Where’s all that GOP Morality? July 6, 2007

From the Washington Post “Media Notes” blog, a collection of right-wing inability to, in short, “keep it in their pants”.

Now, on the one hand, this is another irrelevant hum-drum expose of “look at what this candidate did years ago”, collections of things with no bearings on the politicians’ actual ability to perform their jobs. However, what I find particularly disturbing is how the article begins:

Does the Republican Party have a zipper problem?And if so, how much will voters care?

Now that Larry Flynt has claimed David Vitter as his latest quarry, there’s plenty of chatter about whether one too many family-values champions of the GOP has been caught not quite walking the walk.

Let’s stipulate right up front: There’s been no shortage of Democratic politicians caught doing something with women not their wives….But the Mark Foley scandal put the hypocrisy question on full display. The ex-congressman was, you may recall, co-chair of the caucus on exploited children even as he was sending nasty IMs to young men in the House page program. Newt, of course, was doing it with a House aide while demanding Clinton’s impeachment over Monica. And the reason that Hustler was happy to out Vitter for playing speed-dial with the D.C. Madam’s operation is that the Republican senator from Louisiana was an outspoken proponent of the sanctity of marriage and other moral causes.

Who votes for “outspoken proponents” of an issue? Those people who care about that issue. And everyone knows, in the South, when you are an outspoken proponent of morality, chances are you’re not quoting Confucius to back up your points. Chances are you’re not pulling out books from “ethicists.”Chances are, you’re clutching a Bible, or are speaking to people who are (or who will when they get home). Chances are, some Scripture has gotten mentioned as a proof.

A 2004 press release from David Vitter shows the candidate calling himself “a U.S. Senator who will stand up for Louisiana values”, and as one angry blogger notes, bringing his proof from a 2004 Time Magazine piece, Vitter owes much of his political life to a 1999 adultery scandal in which then-Representative Bob Livingston resigned, vacating the House seat.

I am all for people accepting repentance of a public figure as valid. But when you’re someone like Vitter or Newt, branding yourself as the “moral compass”, and you know that you’re doing something completely against Scripture (I mean, things which are written literally right there in black and white IN the 10 Commandments, “do not commit adultery”), calling out other people on their sins (for instance, women who have abortions, which, according to Evangelicals, is a sin) is a horrible move.

I think the GOP would be well served by a positive moral campaign. Instead of concentrating on what other “liberal” people are doing wrong, why not concentrate on what could be done right, for a change. Advocate charitable donation. Advocate child welfare. Advocate morality without condemning.

Otherwise, your house gets shown — by Larry Flynt of all people — to be made of glass, and you will come to regret all the stones you’ve thrown.

This is the wing that we Orthodox Jews are supposed to align ourselves with?