Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Ensign: Resign

As they say, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. But just a couple of days after Senator John Ensign (R - NV) made his disclosure that last year he was schtupping his aide’s wife as she was helping him with his campaign, no one on the political scene really has come out to demand that Ensign resign.

And why is that?

Well for one thing, Republicans, right about now, are whistling tuneless songs and staring up in the sky, so they’re too busy to jump up on tables demanding his head the way they all righteously demanded the resignation of Bill Clinton in 1998 for his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.

And among their number was John Ensign who was running to unseat Harry Reid back then.

From Think Progress:

“I came to that conclusion recently, and frankly it’s because of what he put his whole Cabinet through and what he has put the country through,” Ensign said Thursday, becoming the first member of the Nevada delegation to call for Clinton to quit. “He has no credibility left.

I think it’s interesting that the reason he gives has nothing to do with morality – Ensign is ironically a member of the evangelical group Promise Keepers whose homepage is here, However in my previous attempts at logging onto the page it was a blank page, but not the other listed links like this one: The Seven Promises (take a look at Promise 3). Oh, by the way, here is the cached home page of Promise Keepers in case they blank out the site again.

So do I think Ensign should resign? Obviously from the title of this post, yes. Is it because the man is a philanderer? Not a chance. He’s a human being. Humans make bad choices. Humans break promises all the time.

It’s because he is a complete unprincipled hypocrite.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree that Ensign should resign immediately.

But Hal, do you think President Clinton lied under oath? Is that ok?

Hypocrits are hypocrits regardless of political affiliation.

Hal said...

It's a matter of degree.

It's more OK than,say, manufacturing false charges against the Iraqi government or detaining and torturing people.

And about the political affiliation thing, agreed. Can we also agree that neoconservative Republicans hold themselves up to a higher standard? They are the ones who pry into the bedrooms of America making sure people are behaving as Jesus wants them to.

There is hypocrisy and then there is Triple H HHHyponcrisy.

Anonymous said...

I am confused as to what lower standard you hold your neo-liberal politicians?

Ok to have extramarital affairs, lie about it under oath, etc.?

I don't have multiple standards? But you do?

Hal said...

Of course I do. A lot of people do. But the fact that you claim a single standard is no surprise. Applying the same standard to everything is much like Islamic Law or Shariya.

Anonymous said...

It's my personal standard, just as you have your standard.

I don't expect others to follow my standard. But I choose to support politicians who most closely align with my standard. How is that different than you? The difference is that we have different standards? Why is that bad?

Anonymous said...

By my standard, I would expect Garnet Coleman to resign.

See story for details... http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2009/06/rep_coleman_fin_1.html

Hal, where does this rank on your standard?

Anonymous said...

By my standard, the South Carolina governor should resign if he can't explain hs irrational disappearance.