Why, oh why, don't the leaders of the Democratic Party go after the GOP on the issue of sex and extra-marital affairs? Today, the New York Times (article) revealed that almost-Homeland Security jefe Bernard Kerik kept an apartment near Ground Zero for trysts with his lover, Judith Regan. The story is murkier than that, and the Times has got a lot of dirt.
But the point is: up until a few days ago, Bernie Kerik was held up as paragon of the morality party. When in fact, this sex-crazed stud is a big, bald hypocrite.
American tax-payers spent MILLIONS of dollars to find out that Clinton was given fellatio by an intern. The press could talk of little else for over a year. The affair got Clinton impeached. And it was certainly instrumental in Al Gore's "losing" the White House.
But Bernie Kerik can screw around on his wife (and two daughters) in an apartment originally procured as a crash pad for Ground Zero workers, and the DNC ignores it. There are many examples of prominent Republicans who have actually been caught in affairs, but the Dems always turn the other cheek.
Why? The putative answer is "we're above that gutter-trawling." But they shouldn't be. Because it's not about morals, it's about credibility. The fact is, the GOP has established itself squarely as the "moral party." And so when prominent party members like Bernie Kerik and his political sensei, Rudy Guiliani (who brought his mistress to Gracie Mansion), screw around on their wives, they should be called out for what they are: hypocrites.
Go on, Dems: dig the dirt. Find George H.W. Bush's mistress, the one that's been the talk of the Beltway insiders since Bush I was V.P. Or find someone else -- I'm sure there are plenty of prostitutes and mistresses who'd like to sell some book and screen rights. And then do what the GOP does: start the story rolling on Air America and the blog sites, and hammer the hypocrisy until the mainstream media has little choice but to pay attention. Hold them up to the standard they set for themselves.