"Moral" and "family" values and republican sex scandals

Front paged at Booman Tribune and My Left Wing. Recommended at Daily Kos

I am a guy who likes his fair share of schadenfreude. No, I don’t revel in the misery of others, but when those who oh-so-very-much deserve their come-uppance get it, sometimes I can’t help but smile.

A great wide smile.

Now, I don’t know if there are any names of Democratic (former or current) officials or members of Congress on the DC Madame’s list, but frankly, that isn’t really the point here today. It is frequently those who rail against ”evillibrulamoralvaluesandlifestyle” like homosexuality or breaking the law or (gasp) a nipple on TV or whatever other crap is conjured up by those “do as I say not as I do” hypocrites moralists that end up being caught with, er, their pants down.

Jeff Gannon was one example. Not the homosexual part, but the prostitute part. Which seems to be a recurring theme among the party that likes to talk about how the state of marriage in this country is damn near ruined by those who want to marry someone of the same sex. Never mind the fact that so many high profile “perfect republican” (or “conservative”) marriages seem to be uncovered as a farce when the husband has to admit that he was involved in “only massages” or used the services of an escort service at DC poker games, or bought drugs from a male prostitute who he had a relationship with (in addition to his “other responsibilities” as leader of a SuperDuperUltraMegaChurch).

Even before the DC Madame’s list was made public, a republican “insider” had to fess up and resign. Now we have a republican Senator who used the services of a pay-for-sex service, and one of Giuliani’s staffers as well. Not that this implicates Giuliani in this, but it does show the judgment of those who he associates with and trusts in his campaigns. Regardless of whether one thinks that prostitution should or should not be legal, fact is - it IS illegal. So much for preaching morality.

And to those wingers, before you even get started – just remember one thing - Bill Clinton never paid someone illegally for sex, so don’t even go there.

Sure, there may be one or two examples of high profile Democrats becoming embroiled in a sex scandal. JFK has his. Clinton had his as well. And some may not be on the “up and up” when it comes to legality. But the Democratic Party isn’t telling everyone in this country what they should or should not do in their bedrooms. And the Democratic Party isn’t the ones that are obsessed with physical features of males in a clearly hypocritical conflicted/homophobic manner.

No, you don’t see the Al Sharptons or other Democratic “community leaders” talking about showering with their sons to show them that you have a bigger penis like James Dobson does. You don’t have pundits talking about the awesome features of Barack Obama or John Edwards the way that they talk about Mitt Romney’s “broad shoulders” and “great temples”. Well, you did have George Bush talk about Obama’s “glistening pecs” but again, Bush is a republican.

You don’t have a wrestling coach as House leader protecting a colleague who broke laws by getting involved with online sex chats with underage Congressional Pages while Congress was voting on the Democratic side of the aisle. And I can’t help but recall how Foley spearheaded initiatives to protect minors from sexual predators.

The projection by sexually repressed republicans would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous and damaging to the victims and, to a lesser degree, those who are duped by their “moral superiority”. A partial listing of republican sex scandals includes many Congressional officials, Christian Coalition members and other prominent republicans. The scandals range from cheating (legal but certainly not moral) to sexual harassment to sex with teenage boys to prostitution to child pornography, and hit people like John Bolton, Jim Bakker, Newt Gingrich, Bill O’Reilly and many others.

It is one thing to be lectured on how your supposed lifestyle and belief system is amoral and “bad for society”. It is another when the lecture is coming from those who are clearly projecting and are guilty of far worse transgressions or crimes than those they are decrying or accusing others of.

But when those who call others “sinners” are caught in the middle of the very “sins” they are railing against, well, there is a level of hypocrisy that is both disgusting and satisfying. And no, I don’t mean satisfying in that there are any victims here – but the more they preach and the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

And watching these moral midgets fall one by one by one is pretty fucking satisfying.