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hypocrisy

Politics may make strange bedfellows, but the uproar over the governor of New York Eliot Spitzer's disgrace is all too familiar. So familiar that the real story may be the fact these things dominate the news. In the middle of a contentious presidential election, while fighting two wars with a tanking economy the story du jour is some idiot pol getting caught with his pants down. Oh well, I needed a break from the news. Recognizing the story was going to dominate the news cycle, I turned off the television and caught up on some long overdue reading.

Nothing stokes ratings like a public sex scandal, and the press outdo themselves in expressing disgust while at the same time repeatedly exploiting every salacious detail. For example, one news show included a segment with the proprietor of the infamous Bunny Ranch in Nevada, where prostitution is legal, and one Ms. Kisses, apparently an employee of the establishment. The question: what exactly would you get for the five grand Spitzer was allegedly spending on his consorts. At the conclusion of the segment, as the host was attempting to cut to a commercial, the proprietor of the Bunny Ranch was insistent on getting in this point: that it was shameful for these men to drag their wives into the public when addressing the issue.

I happen to agree with him, but there seems something rather odd, to the point of being unseemly, for a man who is essentially a pimp to be so concerned for the wife of a john. How many wives have been humiliated by their husband purchasing services from his establishment? Yet he was genuinely outraged by Spitzer's wife standing by her man. Between this and the hypocrisy of Spitzer, who fervently prosecuted prostitution, I'm quite sure I don't get it.

Must be the Bunny Ranch Rules.

This entry was posted on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 04:39 and is filed under .

The longer this campaign goes on, the more often I am reminded of the moral bankruptcy of the Clintons:

As the Politico's Roger Simon reported this week, fresh from her clash with Obama in Ohio, Clinton went to Texas, where one of her ardent Latina supporters told a Dallas TV station that blacks haven't done anything to help Latinos. "They used our numbers to fulfill their goals and objectives," Adelfa Callejo said.

Then came Callejo's kicker: "Obama has the problem that he happens to be black."

A Dallas reporter asked Clinton about her backer's remarks. Clinton danced: "I want us judged on our merits. . . . I want people though to look beyond, look beyond race and gender, look at our records."

The reporter followed up: Is this something you reject and denounce?

Clinton: "People have every reason to express their opinions. I just don't agree with that. I think that we should be looking at the individuals who are running."

Question: Do you still want her support, though?

Clinton laughed and said: "This is a free country. A lot of folks have said really unpleasant things about me over the course of this campaign. You can't take any of that as anything other than an individual opinion."

Question: "But you criticized Obama for not rejecting the support of Farrakhan."

Clinton: "I don't see any comparison at all . . . and I don't know the facts of what you're telling me over the TV."

Colbert I. King - A Double Standard on 'Reject and Denounce' - washingtonpost.com

This entry was posted on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 22:37 and is filed under .

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