Double standards in politics

Republicans extol the virtue of family values and morality; so when they fail in these areas, it seems much more extreme. It's hard to have respect for someone who says one thing and does another. Democrats have no values so they don't care if one of their own as an affair.

LIL, recent history shows the exact opposite to what you are saying. Democrates like John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, and Jim McGreevey all either stepped down from office, or stopped their political career because of their affair. But, on the other hand Republicans who run as the party of family values, allow for their cheating politicans to either serve out their terms, or don't force them to resign. Republcians like John Ensign, David Vetter, and Mark Sanford have all had affairs and either are still in office, or were allowed to serve out their terms. Don't you just hate it when facts get in the way.

The problem would be hyprocrisy. A Republican, especially one who ran on "family values" and a high "moral code" is going to be held more accountable than someone who never assaulted anyone else over lifestyle. It ends up being an internal Republican problem. A Republican with this issue gets attacked far more from their own party than a Democrat would from their party, all based on Party Policy Positions. It would be the same if any politician against gay rights suddenly came out of the closet.

Most people on the discussion have already hit it on the nail, that when a person runs and says that they are all about "family values" but then gets caught with their pants down so to speak, then that makes them a hypocrite and I think that gets people very riled up because he basically lied to them about what was most important to him, and people who say that they would vote for Clinton again I think most of all means that they think he was such a good president that his personal life is not what they first take into consideration...and the Clinton scandal also shows Sanford's hypocrisy because he voted for Clinton's impeachment,,,so there's not really a double standard in this case because Sanford is a hypocrite and he went missing for 6 days i think to go be with some woman in Argentina

This is an excellent question, but one that won't be answered if the Democrats and liberal media have their way. The thing is, more people need to call them out on their hypocrisy, to not let them get away with excuses and alibis and all of that.Unfortunately, you don't see that in the conservative front. The Democrats have no problem running their mouths about Republican scandals--why should Republicans and conservatives have problems with speaking out against Democrat scandals?

good point, all people do things for themslves.

If a politician run on protecting family values then does not practice these family values this is where the problems begin. What some politician does outside of his or her political activities should not matter.

It seems to me that more Democrats have had their careers end over affairs than Republicans. There's Spitzer, McGreevey, Gary Hart, John Edwards and Gary Condit just off the top of my head while the GOP has Vitter, McCain, Ensign, Sanford, Gingrich, Guiliani among others who are still very much involved in politics. The only two members of the GOP I can think of who actually did lose their careers were Larry Craig and Mark Foley and their alleged "indiscretions" involved homosexuality which is a no-no for Republicans no matter what. Here's my personal take on it and it seems to echo what at least some of the Democrats I've heard speak of it in the media: it IS a private matter unless there are other issues such as abandoning one's duties or funding one's affairs with tax dollars but it goes beyond that. The Democrats don't base their platform on being "morally superior" in that they speak out about others' personal problems and call for the head of anyone who makes a mistake. When we learn of a politician having had an affair and often see his "heartfelt apology" - after getting caught, usually - and then moments later see tapes of that same politician viciously attacking someone else for doing the same thing he just confessed to we can't help but add hypocrisy to that politician's list of transgressions. Annie

I may have been a child when the whole Clintion/Lewinsky thing happened, but I still remember people screaming for his head on a pike. The only difference is, I heard more about it from people on the right then people on the left. I'm betting the inverse is the case now.

I don't understand what politicians doing that. I think all politicians have an affairs with other women someone is hiding their activities but others caught up because of their political careers. In my point of views. I think politicians is the most liar person. They lie people around them. They promise everything that they know they can't do it...