Sex, Lies, and the Character Issue in the Midterm Elections

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Personal behavior may tell us a great deal about political behavior and vice versa. But here is, I think, a useful rule of thumb: does the politician accused of some sin or vice try to control my sin or vice? Bill Clinton doesn't propose to interfere in what went on in my bedroom, but Newt Gingrich sure does. Therefore, I find myself far less bothered by whatever Clinton did with another consenting adult than I am with Gingrich serving divorce papers to his wife as she comes out of cancer surgery so that he may find happiness with his mistress--whom he has since divorced. Now, who is guilty of hypocrisy? Both. Who is guilty of more hypocrisy? If you can actually argue that John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Larry Craig, and David Vitter are NOT bigger hypocrites and disgraces than Clinton or Edwards or Spitzer, then you are truly not part of what that Bush adviser called "the reality-based community."

Michael Green of NV 11:43PM June 01, 2010

Does that also go for Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Elliot Spitzer and the rest of the LONG list of scoundrels on the left ?? Both parties are full of them, it seems the left more than the right ( at least the right steps aside ). Given what you say, why give them more power and raise taxes to give them more money to spend, as you say in other comments you post?? WHY??

Hunter of WI 7:37PM May 31, 2010

will woo and do another man's wife, he will likewise swindle everything else this side of the moon. There is no "grey area" about this.

Muser of NM 12:34AM May 31, 2010

Morals and ethics, as I define them, are pretty much the same thing. If an individual thinks morals don't matter, then they probably think ethics don't matter either. Most of the people in Congress (stage or federal) are wealthy -- if you aren't wealthy, you can't afford to run for a high office. And they're interested in staying wealthy, and in their friends staying wealthy. This is why to many laws are pass that don't seem to have much regard for the ordinary non-wealthy individual. The poor can't pay taxes, the wealthy legislate ways to get out of paying taxes (certainly out of paying their fair share), and the "middle-class" is stuck with the bill.
I don't resent people being wealthy, but United States citizens who have become wealthy have usually done so BECAUSE they are United States citizens. I'd like to see them do more to support the country that set them up in the first place.

Shirley Lee of CA 3:04PM May 28, 2010

Why should anyone be judged differently based on the color of their skin, sex, race, religion or their status in society? Let them be judged by their character, by what they do, not who they know or pretend to be.
Did not Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. strive and dedicate his life to equal justice under the law? That no citizen be judged by the color of their skin,race, sex ... but the content of their character?
Let the Constitution and its 14th Admendment be our guide for equal justice and not social justice. Social justice is when people are not judged by content of their character but by the social PC of the moment.
Character does count!

John R. Carpenter of CA 12:10PM May 28, 2010