{"id":1726,"date":"2010-03-10T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/03\/10\/are-democrats-fundamentally-unserious\/"},"modified":"2010-03-10T07:56:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T11:56:00","slug":"are-democrats-fundamentally-unserious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/03\/10\/are-democrats-fundamentally-unserious\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Democrats fundamentally unserious?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just watched New York Rep. Eric Massa’s interview with Glenn Beck<\/a> on Fox News. <\/p>\n

It was a dreary, pathetic performance. <\/p>\n

Massa, of course, announced his resignation last week following allegations that he had groped male staff-members in his office.<\/p>\n

This comes on the heels of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s demotion following ethics allegations, and Gov. David Paterson’s announcement that he would drop out of this year’s campaign.<\/p>\n

It follows Jonathan Edwards’ personal and political implosion and comes as a new book appears on the shelves describing Eliot Spitzer’s disintegration.<\/p>\n

Of course the grandfather of all these Democratic scandals is Bill Clinton’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.<\/p>\n

A unifying theme is that all these dalliances hint at a toxic lack of seriousness among Democrats and their leaders.<\/p>\n

For better or worse, most don’t involve the abuse of power. <\/p>\n

Instead, they paint a portrait of a political party that can’t focus on its goals or its mandate seriously enough to leave the hookers alone or stop pinching bottoms.<\/p>\n

I’m not being snarky here. I’m flat-out disgusted.<\/p>\n

The shocking thing about Clinton’s behavior wasn’t that he committed adultery, or even that he did it in the White House.<\/p>\n

No, the shocking thing was that he was so careless with his own agenda and the responsibilities of his office that he would put it all at risk for a quicky.<\/p>\n

Surely, similar misgivings passed through Gov. Paterson’s mind before he picked up the telephone to intervene in an aide’s domestic violence case?<\/p>\n

And surely Eliot Spitzer paused outside that hotel room in Washington DC to think about the future of his state, and his oath to bring reform to Albany.<\/p>\n

What does it mean that they kept on going, that they betrayed their trust?<\/p>\n

When President Barack Obama came to office in 2008, he promised big changes and laid claim to a new gravity of purpose for himself and his party.<\/p>\n

But if Dems really care about things like poverty, health care, the budget crisis, and closing Guantanamo Bay — how come so many of them still have time for all this nonsense?<\/p>\n

Obviously, Republicans have had plenty of ethical challenges of their own, some of them involving similar adolescent shenanigans. <\/p>\n

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford took creepy and inappropriate behavior to new levels last year.<\/p>\n

Former North Country Rep. John Sweeney is currently cooling his heels in jail; and former state Sen. Joe Bruno — a Queensbury native — probably isn’t far behind.<\/p>\n

The difference is that when they were in power the GOP was remarkably effective at advancing its agenda.<\/p>\n

There was plenty of sleaze, sure, but they also got the job done.<\/p>\n

The North Country’s two Democrats — Plattsburgh Rep. Bill Owens and Glens Falls Rep. Scott Murphy — have avoided any taint of scandal.<\/p>\n

Both appear to be serving honorably and ethically. <\/p>\n

But there’s a growing risk to them and other Democrats as November 2010 approaches.<\/p>\n

Headlines involving Eric Massa’s towel snapping and Charlie Rangel’s tax entanglements could outweigh any headlines trumpeting their actual accomplishments.<\/p>\n

And that’s something voters will have to think about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just watched New York Rep. Eric Massa’s interview with Glenn Beck on Fox News. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}