Posted by
Armanius on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:38:56 PM
Fictitious standard of morality. That's what a former Jesse Jackson advisor named Ronald Walters said tonight in Hannity & Colmes, while arguing that a presidential candidate's moral values are not relevant. Walters said that infidelity is not something to really dwell into, because no one knows all the "circumstances" surrounding the infidelity. In other words, Walters believe that there are situations in which infidelity is excused depending on the circumstances. Walters was responding to Sean Hannity's argument that if a husband (i.e. John Edwards) cannot keep his vows to his wife, then why should voters believe what that unfaithful husband says?
Alan Colmes then turned the question around to conservative guest Amanda Carpenter, and started saying that McCain cannot be trusted, because he himself admitted that he had cheated on his first wife thirty years ago. Colmes kept asking if there was any difference between McCain and Edwards. Carpenter didn't have a good response, but I do. I doubt that Colmes will ever read my blog, but I am going to write it anyway.
First of all, let me make this clear -- I believe that infidelity is wrong. There are no excuses. There is nothing that justifies the breaking of a sacred vow. And in that sense, I do believe that men like McCain and Edwards committed sins, and need to be closely scrutinized to see if they are indeed people who will hold on to promises that they make.
That being said, Edwards' infidelity goes beyond just pure sexual indiscredtion or a momentary lapse of judgment. Edwards not only broke his promise to his wife, but then he lied to cover it up. He lied repeatedly and only came clean when he was trapped. To cover up the infidelity, Edwards has broken several campaign finance and tax laws by paying off his mistress Rillie Hunter as well as Andrew Young, Edwards' former campaign aide (and alleged friend)/ Young took the fall for Edwards by claiming that the mistress' baby was his. Edwards obviously did not care about Young, or else he would not have asked him to take the fall. Edwards fathered a child, and was/is perfectly willing to abandon that child to the life of single parenthood. Last but not least, Edwards campaigned for president under the banner of "moral values." He is not only a cheater, and liar. He is also a hypocrite.
If McCain also engaged in an elaborate law breaking cover up scheme of his infidelity and child abandonment, then I'd harp about McCain too.