. 64. Sebastian Shaw

    Or rather the bias pervaded in the media given to the Democrats in contrast to the Republicans when it comes to scandal, controversy, & political incorrectness.

    Your Bush Derangement Syndrome has eaten to the core of the brain stem. Enough already. Stay on the subject little mind.

  65. 65. seansarto

    As long as women are allowed to use sex as a weapon, whether it be racial, economic, or as a perversion of natural selection men who fall prey to their aggression will be at the mercy of their agendas…These women are engaging in an act of war(genetics)essentially..Witness Margaret Cho’s “Assasin” rhetoric…Men who support such an agenda are trash…Trash is a “rapper” because beauty is skin deep…Even a daisy is the product of manure…Obama is a “wrapper”…He is trash…but he serves prostitutes an’ dingdong ladies all o’er the globe….Check out his Secretary of State.It is a kind of a baser grade of blackmail….because these women (and the international pimps who support them)will manipulate the forces of American law..to either prosecute or pardon those who submit to them. Ask Jeb Bush about the ding-dong ladies….I guess, he wanted to be Japanese as much as Clinton wanted to be African…because that’s “the way they did things” was his excuse. Hitting below the belt.
    I have nuthin’ against decent, honest women.
    (Without this statement post #59 & 60 are out of context)

  66. 66. shaui-jan

    #63,64.shaw;my comment WAS about media bias,and my disgust was clearly directed at chip d.i don’t get where your ire is coming from……unless your not familiar with sarcasm.
    might want to reread my post.cheers.

  67. 67. shaui-jan

    63. Sebastian Shaw:
    “Shau-Jan, the subject is Barack Obama. Stay on the subject or keep your fingers away from the keyboard.”

    Thank you sir, may I have another?

  68. 68. shaui-jan

    #67;gee.i wonder who is easily amused enough to take my screen name and post messages?
    sheep[sh] you are now officaly a pussy…..and have lost all claims to ‘king troll’
    it now goes by default to muppet.
    i must have got to ya…didn’t i sheep[sh].no need to acknowledge it…we both know.
    that is all.

  69. 69. sheesh

    68 . . . Not me. I suggest you ask misanthropicus. King Troll? No, no, really, you shouldn’t have. Me? Really? Oh, I’m, well, I’m overwhelmed. Wow! This thing is heavy! First, to my cast and crew – thanks. You guys are the BEST. To my agent, Cinderfella, I owe you one, buddy. Oh, who else? I know I’m gonna forget somebody . . . my wife! My beautiful wife, this is as much yours as it is mine. And finally, to my fans. all you folks up there in the balcony . . . I love you , too! . . . you’re what it’s all about. Thank you.

  70. 70. shaui-jan

    you had me going there… i took it seriously until you said;”beautiful wife”
    that’s when i figured out you were joking.

  71. 71. Beth

    Chris Dodd, Tim Geitner, John Murtha…Why? Because the mainstream media is made up of liberals. The GOP doesn’t have to battle just liberal politicians – we have a fight on our hands against the media who prop them up as well.

  72. 72. acj

    Now wait just a God Darn minute-That’s what I thought of the republican party! They can get away with everything they want…YES WE CAN!

  73. LEFTIST MOUTHPIECE
    NYT columnist abandons reason in favor of rants.

    http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/dowd-self-appointed-partisan-pinhead.html

  74. 74. KayHS

    I’ve always said, you can violate your principles if you don’t have any. When your party consists of union crooks, trial lawyers, the gay mob, et al there are none!

  75. 75. KayHS

    I should have said, you can’t violate your principles…

    Sorry, new laptop

Leave a Reply

Click here to subscribe to the Daily Digest, to stay up to date with the latest at PJ Media. (You will be sent an email asking you to verify your email address. If you have previously subscribed, no verification email will be sent.)