We certainly can, and should, overlook Vitter’s sad little perversion. It’s NOT about WHAT he did. Besides his wife, who cares. It’s comic.
BUT we MUST NOT overlook his HYPOCRISY. HYPOCRISY is destroying our country. We have a liar-in-chief whose any word cannot be believed. And an administration of the same ilk.
When we can,  we must make an example of these people whose careers are built on vilification for political gain. We must focus on important issues and stop worrying about consensual sexuality. But we must demand honesty from our government. We deserve it.

Nice comment, Marjorie.

Here is a simple message for the hypocritical politicians—-

You stop legislating morality and bedroom behavior and we’ll stop peeking into your bedroom, even when you leave the windows wide open.

In his news conference Vitter did not appear to be remorseful for his conduct. In fact he seemed really pi$$ed off that he had to even discuss it and tried to pass it off as just an opportunity for his “enemies” and political foes to pile on. The little woman, who had claimed she was more “Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary Clinton” seemed more Tammy Wynette than either. She also seemed more upset with the press parking on her lawn and at her church than with the man who broke their wedding vows. Both Vitters need to now be quiet lest their rampant hypocrisy be even more apparent.
D.J., if you think there was ever a time in history when folks were not interested in other folks sexual piccadillos you need to study more about human behavior. Just cause the press didn’t used to indulge those baser interests as much doesn’t mean they weren’t there.

I also have to say that E. J. Dionne is making one of the commonest mistakes that liberals make—he’s being a decent human being. I truly like that and agree with it.

Unfortunately, the right doesn’t display that kind of courtesy and kindness, hence such situations as the Clinton witch-hunt.

Unfortunately, the left has to play the right’s game.

I’m old enough to remember the time when politicians’ sexual peccadilloes were indeed private. There was an old boys’ club mentality - a wink-wink syndrome. But it was at the discretion of the media. If a politician was popular, or in a position of power over a particular reporter, mum was the word. (JFK)

Other politicians’ escapades were reported - Gary Hart is one good example.

“One of the quotes attributed to Vitter indicated that he had spoke to God and God forgave him.  Unless he has verification of this conversation with his deity, it makes him a liar in addition to whatever else he is.”

Amen… I guess you have to be a Republican hypocrite to have a direct line to the Almighty… I’ve been waiting for proof of God for years.

One of the quotes attributed to Vitter indicated that he had spoke to God and God forgave him.  Unless he has verification of this conversation with his deity, it makes him a liar in addition to whatever else he is.

As long as there is no hypocrisy, as long as it involves only consenting adults, why should any of us care?
Hell, I’d be willing to donate to a fund so that Duhbya could get some from Monica, Mark, whoever ,..it just might turn him into a decent guy.
OK, that is a real stretch, but right now, we all need some relief from this boy.

“For some strange reason, liars seem to be attracted to religion and politics.”
 
Religion and politics are the lies. False apparitions of true spirituality and statecraft, which are rarities indeed.

Two reasons why Hypocrisy matters:

Liars who lie to their loved ones will lie to anyone.

Cheaters who cheat on their spouse will cheat at everything.

Ergo: Liars and Cheats should not be trusted with anything.

Just in case you have the time to track down the other names on that phone list, you might want to visit: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ 
THE INTERACTIVE DC MADAM PHONE NUMBER BROWSER

For some strange reason, liars seem to be attracted to religion and politics.

Hey!
There may even be some dems on that list!
Anybody up to the task?

Sure I would love to live in a US wherein the personal sexual lives of politicians was ignored by the public. But even more, I would like to live in an US wherein the personal sexual lives of the public was ignored by politicians.
  This sort of lets play nice and lead by example tactic just doesn’t work. I wish it did. The democrats seem addicted to it. Republicans are on top simply because they are as ruthless as hell. The democrat politicians are certainly ruthless, cunning, and manipulative, but they also feel that they need the approval of those who vote democrat. So they hold off, because of just this attitude in their constituency.
  So long as Republicans support sexually repressive and moralistic legislature, then their every hypocrisy should be exploited to the fullest extent and with a greater ruthlessness than they might go after a Democrat. Its not the sexual indiscretion that should be the point of the attack, (that is entirely counter productive!) It is the contract between their politics and their conduct that should be broadcast, ridiculed, broadcast some more and ridiculed some more.

Vitter’s fate will be decided by the Cajuns in his home state as well as his wife’s decisions.

The “bedroom syndrome” was the topic of a recent get together of afficionados of a couple of Corona six packs to exchange views on what possibly could occur in the White House if Hillary Rodham Clinton gets elected Presidente.

A few vocal voices suggested that “she will probably personally occupy the office[desk/chair] where her husband did not have sex with Monica” while others stated unequivocally that “one of the conditions Bill has put on his contribution to her campaign is the promise she made that he could have access to the specific office[desk/chair] that Monica never used while he was in it”.

In short the issue that was never resolved after the consumption of several Coronas was that ” what goes on in closet offices[desk/chairs] in the White House has no bearing whatsoever on what goes on in a bedroom occupied simultaneously by both a politician and a woman contractor”.

The money though is on Bill getting his old preferred closet/office with the same desk and chair if HC gets back in the big House.

So there.

“Hypocrisy is amusing to contemplate, but it isn’t all that important. It doesn’t hurt anyone.”

We should definitely contemplate the important implications of powerful and secretive politicians that are practicing hypocrits.

I don’t see anything amusing about hypcritcal politicians at all, in fact I count them amongst the greatest threats that civil society faces today.

Hypocrisy affects us all, Dan, because it is these hypocrites that feel that they have the morally superior ground. These same people then seek to legislate their own morality, even though they don’t practice it.

Ted Haggard is a great example. Here is a man who lashes out at gays, and would seek to deny them the right of marriage based on his personal moral beliefs. And he was involved in a summer camp to help little kids to become Nazi-like Christian warriors who will put down sinners. Yet, in fact, Haggard engages in the very activities he professes to despise and to oppose for all of America.

If you have moral convictions, live up to them. If not, shut the hell up. I see something inherently wrong with Vitter professing to be holier than thou and bashing people like Bill Clinton when he engages in those same behaviors. It’s disgusting.

Neocons are all imbecilic, aging, wheezing syphilitic pathological creeps, dirty old men that smoke Cuban cigars and go on child sex slave vacations in third world nations while on oxycontin between snorting viagra and having secret affairs with gay sex workers. When they’re not spouting homophobic bullshit or writing breathlessly idiotic, fact free columns in major newspapers, clinking crystal tumblers brimming with $38,000 a bottle bourbon with the Skull and Bones / AEI classmates at grand elite socials, getting drunk and shooting people in the face, brazenly granting trillion dollar contracts to their former companies, raping teenaged boys in Texas Prisons, chronically sexually harrassing their female employees, they’re out doing what they do best: ravaging the life savings of millions of people and committing genocide.
All this while being ardently fawned over by the liberal media. These revolting sub-human colostomatic shitbags of perversion should all be in GITMO right now receiving DIY sex changes from Cuban medical student, only to spend the rest of
their lives as a NEOCON drag show touring East African nations.

Yes, their lies and hypocrisies should be exposed whenever and wherever.

I do not agree with the premise that we should protect the privacy of our leaders. This only serves to perpetuate their hypocracy.

These Republicons, (cons is correct here) always state they have the high moral ground and they say the Democrats espouse immoral programs such as same sex marraige and the freedom of choice for women.

The fact is if you take a position of leadership and claim the moral ground you had better walk the walk.

This is no different jere than finding out a politicdian like Republicon Delay who claimed the high moral ground and stated he believed everyone should follow the rule of law but was discovered to have broken several laws himself.

People who desire to lead and determine the moral path for us all should not only be held accountable for their actions, the media should do their moral duty to protect the people by searching out the liars and thieves and expose their real natures to the world.

I usually don’t post my same thoughts on two different articles, but since the Flynt article deals with the same subject here goes:

I don’t want these creeps creeping into my bedroom checking on what I do sexually in private.

If I derive a certain pleasure about seeing one of them face ruin because of what they did sexually in private does this make me a hypocrite?

No! Nyet! Nein doch! Because I have been consistant in my claim that sexual practices are a personal issue, and never tried to impose repressive morality on anyone else for political or monetary gain.

I’ll defend Vitter’s right to sex, but slam him for his immoral, “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude.

“...I so want to return to a time when we—that we includes the media—chose to pay little attention to the extracurricular sexual activities of our politicians. The magnitude of our public problems does not afford us the luxury of indulging in crusades about politicians’ private lives, even those involving a high degree of hypocrisy.”

I agree there are far more important things than sex that the media needs need to be focusing on, like hypocrisy. I could care less about the sex. I’d like to say lets return to a time when the media paid attention to political hypocrisy but I have to wonder if that time ever really existed.

The 5th estate, to a large degree, has taken responsibility for facilitating transparency and accountability in the public’s domain. At present, the public can no more rely on journalists to check the abuse of power than people in the past could rely on the ex-communicative power of the church to monitor politicians.

In the future, politicians should be hard-wired to the Internet so their constituents can directly monitor what they say and do themselves. We need to outlaw all official secrecy in the public’s domain because the media simply can’t or won’t dig deep enough, and the politicians won’t divulge anything on their own.

The technology of the Internet should eliminate these problems.

I like EJ’s stuff, but giving hypocrites a break simply empowers them to continue to be hypocrites. If these people are insistent on saying one thing and doing another, then there is such a thing as accountability.

I’ll make the hypocrites a deal…you shut up about how others should lead their lives and we won’t judge how you live yours. Until then, the brand of Larry Flynt “gotcha” being played right now seems very appropriate.

I believe those who choose a career in the public eye, be it politics, hollywood, etc. should understand that a loss of privacy comes with the territory. If you are willing to break the law and disgrace yourself, be prepared when the masses turn on you.

brandon
http://www.actforyourself.org

.....” But maybe a politician who admits to sin gains a certain degree of humility in the process. Let’s grant Vitter our collective absolution, and move on.”…

He didn’t admit to ANYTHING until he was BUSTED. That’s not ADMITTING. He has broken the law - he’s a john - and deserves to be punished. Vitter should resign in disgrace and should do jail time. What do YOU not get about these dangerous, hypocrites legislating for those of us who don’t want to live by their psychotic morality?

I beg to differ.  Democrats need to fight on the terrain given, here expose and capitalize on sex scandals on the Right.  We need to self-censor less in these matters—and surely stop eating our young, as it were—and play to win.  Take a Dramamine, make a fist, and fight back. 

Unless you want nine like Alito and Roberts on the Court.

As soon as some of our self-appointed guardians of morality stop visiting America’s Iman, Pat Robertson, so they can use Iman Pat’s own version of “Mecca” to loudly proclaim they are pure in heart, but we’re not, then we can stop turning the mirror on these hypocrites.