Of cover-ups and 'moral errors'

Hannah Selinger - Raw Story Columnist
Published: Monday October 16, 2006

What a refreshing weekend! Today, it is not Dithering Dems who rule the front page of the newspaper, but rather Repentant Repubs.

Two days after news broke regarding Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) and his inappropriate email correspondence with a sixteen-year-old Congressional page, the New York Times reports that "Top G.O.P. Aides Knew In Late '05 of E-Mail To Page."� As it turns out, even Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, had been tipped off to Foley's behavior when Thomas A. Reynolds, Representative from New York and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, brought the matter to the Speaker's attention.

Sexual scandals are nothing new in Washington. Last year, it was Jim McGreevey, the governor of New Jersey, who resigned from office after admitting that he was gay and had been involved with a member of his staff. Bob Livingston, Representative from Louisiana, offered his resignation in 1998 after being selected as Newt Gingrich's successor as Speaker of the House. Livingston had been caught cheating on his wife, an ironic twist of fate considering his condemnation of Bill Clinton for similarly adulterous behavior.

Who cares about affairs, aside from the fact that they make for interesting gossip? Apparently not the large chunk of Americans who, according to a 1998 report by USA Today, are cheating on their spouses. The specific statistics were 20 percent for men and 14 for women, and we're only talking married couples. And that was eight years ago. Cheating is not, per se, widely accepted, but it certainly exists in the not-talked-about underbelly of American culture. Many of us have friends who cheat, or friends who have cheated, or friends who have been cheated on. Some of us will continue our friendships with adulterers because it isn't happening to us and because, on some larger level, we don't feel that adultery is a litmus test for character.

And yet, when it comes to the boudoir blunders of our venerated politicians, we are quick to accuse and even quicker to scorn. Members of The Grand Old Party, entrenched in their own platform of moral superiority, never hesitate to make character assessments based on unfaithful behavior. To Ann Coulter, Bill Clinton was a "very good rapist," which to her was more important than his accomplishments in office (not that she believes he had any). Never mind the fact that Clinton never actually had sex with Monica Lewinsky. Never mind the fact that she was a consenting adult at the time. Never mind the fact that oral sex had never before been considered an impeachable act. For Coulter and the Republican noise machine, a moral code had been violated. Weren't we, as Americans, astounded and sickened by our president's lack of moral fortitude? Weren't we, as Americans, ready to be ushered into an era of moral accountability and core values?

Some Americans were ready for precisely that, which could explain the rise in conservativism and the changing climate of the country that has taken place since 1998. That being said, people are still having affairs. And although some may argue that the scandal that unfolded when Monica Lewinsky confided in Linda Tripp all those years ago was more potent than any scandal that has unfolded since, the act itself was almost benign. The president did not cross boundaries with a sixteen-year-old, an act that, had it come to fruition with Senator Foley, would have been not only immoral, but also illegal. Although Democrats may have opposed the Starr investigation, no one protected the president by withholding information, as current members of the Republican Party have done for Mark Foley.

What seems readily apparent, then, is that the character crisis of the 21st Century cannot be laid solely on the shoulders of American liberals. While the right would like to paint the left as sex fiends and baby killers, the blame for the decay of core values does not reside in any one camp. Democrats have made mistakes, many of them grave and many of them overhyped. Republicans have made mistakes, too. But covering up the worst of these mistakes, the ones that keep bad people in positions of power, are the errors of which both parties should be most ashamed.