Comments on: Who Scores More: GOP or Dems?

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By: girlwright

girlwright — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:32:56 +0000

It's not about keeping a score of sex-scandals between Democrats and Republicans. There's equal scandal on both sides: a McGreevey for every Craig and a Clinton for every Sanford. The problem that hasn't been addressed in the postings about the Sanford affair is Republicans have a HUGE Credibility Problem with the American people, which is very real and dragging the party down. Democrat politicians aren't going around as closeted gays and at the same time not supporting gay rights or preaching abstinence while their teenage daughter pops up pregnant.

Republicans need to step down from their holy mount of morality politics because its not working for the party. (The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll found very few Americans want to call themselves Republicans.) Every year theres stories of Republican hypocrisy: lawmakers or candidates being outed as gay, engaging in affairs, or their teenage daughter getting pregnant. Collectively, these incidents make American voters wonder if they can believe anything Republicans say. You can't going around saying you're above reproach and have this kind of stuff keep happening.

Sanford and Senator John Ensign have given late night comedians enough fodder to be the butt of jokes for weeks. Democrats are chuckling aloud. This philandering couldnt arrive at a better time when the publics approval ratings for some of the presidents policy agenda is souring.

If Republicans want to turn things around for themselves, they need to start by being authentic with the American people. Wake up and smell the coffee: remove religion from the political agenda along with the masks of hypocrisy. Maybe then people will start seriously listening to the party's ideas.

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:29:50 +0000

sinz54
wrote 24 minutes ago
"That's because the Dems don't have a Christian evangelical base. The GOP does. The evangelicals are key to the GOP's GOTV drives in every election."

.......ah just another of those unintended consquences of polarisation that I keep pointing out.

By: joemarier

joemarier — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:16:24 +0000

Get well soon, sinz54!I will note that there are very few politicians out there saying they’re going to end the scourge of marital infidelity. The term “family values” was used for a brief time by one guy in the early nineties, and it related to the perennial (but now soft-pedaled) question of what to do about crime.

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:05:25 +0000

OT: I’m going into the hospital for surgery and will be back in a couple days or earlier. Be back on NM then. Wish me luck.

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:03:01 +0000

ottovbvs sez: "Most of the Democrats hadn't spent years on public platforms pontificating about family values, gay marriage, teenage sex,...."

That's because the Dems don't have a Christian evangelical base. The GOP does. The evangelicals are key to the GOP's GOTV drives in every election.

Right now on RedState.com, that wing of the GOP wants Sanford hung out to dry--and they're searching for another "moral leader."

They're the ones who are insisting that the GOP turn its campaigns into moral crusades on "family values, gay marriage, teenage sex,...."

The GOP's inability to grow its libertarian wing as a counterbalance to its evangelical wing, is the root of the problem here.

By: midcon

midcon — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:52:48 +0000

Those who stick to governing and stay away from moralizing seem to fare better.

People who set themselves up as the moral standard turn themselves into targets. We all love it when someone is hoisted by one's own petard.

One could take the elephants and donkeys as the GOP and Dems screwing themselves. However, my visual symbol of the GOP is an ostrich with its head in the sand.

Still it's a refreshing break from the difficult problems we face as a nation. Thank God for politicians. It is such a target rich environment.

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:46:06 +0000

Surely there’s a bit of stretching with this list(if we want to go down to mayors and state officials there are dozens of Republicans missing) and some of the charges against the Democrats are just allegations while in other cases they aren’t even elected officials. If we imposed a 20 year statute of limitations and limited it to national office holders and governors the weighting would have looked rather different. But putting all that on one side the NM ed staff are missing one crucial factor. The Scarlet H. Most of the Democrats hadn’t spent years on public platforms pontificating about family values, gay marriage, teenage sex, Clinton as sexual pervert, the evil of condoms and the place of Jesus in marriage. The Sanford and Ensign incidents aren’t important except locally but they added to all the other stuff are just another straw breaking the Republican back on the issue of HYPOCRISY. It’s word association. Remember those polls that asked what word you associated with Bush. I won’t remind the more sensitive of our bretheren. The major words association with Obama btw are nice and intelligent. With Republicans the word association is Hypocrite.

By: balconesfault

balconesfault — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:11:35 +0000

As I pointed out yesterday - the real take away lesson seems to be that being a member of a party which believes that moralizing on private ethics seems to do nothing whatsoever to positively affect private ethics.

So all the diatribes that claim that "it's better to have high morals and fail than not to have high morals" might make party members feel better about themselves, but doesn't do much to actually influence behavior.

The net effect seems to be like what has been observed for abstinence only programs with teens. They "work" for the kids that don't have sex, but don't actually prevent more kids from having sex. But they do make for more insufferable kids.