[Lictimind]

Is it a scandal if it's a Democrat? I mean just look at Barney Frank.

[Escamsrasiush]

Hey if it's about that, just look at Bubba.

Again, it's only a scandal for republicans.

[Dwerfsd]

By Democrats?

[Zaxsdcxs]

I don't know if Democrats in the House voted for impeachment or not.

[gambleingsites]

Yeah the message I get is that it only matters when it's an R.

When's the last time you posted anything critical of the Dims?

[alexbookhyip]

That's a two-way street, Ben. When's the last time you post something critical of the GOP?

Don't change the subject; this is not about relativism.

[wantedLOX]

Do I claim impartiality?

Oh, okay. Feel free to quote me claiming to be impartial. In this thread I said it's a scandal when politicians cheat on their spouse and you supported my claim by bringing up Clinton, who got into trouble by cheating on his spouse.

[Joircarm]

Not by his party, and that's the point. The Republican party is hanging their member out to dry rather than rallying around the flag like the Dims do. Very different responses by both parties.

Not accusing Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice is "rallying around the flag"?

[gMUVgw71]

It's a lot more common for Republicans to pretend they're straight, get married, then cheat on their spouse with a man, all while campaigning against gay rights. The last Democratic sex scandal I remember was someone posting a picture of himself in his underwear on twitter. Both of those things are bad but they are not equally bad, not by a long shot.

[Kneefrenolf]

Here you go Ben, a scumbag who isn't a Republican:
WASHINGTON (AP) — There's been risqué tickling. Raunchy twittering. Emailed photos. Stolen sex tapes. And more.

Seems like sex scandals snagging Washington politicians are piling up faster than the federal debt.

Now, in the latest episode of Washington's own unseemly take on "Sex and the City," Rep. David Wu of Oregon is resigning in response to allegations by an 18-year-old woman that she had an "unwanted sexual encounter" with the congressman, who is separated from his wife. Wu denied the charges.

Last month, it was Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., stepping down after admitting he'd sent lewd photos of himself through Twitter, and lied about it.

There have been two other scandal-related resignations from Congress this year, both of them Republicans — a rare recent example of bipartisanship in this city.

This stew of alleged philandering is the last thing Washington needs when public opinion about elected officials already is "relentlessly negative," to use the words of the Pew Research Center, and hostility toward government is strong.

"It probably confirms people's worst suspicions about the political class," says Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion expert at the American Enterprise Institute. "The public has long associated politics with corruption and banality."

At least House leaders are honing their skills at nudging politicians out the door when the whiff of sexual impropriety starts to swirl into a vortex.

One day after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi requested an Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations about Wu, the seven-term Democrat pledged to resign once the debt-ceiling crisis was resolved.

Oh, that. The debt crisis.

When talk of philandering plays out against the backdrop of the all-too-real threat of a historic government default, it seems all the more tawdry.

"I'm convinced that if Bill Clinton had been messing around with Monica Lewinsky during an acute economic downturn, things would've turned out very differently," says Eric Dezenhall, a crisis management consultant.

Instead, the economy was booming, and Clinton managed to survive impeachment and emerge in his post-presidential life as an elder statesman.

While public officials aren't necessarily more likely to cheat than other Americans, politicians often take "10 times longer than the rest of us to figure out that they've got a problem," says Dezenhall. He attributes that to "some sort of megalomania combined with an impulse control problem combined with denial."

Think Anthony Weiner. He spent 10 days denying he'd sent improper tweets and another 10 clinging to his job after he acknowledged he'd done it after all.

"You're dealing with personalities that believe they are destined to live larger lives than the rest of us," Dezenhall says. "Anything you do in pursuit of that goal is rationalized as a destiny that smaller minds wouldn't understand."

Think John Edwards. The former senator and Democratic presidential candidate completed the sex, lies and videotape trifecta by cheating on his cancer-stricken wife while offering himself on the campaign trail as a devoted family man. Now he's facing charges of misusing campaign dollars to cover up the affair, and there's another lawsuit over a purported sex tape he made with his lover.

"I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic," Edwards said in 2008 when he acknowledged the affair — at that point still lying about the fact that he had fathered a child with the other woman.

Think former Rep. Christopher Lee. The New York Republican resigned earlier this year after a gossip website reported that he had sent a shirtless photo of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist. No inner voice talked the married congressman out of that bad idea.

Think Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. He admitted in June 2009 that he'd had an extramarital affair with a former member of his campaign staff. He didn't resign until this May, in the midst of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation that was looking into steps that he took to cover up the affair.

"I was blind to how arrogant and self-centered that I had become," Ensign said in his farewell speech.

Then there's Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y. He resigned in 2010 after employees accused him of groping and propositioning male staff members. The congressman acknowledged that he had groped one — but described it as tickling, not sexual behavior.

In general, Americans appear to be growing less tolerant of extramarital sex: In the early 1970s, about 70 percent of Americans said extramarital sex was always wrong. In recent years, the figure has risen to about 80 percent, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

That's not to say Americans think they're any better behaved than their elected officials.

In a June survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted after the Weiner case exploded in the news, 57 percent of Americans said they thought politicians "just get caught more often because they're under greater scrutiny." Just 19 percent said elected officials have "lower moral standards than ordinary Americans."

Not that that should make anyone feel better. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...a3740ad589f8d3

[ZXRamon]

Uhh, when's the last time you saw a Dim campaigning against gay rights?

I don't see many republicans pretend that they love the environment while jetting around the world and owning mansions while campaigning against carbon footprints.

Uhh are you talking about Al Gore? He's not even a politician any more.

Which is why we saw reel to reel coverage of the episode here... Oh wait. No one cared because it's Weiner (D). Uhh there was a thread on Apolyton about it. Yes, people cared.

[gogoleanylinkfo]

Uhh are you talking about Al Gore? He's not even a politician any more. What, you mean you aren't one of the Sore/Loserman folks saying that he should have been president?

[Kryfamid]

People who speak out in favor of values should be held to a higher standard.

[olivelappers]

Who the **** cares about an Indiana state legislator? Jesus, this is even less important than the ****ing Wisconsin bullshit.

[Almolfuncomma]

Who the **** cares about an Indiana state legislator? Jesus, this is even less important than the ****ing Wisconsin bullshit.

Hoosiers might care, why Asher gives a **** is beyond me.

[JosephNF]

Not necessarily...

[Cucoulkrory]

It's the homophobes who have an interest in stopping it. If you don't hate gays and you're not gay, why care about gay marriage?

[Jellowstrom]

Yes they were. You are stupid.

But it makes sense where you're coming from now.

For example, Catholic Europeans during the Middle Ages were not necessarily anti-Semitic just because they partook in violent pogroms against Jews or segregated them, in the cities. It's just that being Jewish was immoral in the eyes of the Catholics according to their traditional values and religious belief.

And, if the Jews had not flaunted their identity, they might not have had suffered such violent persecution.

[Trientoriciom]

Uh, I'm not sure why Gribbler thinks I'm anti-semitic.

What are you smoking?

[simmons latex mattress]

It's just that being Jewish was immoral in the eyes of the Catholics according to their traditional values and religious belief. No, there is no Catholic teaching wrt anti-semitism. In fact, just the opposite. As St. Paul teaches, gentiles eat of the table scraps served by God at his banquet to his people Israel.

The Jews are God's chosen people. Gentiles just tag along for the ride and God has been merciful to extend salvation to us.