Conservatives Have Decided Adultery No Longer Matters

[CactusCarlos]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2909864

Conservatives Have Decided Adultery No Longer Matters
Posted by marmar on Fri Feb-22-08 06:22 PM

from AlterNet's PEEK:

Conservatives Have Decided Adultery No Longer Matters

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 2:10 PM on February 22, 2008.

To borrow a '90s-era phrase, where's the outrage?



The Washington Post's Michael Gerson, Bush's former chief speechwriter and someone who seems to take the issue of politics and morality seriously, devoted his latest column to John McCain's Vicki Iseman controversy. Not surprisingly, the conservative columnists defends the conservative senator against the charges first raised by the NYT.

Most of the argument is about what one would expect, but I was a little surprised to see Gerson give McCain a pass on the adultery charge, even assuming the allegations are accurate.


Even if the accusation of infidelity were true, this kind of past relationship is hardly disqualifying for high office anymore, given a series of more prurient precedents. An affair between adults is a far cry from President Bill Clinton's exploitation of an intern, which involved not merely a failure of character but also an abuse of power.


This strikes me as wrong on a few levels, and I'm actually a little surprised Gerson would put it in print. It's not the conservative line on sexual morality at all.

First, even on the surface, it's not at all clear that the Lewinsky affair would be qualitatively worse than an Iseman affair (assuming, just for discussion, that the latter actually occurred). The age differences between the participants is similar -- though I think McCain's age gap with Iseman is slightly bigger than Clinton's with Lewinsky -- and everyone was a consenting adult.

What's more, as Jonathan Chait noted, Lewinsky didn't report directly to Clinton during her internship, while McCain "had enormous leverage over Iseman. He was the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, she was a telecommunications lobbyist. Winning his favor had great potential value for her, and alienating him would have been extremely damaging to her career." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/77535 /

I believe conservatives are the biggest hypocrites ever
Posted by stanwyck on Fri Feb-22-08 06:38 PM

How else do you explain a "family values" agenda promoted by serial divorcers? Bob Dole was having an affair with Liddy while married. (Liddy is so proud of her "born again" status. I guess being the other woman and breaking up a 20-ur+ marriage is just peachy with Christ.) Newt was having an affair with wife number three while married to wife number two. Poor wife number one was served with divorce papers while undergoing chemo treatment. Then, of course, there's Guiliani. Ted Olsen. John McCain. Ronald Reagan. (uh, Nancy had one of those REALLY EARLY babies, just 4 months after the wedding. Abstinence programs be damned!).
Here in Georgia we have serial divorcer Bob Barr, fortunately now out of Congress. A man who couldn't spew enough hate about Clinton's indiscretions.
Divorce is a part of life. But these are people who actively promote "family values" which discriminate against others. And Newt wanted divorce (for poor people) to become more difficult to obtain. (except for himself, of course.)
And then let's not even get started on these war-mongers who always seem to have "other priorities" when Uncle Sam needs to send troops to a war zone.
These are people who just don't walk it like they talk it.
Biggest hypocrites EVER.

repukes are just hypocritical scum
Posted by leftofthedial on Fri Feb-22-08 07:09 PM

they are parasitic vermin, sucking the life out of our species and our planet.

they should be rounded up, sterilized and put to work cleaning up biohazards, slaughtering animals, working in sewers, etc. No, wait. That would be way too good for them. 

[Duke Nukum]

they are parasitic vermin, sucking the life out of our species and our planet.

Talk about projection!  DUmmie Projection needs its own emoticon.

[dandi]

I hardly think you can ask the question, "Where's the outrage?" based on one writer's column. I'm sure that, if the stories are true, there are many conservatives that would find McCain's behavior outrageous. I find adultery odious myself, but if the choice is between an adulterer who is going to defend this country and at least pay lip service to conservative philosophy and a full-on socialist who wants to accelerate the slide into nanny-statism, then it's a classic case of "hold your nose and vote', and that vote sure as hell ain't going to the socialist.

[Happy Fun Ball]

leftofthedial (1000+ posts)      Fri Feb-22-08 07:09 PM
Response to Original message
10. repukes are just hypocritical scum
 they are parasitic vermin, sucking the life out of our species and our planet.

they should be rounded up, sterilized and put to work cleaning up biohazards, slaughtering animals, working in sewers, etc. No, wait. That would be way too good for them.

[Attero Dominatus]

leftofthedial  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Fri Feb-22-08 07:09 PM
Response to Original message
10. repukes are just hypocritical scum
   
they are parasitic vermin, sucking the life out of our species and our planet.

they should be rounded up, sterilized and put to work cleaning up biohazards, slaughtering animals, working in sewers, etc. No, wait. That would be way too good for them.
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Are DUmb****s capable of anything other than hatrid? okay, rhetorical question.

[Airwolf]

This ? After what Bill did in the oral office? You have to be frackin kidding me.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

It's not so much turning a blind eye to adultery as it is LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE AND PLAUSIBILITY YOU ****ING HYPOCEPHALIC AMOEBA DROPPINGS!!!

*straightens tie*

Got it?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Marmar's circular reasoning abilities must be the envy of slow-witted third-graders everywhere.

 

[Uhhuh35]

This ? After what Bill did in the oral office? You have to be frackin kidding me.

After reading the article it seems to me the Mr Gerson is saying that there is a difference between an affair and fooling with a White House intern in the Oval Office which would be an abuse of power. AND that merely having an affair doesn't necessarily disqualify a person for office as he says "given a series of more prurient precedents"

PRURIENT: marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire; especially
             : marked by, arousing, or appealing to sexual desire

Is he saying that some politicians fool around but the voters don't care much about that?

[TheSarge]

I believe conservatives are the biggest hypocrites ever
Posted by stanwyck on Fri Feb-22-08 06:38 PM

Oh really?

Your party tells us it's a private matter and "just sex" when a Democrat President is getting blow jobs from a fat assed intern under his desk in the Oval Office...when a Democrat Congress Critter has sex with teen aged boys he gets not only a standing ovation but re-elected to office again and again...and then there's the Congressman who was porking an underage girl that is still one of the hereos of the Democrat Party.

The Democrat party excoriates any Republican that your fellow travelers in the MSM even HINT might not be completely above board...and you have the unmitigated GALL to claim that republicans are the "biggest hypocrites" ever?


Give me a break

[Red October]

Conservatives Have Decided Adultery No Longer Matters

As opposed to liberals, to whom it never mattered.

Hey DUmbasses... a half-baked rumor from the poster-children of yellow journalism does not an adulterer make.   

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Oh really?...

Actually since thay are amoral they have no morals to violate hence no hypocrisy.

They're like a horny squirrel too scared to leave his winter nest: ****ing nuts.