Some folks on the center- to-left side of the political spectrum surely are taking a certain delight in the travails of Republican senator David Vitter of Louisiana.
Vitter rose to power on a "family values" platform, extolling the virtues of sexual abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage. He was highly critical of former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Now Vitter's name has shown up in the D.C. madam case, and the senator was outed by Dan Moldea of Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine.
The Vitter case is just the latest of many to shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of many Republicans. You know, the ones who tout morality, Christianity, family values, and integrity and then behave in ways not at all consistent with those attributes.
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne encourages Democrats to take the high road in the Vitter case. Dionne yearns for a day when politics centers around ideas and policies rather than sexual and private matters. If Democrats rub Republican faces in the hypocritical mud, Dionne warns, it will only serve to further sully the political arena.
Dionne is one of my favorite political columnists, and I admire his high-mindedness. But as someone who has witnessed Republican hypocrisy in an up close and personal way--and who has suffered greatly because of it--I have a hard time turning the other cheek toward two-faced conservatives.
What does Republican hypocrisy look like from a deeply personal perspective? I will show you next.
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