Hypocrisy. Double-standards. Unfairness.

This is a response of sorts to NothingKnew's latest post about the Republican VP Nominee's Choices.

During the Clinton years, the Republican party mastered the art of character assassination and used an any means necessary approach to destroying Clinton's reputation. When "they" took party, Bush admonished Politics of Personal Destruction even though those were the politics that got him into the White House. Note: Dirty politics and personal attacks are not unique to this era or solely the purview of the Republican party. They just did it with astounding skill.

Now we find potential personal flaws in Gov Palin. Should these family matters be part of the conversation? Even Obama spoke out the press on this one. He wants family off-limits. Can you blame him?

So, what do We the People do? Does family matter? Do personal decisions matter? How far do we look at private character in a public official? Promiscuity is considered a career killer in American politics. Tax evasion, traffic citations, and even the type of cheese put on a cheese steak matter to voters. So what about parenting? How many screwed up kids can a politician have before it matters?

But for me the problem boils down to the perception of hypocrisy & unfairness. The Religious Right feel like hypocrites to me. The Republican party is the party that impeached Clinton for Oral Sex and hounded him for White Water yet Larry Craig & Ted Stevens are still in office. They are also the party that regularly denied global warming and kept CAFE standards from rising.

I could go on, but my point will get lost.

The Democrat base is angry (but not angry enough.) Liberals are frustrated that the "political" moral high-ground was essentially stolen from them. We don't want to stoop to "their" level, but we don't want to keep losing either. It's just plain unfair!

So, we must absolutely NOT attack Gov Palin for her daughter. Nor should we allow baseless and cruel internet rumors smear anyone even if we don't want them to win. Yes, at the same time, Nothing Knew is onto something here. And it's a bit of a catch-22. We can't attack Gov Palin's family but we unfortunately should look at it and discern if her family life and personal decisions are indicative of our political character. If a politician holds themselves up as some sort of moral authority, then they must be held to that standard.

We also need to be mindful of the apparent & frightening lack of vetting by the McCain camp. Do we really want 4 more years of leadership that simply goes with their gut? It's fine if Gov Palin was about consensus & compromise. It's not cool if after months of time to search, they suddenly grabbed her at the last moment as the article suggests. How is that experienced leadership? Sure Biden was a dull choice & has his image problems, but he's a known quantity and he's not one for hiding his skeletons. (He'd rather air all his problems to the press in DEL.)

End Note: I still want to give a thumbs up to McCain & the Republican party for the way they handled the Convention in light of Gustav. It was the right thing to do and it was smart politics. Pray for the people of Louisiana, especially those hurt by this latest storm.