Walter Jenkins with Bill Moyers.
All the way with L-BJ!
Posted on 09/02/2007 10:05:19 AM PDT by theothercheek
You’ve heard of institutional memory? Well The New York Times has developed institutional Alzheimer’s.
Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus outlines the details of a story that is familiar to anyone who’s picked up a newspaper, watched the news on TV or listened to talk radio over the past few days:
[A]n important political figure, arrested for engaging in lewd conduct in a public men's room. Married, with children, he told no one. Instead he pleaded guilty without even hiring a lawyer, hoping the problem would quietly disappear.
When, as was inevitable, the press got hold of the story, his erstwhile supporters quickly distanced themselves - and commissioned a poll to assess the political damage. His career in politics was over.
But wait. She’s not writing about Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), but Lyndon B. Johnson’s right-hand man, Walter Jenkins, who was arrested in October 1964 for having sex in the men's room of the Washington YMCA.
Just as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wasted no time throwing Craig under the wheels of the campaign bus, Marcus notes: "When the story broke just a few weeks before the 1964 election, Johnson scarcely hesitated before instructing Abe Fortas to secure the resignation of Jenkins, his longest-serving aide."
At the time, adds Marcus, "The New York Times editorialized that "there can be no place on the White House staff or in the upper echelons of government for a person of markedly deviant behavior."
But here’s what the opinionmeisters at The Times had to say about the Craig scandal:
The Republican Party is in quite a rush to keelhaul Senator Larry Craig for his run-in with the vice squad in an airport men’s room. Disclosure of the senator’s guilty plea to disorderly conduct set off a frenzy to demand an investigation by the Senate’s somnolent Ethics Committee and to strip Mr. Craig of his committee seniority. Some of the senator’s peers simply demanded that he resign. …
The rush to cast him out betrays the party’s intolerance, which is on display for the public in all of its ugliness. But it also betrays their political uneasiness as the next election approaches.
In its rush to vilify the GOP over Craig summarily being stripped of his Senate committee assignments and forced to resign The Times did not acknowledge it’s own "intolerance" and "political uneasiness as the next election approaches" back in 1964. Once again, the paper’s hypocrisy is on display for the public in all of its ugliness.
Let. It. Go.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I think Craig fit well in the Senate.
Not sure what your comment refers to. This post is less about Larry Craig than it is about the hypocrisy of the MSM. Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Seeking sex, gay or straight, in a public restroom is just nasty though.
I am disgusted by the prurient details blasted around the media. Now a whole new class of "I am curious" yoots have an instruction manual on how to engage in extremely risky anonymous encounters in the crossroads of unsanitation — public men's rooms. It reminds me of the huge increase in oral sex among teenagers — and accompanying oral sexually-transmitted diseases — after the news publicity of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair.
The other day I watched the TV show "Cheaters", in which cheating boyfriends or girlfriends are busted by hidden cameras. One of the busted guys, apparently a low-income laborer, tried to convince his wife to forgive him because "the president did it and Hillary took him back." He was completely ignorant of her venal pursuit of power behind her decision, and the payoffs to them in book sales and speaking engagements.
Another generation without the resources to recover from drastic sexual mistakes will rationalize this disgusting behavior because it is done by the rich and/or powerful.
The political bias displayed by the drive by media is on display 24/7. Any moron who thinks the MSM is impartial is a candidate for rehab. Those of even minimal intellectual ability are insulted by the daily deluge of the media tripe. The problem with the left leaning electorate is the fact that many sufffer from denial and think party loyalty should trump what is best for the nation. We are facing troubling times now and in the future. Loyalty for the country these days for many means opposition to what is best, a sad commentary....
There is no way that today you could get the NYT to say that a man wanting to put his penis into another man is deviant. Now, opposing Gay marriage they’d call deviant. Not being willing to be PC on every issue, that’s deviant. Indeed, going to church to them is downright queer. But a couple of men wanting to have sex together is a wonderful affirmation of Liberalism that’s as normal to them as Clintons in the White House.
If they had written something like, “In the past, we were of the opinion that homosexuals did not belong in the government because [whatever their reason was back then] and even referred to them as “deviants” because [whatever their reason was back then] but we have reversed our position on both counts becasue [whatever their reason is] and urge Republicans to reconsider their position on homosexuals in public life,” I would have had more respect for them. But to attack Republicans for something of which they were also guilty - and for libs, guilt has no statute of limitations so The Times is being hoist on its own petard - is partuclarly galling.
Not sure what your comment refers to. This post is less about Larry Craig than it is about the hypocrisy of the MSM. Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
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I just think this is like talking about Paris Hilton.
Except, at least she’s cute.
She’s flat chested, has size 11 feet, needs blonde hair extensions because her own mousy brown locks are thin and limp and has one eye that is clearly bigger than the other. But if that’s your idea of cute ...
Hey I’m not perfect either.
She’s certainly way cuter than me. :)
Guess you are right on that, but most of the limp wrist set in congress don’t do stupid things like that. He should have known what would happen when it went public.
Never mind her looks. At least if she were smart or talented she’d be captivating, like Henry Kissinger and Maria Callas. Sorry but in my book she doesn’t even rate a zero. C’mon, put your thinking cap on - you can do better than Paris Hilton! (And if you say Nicole Ritchie, then I am giving up on you.)
I’m glad Craig’s gone. At least I know there is one party holding up some standards and we’re getting rid of dead weight. Unfortunately for Democrats frothing at the mouth, I think this story is won’t affect the election because the Foley scandal helped throw the election last time.
:)
Until shown otherwise, I’m presuming Paris Hilton is at least as smart as Senator Craig.
I happen to believe that gays are born that way. Having said that, there is a difference between sexuality and lifestyle. I have known gay couples who have been together for decades, faithful to each other; homebodies who lived their lives quietly without scandal. Then there is the gay lifestyle of cruising bars and restrooms for anonymous or public sex, often with as many parners in one night as the ecstacy or viagra will allow. In my opinion, this is the deviant behavior. It is compulsive. It is not normal. Anonymous sex, public sex, sex with 500 or 1000 partners a year is deviant - whether you’re gay or straight. Only if you’re gay and someone says your behavior is deviant, ooooh you are a gay basher.
Sorry, but I find Craig’s behavior - more than his sexual orientation - deviant and disgusting. I mean, gee, just think of the germs in a public bathroom and that’s where he wanted to have sex? Yuck, eeeww, puke.
He managed to stay out of jail.
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