It's the Media, Stupid

David Harsanyi compares and contrasts sex scandals:

As a social conservative ogling underage congressional pages, Republican Mark Foley was the poster boy for rank hypocrisy. Turns out, his successor, Democrat Tim Mahoney — “Restoring America’s Values Begins at Home” went the campaign slogan — has, evidently, been keeping the torch of sexual infidelity aloft.

Now, no one wants to be accused of sexual McCarthyism — your dalliances are your own business, unless, that is, you happen to be wide-stancing in the bathroom stalls of the Minneapolis International Airport — but it seems that Mahoney may have used taxpayer dollars to hide his extracurricular activities.

While infinite degrees less creepy than Foley’s offense, the fundamental difference between the two incidents seems to be the level of media coverage.

I’ll have more on this later at Pajamas Media.