The Scandal Test for Republican / Democrat Difference

The following quote from an article in the Pittsburg Post Gazette does a pretty good job of laying out the difference in the Senator Larry Craig phenomenon and the experience of guys like Bill Clinton, Teddy Kennedy, John Murtha, William Jefferson, Gerry Studds, Barney Frank, and the list could just go on and on. For those of you not up on the details of these few:

Billy C - If the lips were a flappin, you knew Billy was a lying cuz that is all the man ever knew how to do. In the specific case of looking for sexual favors with every woman within reach while signing sexual harassment laws that could get anyone else fired for "ogling" for over 3 seconds. Perjury was no longer a crime for Billy -- but of course it has come back for Scooter Libby.

Teddy "The Whale" - In between drunken stupors back while the rest of the country was watching Americans land on the Moon, Teddy was watching the last bubbles escape from the secretary he had recently been using for a sex toy. "It was an accident" ... that he didn't get around to reporting until the next day.

John Murtha - Back in the days of Abscam, John made it clear on tape that he wasn't going to take $50K "right now" ... but it wasn't very clear that he wasn't going to take it or a lot more later.

William Jefferson - $90K of cash in the freezer. Still in office, finally been indicted apparently, one has to really be a news sleuth to keep up with that case.

Gerry Studds - Sex with a 17 year old Congressional Page in '73 ... censured, but served until '97.

Barney Frank - Well, of course he is Gay ... but his "roomie" was a Gay prostitute that was running a business out of Barney's appartment.

But media bias is not the main reason why Republicans suffer more from scandals. Democratic voters expect Democrats to steal on their behalf. Lawmakers are judged on the basis of how many goodies from the federal treasury they can shower on their constituents. The typical Democratic voter doesn't mind terribly if their senator or congressman takes something for himself along the way. (Time Magazine's story on Rep. Mollohan's re-election was headlined, "Pork Trumps Scandal.")
The typical Republican voter wants his senator or congressman to keep his taxes low, his government honest. He is furious when GOP lawmakers stick their fingers in the cookie jar, or give lip service to values they do not practice.
Republicans must be squeaky clean to win elections because their voters will crucify them for behavior Democratic voters wink at so long as the pork keeps flowing. This is why his GOP colleagues already have stripped Sen. Craig of his committee assignments, and many have called for his resignation, while Democratic senators are comfortable having among them a man who left to drown in his automobile a young woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

I'm sure that many Democrats do focus on "just the money(pork)", but it seems to me that many of them take a good deal of joy in "their guys getting away with it". Once you decide to be amoral, there is has to be a certain thrill in seeing "your folks" do whatever they want with impunity. What the core of the Democrat party has trouble with are guys with morals and character like Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman -- those get the same kind of treatment as Republicans give Larry Craig.

Take note; 90+% of the time when someone says "there isn't any difference between the parties", they have just told you that they are a Democrat. Only a situational ethicist with no idea of consistency could actually believe that.