Difference in Standards

Remember a few months back when Christopher Lee - the Republican Congressman from New York - was discovered to have posted a shirtless picture of himself online? What happened? Oh yeah, he resigned the very night that it came to light. His fellow Republicans weren't going to accept this sort of behavior or the distraction that would be associated with it. The Republicans have since lost Representative Lee's seat to the Democrats in the recent special election.

Now, what about Congressman Weiner. The night the issue appeared, he lied. Then as the scandal festered, he lied some more. Then it was starting to boil so he called in all the networks and lied again. As the lies inevitably failed, Weiner came out and admitted it. See, he's taking responsibility for his bad behavior. Well, only because he couldn't avoid it any longer. So, did the Democrats follow the Republican standard and demand Weiner resign posthaste? No. They're going with an ethics investigation. Even if Weiner did resign, the Democrats are unlikely to lose the seat.

Which party is holding its members to a higher standard of behavior?

Romney: the New McCain

Mitt Romney entered the race this week and already I'm disappointed. First, he still backs Romneycare. If government mandates that you have car insurance if you want to drive, that's one thing. One can opt not to drive and bypass this cost. The cost is associated with a privilege (i.e. driving). But when government mandates that you have health insurance if you want to not be a criminal, that's something entirely different. Granted, Romney has a point when he argues there is a difference between a state-mandate and a federal government mandate. He is arguing for federalism. Let the states be laboratories and great ideas will spread while bad ones will wither away. A federal mandate doesn't allow for bad ideas to wither away. But here's the thing: how can the electorate believe you want to restrain government when you clearly didn't at the state level? Furthermore, how can you make Obamacare a campaign issue when you have the albatross of Romneycare to bear? He neutralizes a huge campaign issue with his stance. Strike one on Romney.

During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Romney stated his belief that humans contribute to global warming. "It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors." As I have said many times before, the earth was hotter 1000 years ago and there were no SUVs. At one point, the earth was so hot that Maine was in the tropics and northern Alaska was a rain forest. But this time around, it's our fault and we need to take measures that will have no demonstrable effect other than to impoverish our economy. Moreover, China will not participate in this folly, thus assuring America's relative decline. Strike two on Romney.

The campaign has hardly begun and he's already got two strikes against him. I would prefer him to Obama but he looks like this year's McCain.