I’m not planning to write on that topic today, but Jonah Goldberg did, and it’s worth reading his column.
Written in response to the hubbub over the recent coming-to-light of Sen. Larry Craig’s actions in an airport bathroom, Goldberg notes that the Left’s condemnation isn’t typically over the (im)moral act, but rather over the hypocrisy that is demonstrated. Goldberg notes, however, that the Right hasn’t cornered the market on hypocrisy. He sums it up this way:
The point is simply this: Hypocrisy is bad, sure. But it’s a human failing that should fall upon the individual in question. What the left wants to do is use hypocrisy as a cudgel to declare that conservative ideals are categorically illegitimate because some conservatives fail to live up to them. But we all fail to live up to our ideals sometimes (just ask John Edwards, who wants get rid of everyone’s SUV, save the one in his driveway). That’s sort of why we call them “ideals.” Most of us don’t fall as far as Larry Craig seems to have fallen, but that’s not necessarily an indictment of his arguments, it’s an indictment of the man.
It’s worth reading the whole article.