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Re: Stein on Foley Scandal

The Washington Post, in a seeming answer to Ben Stein's piece yesterday, analyzes why it is that Republicans are more susceptible to hypocrisy allegations than Democrats when sex scandals erupt. Reason, in a nutshell: the GOP's socially conservative image.

"The reality is that Democrats seem to get away with more," says Chuck Todd, editor in chief of the Hotline, a daily political journal. "They can have an affair and bail [themselves] out. There's a lower threshold for Republicans. I guess it's more of a hypocrisy thing," he adds, because such scandals put Republicans at odds with the party's socially conservative image.

Todd thinks he knows who's to blame for this: "It's the media, to be honest. What is the standard 'gotcha' story in the media? It's hypocrisy. If we can prove hypocrisy, we have a story. . . . So in a sex scandal, the bar for Republicans is lower."

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More Blog Posts by Paul Chesser

http://spectator.org/blog/2006/10/03/re-stein-on-foley-scandal
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