EVERYBODY DOES IT!

Remember using that phrase, “everybody does it”, as kids, on our mothers when we tried to justify bad behavior or behavior our mother frowned upon. Most likely, she didn’t buy it because she knew better, even though we thought she was completely out of touch with reality? What does a mother know anyway, we thought? But now, in hindsight, we know that she was right, as usual, and we were wrong.

Now, we have that same phrase being used by certain politicians to justify bad behavior (or even illegal behavior). Many supporters of these politicians scoff at the uproar caused by the revelations of “bribes” or “quid pro quos” offered by the White House to get certain candidates not to run against the White House’s favored candidates for the U.S. Senate.

In the past year, two proven instances of attempts to “buy off” potential candidates (that we know of) have been documented. Andrew Romanoff (D) of Colorado and Joseph Sestak (D) of Pennsylvania, have both been approached by the White House with offers of jobs in the Administration if they would drop out of the Democratic primary campaign for Senator from their respective states.

Neither accepted the “bribes” and questions now have arisen as to whether or not these offers violated the law, namely the Hatch Act and the U.S. Criminal Code.

The “spin doctors” have already used the term “everybody does it” to gloss over these offers, therefore, they say to forget about the legal ramifications and let’s move on (can you imagine if this happened during the Bush Administration?). Hey, not so fast! Aren’t we a nation of laws and if the law was broken (or seems to have been broken) shouldn’t we find out the facts and not just slough it off as normal everyday business? Of course we should, but will we?

This type of political chicanery smells of what might have gone on in Chicago where patronage jobs and political goodies were handed out to selected adherents of the policies of the Chicago Democrat political machine on a routine basis.

Because it is widely used in the corrupt City of Chicago doesn’t mean it should be tolerated in Wash. D.C. or from the halls of the White House itself. Looking the other way when illegal activity takes place, is wrong and it undermines our rules of law and our quest to have honest and ethical public servants in charge of our government. The stories emanating from the White House in addressing this matter seems to suggest that it’s not the crime that is the most egregious, it is the cover up. Reminds one of the Nixon problems in the 70’s doesn’t it? You’d think that others would’ve learned that lesson today.

Justifying one bad behavior for another bad behavior, by claiming “everybody does it” is not the moral or ethical thing to do. Just don’t do the bad behavior and don’t try to cover it up when found out. Telling the truth is the best policy. Somebody should tell the Obama Administration that this is not Chicago. Remember when Nancy Pelosi said, when taking control of the Congress, that the Democrats were “going to drain the swamp of corruption” and that they would have the most honest, transparent Congress in history. Well, how is that “hope and change” grabbing you lately? It seems to be all symbolism and no substance.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann