Rick Mannion – 1/25/09

This page was last updated on January 25, 2009.

Double standard is on full display; Rick Mannion; Beaver County Times; January 25, 2009.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Double standards: a principle, rule, or expectation that is applied unfairly to different groups.

“Four years ago during George W. Bush’s second Inaugural, a cry from the Democrats rang out that he was spending too much money on the ceremony and balls because we were in a time of war.

“The cost was $40 million, half being donated.

“On Tuesday, President Barack Obama held his Inauguration. The cost was $150 million. Forty million dollars was donated, with the remainder to be paid by taxpayers — the same taxpayers who would never be invited to these ceremonies.

“This also happened during a time of war, but also in a huge economic downturn.

“Where was the outcry from the left? What is good for one side should be good for the other.”

[RWC] Darn, Mr. Mannion beat me to the punch. I was writing a similar letter and planned to call attention to Ms. Betty Hazlett’s letter from 2005 entitled “Bad time for throwing a bash.”

“But that will never be. Republicans are always held to a higher standard than Democrats throughout the country.”

[RWC] That’s partly because Republicans claim to have standards. When you claim to be nonjudgmental (translation: have no standards), you can’t be accused of violating standards.

“An example is when a Republican senator allegedly taps his shoe in a somehow provocative way in a bathroom stall, he is ruined, even though our government supports gays.

“Meanwhile, a Democratic nominee for Treasury Secretary and IRS boss somehow forgets to pay his taxes for eight years after receiving memos, and only does so after Obama’s team tells him he needs to, and he gets a pass and is nominated.

“There are many similar stories that I don’t have room to write here.”

[RWC] Fortunately, I don’t have a problem with “room to write here.”

What about Hillary Clinton? Ever since he left office, Bill Clinton has been accepting contributions and payments from foreign governments and individuals. These are the very people with whom Sec. of State Hillary Clinton will be dealing. If that’s not bad enough, Mr. Clinton has said he will continue to accept the same kind of contributions/payments in the future. To me, that’s an obvious potential conflict of interest. To the Senate, including both Democrats and Republicans, it isn’t.

In contrast to Mrs. Clinton, go here to learn what Dick Cheney did to address potential conflicts of interest.

Then there’s Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) who got a sweetheart mortgage rate from a business regulated by a committee he sits on, Sen. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) cheating on his taxes, and so on. The response? Nothing to see here; move along.

“I wish for once there wouldn’t be any double standards in our country’s politics or media.”

[RWC] That’s a nice sentiment, but not realistic. Unfortunately, the only way to deal with double standards is to draw attention to them.