Saturday, March 15, 2008

A fair shake of the stick

My fascination with things electoral led me to the Governance Magazine blog, Ballot Box, a seeming little read gathering of writers focused on government.

A recent post there by Blogger/Reporter Alan Greenblatt asked the question about the Spitzer affair: Does it hurt the Dems?

One commenter, and there are not many to the Ballot Box, suggested that there would be no fallout if Spitzer had hung on and that the calls by Republicans in the New York assembly should have been fodder for attacks on Republicans fund raising. He ended with,"Nuff said." As if that would be the last word on this.

I would agree. Democrat falls from grace are generally handled gently and soon forgiven, if not forgotten.

On the other hand, Marc Foley, Senator Craig, and other Republican sinners are inserted into every stump speech of every Democrat running for any office. It looks like this:

"This Republican member of (insert governance body), this man who held himself out as in favor of family values, as a champion for law and order, as a moral light in the dark, was nothing more than (choose one - a closet homosexual, someone who would force himself on employees who were afraid to resist, a common philanderer - or insert your own) who attempted to force his hypocrisy on others. Well, my Republican opponent, although not charged or alleged to have done the same thing, aligns himself with (insert name of miscreant Republican) and the Republican party that tolerated this behavior for so long, protecting its member from public scrutiny merely to (choose one - retain, gain) a political majority that gave the republicans the power to do to you and your children as they pleased!"

Too much said. Too much unexamined hypocrisy. Too many watchdogs that are the dogs in the fight.

(The last four paragraphs were also posted as a comment to "Does it hurt the Dems?")

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