Tuesday, May 13, 2008
You may have heard
about the troubles currently besetting Staten Island Republican Rep. Vito Fossella, preached "family values" his whole life but got arrested recently for a DWI but more importantly, at least in terms of the media, is the revelation that, although married and a family guy, he had an extramarital affair with a lady, she got in the family way herself and bore him a daughter. Now there are calls in some quarters for him to resign but what I don't get, if you take out the DWI from the equation, our friend and hero Bill Clinton got away with hummers right there in the Oval Office (or in some hallway just off the library way there) with an intern no less, he was impeached for perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case relating to this matter but he became stronger over time, he even seemed more popular after the sex stuff. T-shirts appeared out of nowhere in trendy malls across the nation - "so he had an affair, get over it" - and one guy told me "so what, my 401K is doing great", so what's the BIG DEAL about this Fossella guy anyway?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Democrats have different standards than Republicans do, at least when it comes to matters of sex.
ReplyDeleteRight now in Ohio the Attorney General, who came in to supposedly "clean up" Ohio had an affair with someone on his staff, had an apartment with some staffers and it was like a drink-fest frat house. Does he step down? Of course not, he is a Democrat. He whines that his punishment of embarrassment is enough.
Double standards, big time.
Had a feeling you might draw a distinction between Republicans and Democrats on these type issues and it might be a fair one point of my blog being, to play Devil's Advocate, Bill Clinton lowered the bar for everybody so what's the big deal? Didn't know that stuff was going on in your home state too, thought we only had this problem up here in the Northeast.
ReplyDeleteThe big problem with Bill Clinton, and my liberal friend Erik even said this, is that he put himself at risk for extortion or even say if Monica was a spy, how she could have been infiltrating national security measures.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, the situation here in Ohio was a staffer having the affair with her boss. Not that this is a security issue (well it still could be, if you have an attorney general owing you favors) and so the fact that he doesn't quit is terrible.
It just tends to be Democrats who don't step down and Republicans who do when this sort of stuff comes out.
As for men in general cheating on their wives, I think they are bad news, but you are right it shouldn't affect their jobs.
Now this Laura Fay woman, Vito's mistress, worked for the air force and was the military's top liaison and director of logistics for some 10 day trip to Europe in 2003 and some staffer to ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert says the affair was distracting her from the job at hand so the case is murky at best but to clean things up a bit I'd say just 'cause a poltician has a straight affair and let's say it's not with a staffer but just some woman then I don't think that's enough for him to step down. Being against adultery I'd say let the voters decide next time 'round and hopefully they'll do the right thing. IF we're going to hold to this standard of everybody who ever had an affair step down then I think alot of Republicans would be going as well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation about these cases though that also involve a DWI or a DUI, just like in Mel Gibson's case the drunk driving tends to become a secondary issue and people focus, almost obsess, over other things like Mel's rant about Jews or Vito's affair. So why can't Vito just step down because he drove under the influence, he broke the LAW?
ReplyDeleteIf the statistics are accurate, many of those voters, both men and women have been unfaithful, so they probably can't cast the first stone anyhow. Publically they might denouce a cheating politicians, but in the seclusion of the voter box, they can with a good conscience vote for them again because hell, they are just like them.
ReplyDeleteAnd going back to Bill Clinton, he lied under oath, and was was punished for that.
ReplyDelete& we have Barbara Walters adding glamour to the Affair, it's a kind of pro-adultery agenda if you ask me, the monogamy is unnatural movement and yeah, you're right about those voters. It's like Maureen Dowd said in her now famous column during the Clinton years, it's "The Man in the Mirror". But going back to his impeachment I still think the Republicans made a mistake with this, there were so many other scandals, non-sexual in nature, that were more important and possibly more damaging but Ken Starr developed a prurient interest...it's all down there in my old blog "Macabre House on the Right".
ReplyDeleteI heard a local radio guy interview a man who has a website called something like "have an affair.com" that matches up married people, and the interviewer asked him if he thought his kids (who were 1 and 3) if later in life he'd be proud to tell his kids that daddy runs this website, and he said he has no problem letting them know that.
ReplyDeleteStranded again!
So why get married in the first place? Oscar Wilde once said "nowadays the bachelors act like married men and the married men act like bachelors."
ReplyDeleteI mean of course I know I cannot totally throw a stone myself, nobody is perfect afterall, but its one thing to seek it out and quite another when you simply wish things were different in your life. It's when there are kids that I think it is a real shame.
ReplyDeleteWell Eliot Spite-zer practically sought it out at every opportunity, don't know why Silda sticks with him. You know I've heard it said people get married not with the intention to cheat but it happens later on but anyway seems like the drunken-driving issue is somehow of lesser importance, he and Mel could've killed someone if not themselves, but all we keep hearing about are either their lifestyle choices or their political views or whatever and I say let the voter decide THAT one. In a kind of roundabout way though Fossella's pro-lifeness came out, his mistress had the baby and his father has helped defray the costs so to speak so no matter how it started isn't this the model but some people are treating this as another scandal.
ReplyDeleteHere's how I think drunken driving takes place though and it has to do with the delayed reaction. I always drink responsibly, never get behind the wheel of a car, but I've heard it said that many times you'll be drinking and it seems to take a while to get that buzz feeling going, you begin to think the drink is too weak or the proof inaccurate, and so you keep drinking. People in this state then think they can drive but then the reaction kicks in. Moral of the story, just don't drink and drive.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if people drink a lot daily, doesn't it take more of it to get the buzz, and so maybe they start drinking more and more?
ReplyDeleteIt's been known there are people who can really hold down their liquor, their drinking habits amaze others, and I've heard stories. Now a fairly large bottle of the good stuff (fill in the blank) should last you at least a few days but the heavy drinker will down it all in the course of a night, probably drinks alot during the day too so he's already got a head start. Good point. I think when people overdrink it has the opposite effect from the normal effect of making you go beddie-bye, it keeps them awake and then their depressions and grievances come out and are magnified and so you get your Mel Gibsons calling women cops "sugar tits" (though he's been pilloried for this and other remarks to borrow an old George Carlin line it sounds like a snack, only the overly saintly cannot laugh in retrospect, those commentators at the time who never 'cussed in their whole life).
ReplyDeleteBill Clinton could get away with saying that to a female cop, even if he were sober!
ReplyDelete& she'd go out with him. For the record I don't find Mel calling that lady cop that very funny but the phrase itself gives me a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteI should update the Ohio saga, the AG did resign this week.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of drinking too much alcohol having the opposite effect, I have heard that is similar to too much caffeine as well.
ReplyDeleteModeration remains the ideal here, ain't it? Maybe we should write a book or offer seminars, Z.
Well, two cups of Joe is fine for me in the morning, that 3rd cup'll only make you sprint towards the restroom at work especially if the weather's cold outside. Never understood though how 3 moderate cups could turn into at least a gallon of...also too many cups of coffee gets you too revved up, you think the world's ending. The boss on the intercom calls your manager to the office, "omg, they're gonna fire me!"
ReplyDeleteHow do you like the seminar suggestion? We could make some money and help people along the way!
ReplyDeleteI like it, seminars based on our own knowledge gleaned from life experiences. First thing I'd do is hold some sleep seminars, I'd be pilloried in the media by the Nancy Snyderman types and brain gurus like Dr. Daniel Amen but I'd say there will be many times in your life when you don't get the required (x) hours of sleep ("x" seems to vary a little depending on the guru) and so don't be alarmed, 4 hrs. is better than nothing, 5 hrs. ain't that bad, be more than happy with 6. John Tesh once pushed this crap on his radio show years ago, said if you don't get 8 hrs. every night you open yourself up to all kinds of health problems. Wonder what the agenda is here but in our seminars Beth it'd be homespun wisdom with a healthy dose from Dr. Mom.
ReplyDeleteI think John Tesh PUTS people to sleep.
ReplyDeleteLOL, he has some book out called Wisdom for Living or something. I remember when he was going out with Connie Selleca for awhile and he divulged that they were gonna wait all the way to their wedding night and then oh what a night it would be, TMI buddy, TMI. I don't know why I even remember stuff like this, it's known as CBS or Crowded Brain Syndrome, has no practical relevance to me whatsoever but I'll probably be 95 and barring Alzheimer's I'll still remember this.
ReplyDeleteNow the thing about this Tesh dude is he holds to the position that you need a minimum of 8 hours sleep to function as the perfectly healthy specimen you were meant to be. Now I don't know about you but after 6 1/2 or 7 hours I'm ready for the day but what would the Teshman have you do, call up work and say you're gonna be a little late 'cause you have to get that 8th hour in? WHAT DO WE DO BOSSMAN??
ReplyDelete