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.