Lucia

de Vernai

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July 15, 2009

Washington: Land of Glass Houses

Throwing stones is a despicable, but often amusing, aspect of our political system filled with glass houses and surprisingly short memory spans. When Alec Baldwin, of 30 Rock and child abuse fame, voiced interest in running for public office, Jack Cafferty of CNN took issue with Baldwin’s credentials, because unlike other actors going into politics, he didn’t go to Harvard.

Baldwin has only a lowly BFA from New York University but responded aggressively to Cafferty by offering a deal: You stop telling people that a career in performing arts disqualifies me from being a competent politician and I won’t mention your 2003 conviction of a hit and run, running two red lights and a police chase that disqualifies you from the title of “Man of the People.”

Baldwin one, Cafferty zero.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s remark about “wise Latinas” drew far more heat and interest than her judicial record, notably from Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sessions grilled Sotomayor on the comment, which she explained meant to inspire young lawyers, and expressed concern over President Obama’s choice of a judge who could empathize with people, stating, “empathy for one party is always prejudice for the other."

Odd words coming from a man who once remarked that he didn’t think the Ku Klux Klan was so bad until he found out they smoked marijuana. Coming from a white man in Alabama, especially after referring to the NAACP and ACLU as “anti-American” and inspired by Communism, insisting that out-of-context comments about race are indicative of a hidden agenda is not merely hypocritical, it’s embarrassing.

And let’s not forget the burning at the stake Republicans like South Caroline Gov. Mark Sanford  were ready to give Bill Clinton when the Lewinsky affair came to light. Clinton engaged in sexual activity, but there is a big difference between a cigar and an Argentine soul mate. With politicians ready to impeach for the immoral conduct that was about to ruin the moral fiber of our nation in Clinton’s case, it was strangely quiet on the right-wing front when Sen. Ensigns’s mistress’ husband was blackmailing him, such that the senator’s parents paid him off with more than you make a year.

There is no score to keep here, but since incidentally both Sanford and Ensign went to the same bible study group, it may be time to give that Sunday school a Fail Whale rating.

And speaking of failed leadership – GOP chairman Michael Steele promised to “woo” blacks to the Republican Party with “fried chicken and potato salad.” You have to hand it to the GOP: They get a black man as their leader and even that can’t curb the racism.

No matter how many times our mothers, school teachers, spouses, bosses and constituents remind us to think before we speak, there seems to be no cure for backbiting, lashing out or well-meant but poorly received comments. This means there is only one thing we can do: Never run red lights.

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