Just as the Democratic Party has been able to celebrate the gaining of Congressional District 26 in upstate New York in a special election to fill the seat of Republican Chris Lee, who resigned over a bare chest pic on the internet, they are beset by the indictment of former Senator John Edwards on misuse of Presidential campaign contributions to cover up his illicit relationship and the fathering of a child, and now by Congressman Anthony Weiner for his Twitter, Facebook, and internet conversations and pics that could best be described as raunchy!
But then the Republican Party has also had its ups and downs, and it seems a constant battle for each political party to stay above water in public opinion image!
That is why many often express willingness to be independent and have nonpartisans in public office, to do what is best for the American people.
But that is, unfortunately, not the history of political parties since the time of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, and the reality is that the American people, by overwhelming numbers and the system mechanics that are in place, will continue to make a choice between candidates of the two major parties, and if dissatisfied, throw the “rascals” out on a regular basis.
The only problem with that will be the lack of institutional experience if there is constant turnover, and a group of “rookies” taking over and leaving every few years.
The question will have to be answered whether we are going to expect “perfect” people in public office, or realize the weaknesses of human nature and stop expecting our political leadership to come across as saintly, when even religious leadership and other fields of high respect produce many imperfect people.
Do we want mediocre people in office, as long as they are somehow utopian and seemingly perfect in their behavior, or are we willing to accept that the “great” people in public office, from the time of Benjamin Franklin to Bill Clinton and beyond, have “skeletons in the closet”?
I personally believe that as long as they are doing their job well why should we care. It is their own personal life who are we to judge. I tihnk it is worse when candidates run on family values and morals, as Mark Sanford and John Ensign did, then go and have these illicit relationships. Of all the recent scandals Weiner’s, based on what we know so far, was a lesser evil than those of Ensign, Sanford, Craig, Spitzer, Edwards, Clinton and Vitter. Maybe if an election year wasn’t upon us, there wouldn’t be such a big cry for him to resign.