There are a series of well-established steps that people in the public eye take when caught doing something reprehensible. For an example, let’s take… oh, Mark Foley (R, Florida).
As you know by now, he was caught sending sexually explicit e-mails to underage Congressional pages.
Step 1: When the news breaks and you realize there is no way to spin it, resign your post.
Step 2: Immediately go into “treatment” for alcohol abuse, hoping that the media will rewrite their stories, assuming that you were drunk at the time. This has the side effect — ironically, due to a culture crafted by liberals — of making people think that it is not your fault, it was the liquor.
Step 3: Add treatment for “other behavioral problems.” Let people think that you are battling demons and you have no control over your own life; that you are not to blame for anything.
Step 4: When that doesn’t excuse you, release the blockbuster news that you had been molested as a child — by a clergyman, no less. Again, this reinforces the idea that you are not to blame.
Step 5: Still not getting traction for your story? Now it is time for you to come out of the closet. By doing this, you can fall on your sword for your evil right-wing masters, who will show that gay men are pedophile predators and Foley was never really a good Republican to begin with, thus distancing the party from this scandal.
Any bets as to what Step 6 will entail? Will it be an admission that he is under the care of Scientology, and that he will soon be cured of his homosexuality and other “deviances” by non-stop auditing in Clearwater, Florida?
That’s just the Republican way of handling these things… the Democrat way would be to lie under oath about it, slime your way out of an impeachment trial, then prove to the ‘people’ that you’re bullet-proof and extend the perpetuation to our ‘leaders’ that its ok try to weasel out of your actions to the public.
Ted Kennedy,
Bill Clinton,
Mark Foley,
all the same dirtbages to me.
You’ve got it backwards.
It’s not just the Republican way of handling these things, they learned the absolution steps from the Dems.
And lying under oath, sliming out of things? The Dems learned that from the Republicans.
And boy, I’m sick and tired of people still beating the Bill Clinton mess. He didn’t weasel out of impeachment, he was found not guilty. Even if he was guilty, how does anyone seriously think lying about his blow job from a chubby girl made any difference to the world when we currently have a president who has caused more deaths than anyone can count, destroyed our civil liberties, made the world a far more dangerous place?
Talk about sliming out of an impeachment trial…
Saying Clinton isn’t as bad as Bush is like saying manslaughter isn’t as bad a murder. Using the actions of Bush ain’t exactly a good litmus test for the morality of a leader- leaves WAY to much grey area.
And Clinton was found not guilty like OJ was found not guilty. And to say the Republicans started it is just historically foolish- but no more than saying the Democrats started it. Basically my point is that there are dirt bags that lie about things all over, no matter what the party, always have been.
I guess I just sigh in wonderment as to why highly intelligent people- like you and my father for example, tend to be blinded by parties- meaning there is a much corruption and good on BOTH sides of the fence.
Gosh, I hate to say that I’ve got it right- but as a moderate, I do.
Fun to discuss though aint it?
What a bunch of bull, Kirk. I can’t believe for a moment that you think that anything Clinton did was even in the same league as Bush’s transgressions.
The charge against Clinton was that he committed perjury by lying under oath about having a sexual encounter with someone. That’s it. He lied about a personal matter while being pummeled by a right-wing attack machine desperate to find ANYTHING they could accuse him of.
Your analogy of manslaughter to murder is simply way off the mark. It’s more like comparing murder to say, being drunk in public.
And I’m dismayed that you would accuse me of being blind to the fault of the Democrats. The reason you don’t see me beating up on Dems very often is because they are invisible, do-nothing, scared and ineffectual these days. In fact, one thing that I prefer about George Bush over Bill Clinton is that Clinton spent his time triangulating and obsessing over political expediency instead of fulfilling his promise. Bush — however wrong he is — has the strength of his (sometimes bizarre) convictions.
And let me tell you this: if Hillary Clinton ever runs for president, she won’t get my vote. Not after years in the Senate pandering to the right.
Oh yeah… well you’re smelly.
Possibly, but the dog isn’t complaining, so who cares?
Yeah, I’ve smelt (smelt- is that even a word?) that dog, not exactly a good judge of hygene.