John Ensign, Double Standards On Both Sides ?
So the news has come out that we have another Senator who had an affair. I am certainly not going to try to excuse his actions. He’s a slimeball and deserves to be called one. However I do think that we have some double standards on both sides of the political fence coming out.
To make it clear, I never approve of slimeballs who have affairs, but I think that we need to draw some lines when it comes to how we react. To begin with, I really think that unless you are a constituent that your ability to comment is somewhat limited. But I am a pseudo pundit so I might as well give a few thoughts, and I am pretty close to Nevada.
As I see it unless there is criminal conduct that any calls for resignation are dumb and out of bounds. I probably wouldn’t vote for Ensign for any office but I don’t think he should have to resign.When people called on Clinton to resign I thought they were wrong and I strongly opposed impeachment. His conduct was wrong but not criminal and thus not proper reasons to toss him out.
By contrast I did support calls for Craig and Spitzer to resign because they did engage in criminal activity and that was a reason for them to be forced from office.
Looking to Ensign, while his conduct was sleazy, it is worth considering that at the time of the affair he was separated from his wife, and while that is still wrong it is different from being together and cheating.
But what really bugs me is the double standards on both sides of the fence. People on the left who defended Clinton (and in some cases Spitzer) suddenly want Ensign out of office. At the same time those who called for the heads of Clinton and Spitzer suddenly find it ok For Ensign to stay in office.
It seems to me that if you want to be intellectually honest you need to stick to one standard. But then again we are mostly talking about politicians and political interest groups here so maybe intellectual is too much to ask for.
22 Responses to “John Ensign, Double Standards On Both Sides ?”
Senator Ensign is a vetenarian that had overrated charges in Las Vegas !
I took my dogs up to Blockbuster Video to drop a video and I had a beautiful siberian huskey at about 8 years ago … he ignored me and my dogs !
Hope he doesn't get reelected and I know I will not go to his vetenarian clinic !
I'm not sure he's a slimeball. I don't condone affairs, but then tens of millions of people in this country have had affairs in their lives. If we call Ensign a slimeball for this, we've got to consider large chunks of the nation slimeballs as well. Let's just say he acted slimy instead of calling him a slimeball, and now he's got to make it up, but only to his wife. Not to me.
Who are the people on the left calling for his resignation? I've heard a lot of amusement over his hypocrisy and that he would condemn Clinton and Craig but not Vitter, but nobody seriously expects him to resign.
I don't think the affair was what bothered many people about the Clinton issue. With me it was Clinton commenting perjury in a court proceeding. Having an affair with someone you worked with is also different for trolling , illegally, for anonymous sex in public bathrooms. I really don't see the situations as being the same.
I don't see Ensign's affair as analogous to Craig, Spitzer and Bill Clinton. As far as I can tell Ensign did nothing illegal, and unless more information comes out this appears to be a moral issue and not a legal one.
Is Ensign a hypocrite – probably, and that likely is what upsets people. Nevada voters will have to decide how important that is to them next election.
When you are separated from your wife, what limits are placed on when, if and who you can date? Would it be nice if everyone got all the i's dotted and t's crossed before they even went to dinner with another person? I guess so. But I'm not even sure this was an “affair” from what I read. The hypocrisy charge will have some legs, of course, and rightly so, but this doesn't fall into “You Should Resign” territory as I see it. Then again, I never thought Clinton should have resigned either, and clearly about 70% of the country agreed with me, given his popularity ratings. Yes, yes… I know, he committed perjury. Somehow people lying about their sex lives still doesn't match up (in my mind) to people lying about the business of the government, criminal conduct, wars, abuse, theft, fraud, etc. A double standard? I guess I'm guilty as charged.
It's not the mistakes people make. Everyone makes mistakes. Both Democrats and Republicans.
It's the sheer hypocrisy that is so blatant. People who condemn gays, demonize gays –even legislate against them–performing gay acts or being gay themselves. You know who they are
People and a Party who so loudly and righteously tout moral values, family values, religious values, then totally ignore/trash those concepts and committing heinous acts.
Is this perhaps the reason we no longer hear the loud, shrill, self-righteous clarions of family values, moral values, “compassionate Conservatism” ?
Yes, I know, one doesn't have to be “pure” to promote pureness
But when so many of those “promoters” and enforcers of our morals turn out to be totally impure,amoral, they begin to lose some credibility…
[...] Patrick Edaburn in Moderate Voice To make it clear, I never approve of slimeballs who have affairs, but I think that we need to draw some lines when it comes to how we react. To begin with, I really think that unless you are a constituent that your ability to comment is somewhat limited. But I am a pseudo pundit so I might as well give a few thoughts, and I am pretty close to Nevada. [...]
Republicans are the party of tiresome moralizing about other people's personal lives. That's where the extra hypocrisy comes in.
What's with all the slimeball, sleazy references. Even pacatrue calls it acting slimy after criticising the author. When will Americans put their puritanical past behind them and drop their voyeuristic interest in other peoples' sex lives? This is about a guy getting laid. Get over it.
I don't care that he had an affair. What I find offensive is that he had an affair with the wife of a man who worked for him. Then, when he (Ensign) got back with his wife, he gave the man a check and sent him packing. This only came out because the man wanted another check. Whether or not he intended it to be that way, Ensign bought the man's silence. Unfortunately, he didn't stay bought.
It's never about the sex. It's about the coverup.
I do not think that he should resign because he had an affair. But, he should resign because he is a hypocrite. As far as I am concerned people's sex lives are their own affairs (no pun intended). But, if you call upon another politician to resign because he had an affair, then you should man up and resign if you have an affair.
blu – did you call for Clinton's resignation? After all, based on your criteria hypocrites should resign, and what is more hypocritical than lying to your wife, the American people in a national press conference, and then committing perjury about it?
No I did not. Did you?
Yes, but not for hypocrisy, but for the combination of perjury by a sitting President and lying to the American people.
Should he resign? No. Should he be browbeaten for hypocrisy? you betcha. His affairs are his personal business I don't really care since they don't effect his performance as a Senator. As for Clinton, I felt the same, but I did think he should have his pay docked for time with Monica on the taxpayer clock that took plaace in the Oval Office. A simple fine would have been better than all the drama of impeachment calls.
Good, then you on the right, having convicted Clinton of perjury (he was acquitted), now say THAT is the issue. So. Now that it is obvious that Cheney, Bush, Yoo and their ilk all lied to Congress (a federal crime), ready for them to be prosecuted? Should they have resigned? Eh?
One, I have never expressed a deep admiration for Bush II. That is your need to pigeonhole people who disagree with you, I guess.
And not one of the items you cite had any 'lies' to them. You mistaken in two of those cases (WMD and yellowcake) intelligence estimates that were agreed upon by many countries, but subsequently turned out to be wrong, and therefore say to be wrong is to lie. In the last you either are saying a falsehood yourself, as Al Qaeda has and had ties to Iraq, but my guess is you are trying to claim Bush said the Al Qaeda/Iraq relationship ad some involvement with 9/11, which he never ion fact said.
But I bet it is so much more fun for you to twist the facts to fit your need to be able to say 'Bush Lied, People Died' than to actually care about what really happened. That takes too much intellectual honesty.
GD – do you deny he lied to the American people in a nationally televised speech?
And I will never said he was convited of perjury, for as you said that was part of the impeachment. I should have said 'found guilty of contempt of court' BECAUSE of his perjury.
As the judge stated in the ruling, 'Simply put, the president's deposition testimony regarding whether he had ever been alone with Ms. (Monica) Lewinsky was intentionally false, and his statements regarding whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky likewise were intentionally false”.
Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he then chose to resign.
That is so much better, isn't it?
The reason he should resign is not that having had an affair makes him irredeemably evil (although his behavior in this case appears to have been a bit slimier than that of most people who have affairs). The reason he should resign is because when he was attacking other politicians for their affairs he said outright that if it were him he would resign. Now it is time for him to put his resignation where his mouth was.
The reason he should resign is not that having had an affair makes him irredeemably evil (although his behavior in this case appears to have been a bit slimier than that of most people who have affairs). The reason he should resign is because when he was attacking other politicians for their affairs he said outright that if it were him he would resign. Now it is time for him to put his resignation where his mouth was.
Yeah he tried to cover his ass and big deal. Congress should not have been interested in clinton's blowjob. Lewinskys mouth on his dick was never a matter of national security. Congress's behavior and that of Ensign was what was damaging to the country not a bit of presidential trim.