Good for Vitter. Confession is a cleansing thing, and this is the best way to handle something like this. Most people who have truly repented have no problem talking about their past, in my experience. Especially when the family has already forgiven and gone past it.
‘Good for Vitter’? What would be really good is if he resigns right now, right away, the sooner the better. Most men go their entire lives working hard, telling the truth, raising their children, and staying faithful to their wives. If the GOP truly stands for traditional values, then those GOP politicians caught with their pants down need to get out of public life. Let him do what the rest of us do if we should fail our marriage and destroy our reputations: focus on rebuilding that marriage and re-earning that reputation. He has no standing to do either on the taxpayer’s dime.
Further, it isn’t good enough to point to a Democratic Party sociopath like Bill Clinton and decry MSM double standards. The moral bar should be higher for GOP politicians. Why? Because character does count: bad human beings make bad political decisions. Another thing, too: the way Vitter referred to his transgression as a ‘sin’. I’m pretty sure frequenting a prostitute is a crime, even in D.C. By calling it a ‘sin’, he immediately took his actions from the political to the personal, as if it is solely a private matter of no public consequence.
The Democrats are keen on ‘re-framing’ various issues, as if wrong can be made right by some semantic sleight-of-hand. Sorry, no. That cannot be our way, or there truly is no difference between us and those we oppose. Such an action by an elected official is tantamount to a freezer filled with cash. It’s corrupt, illegal, and equally worthy of contempt and reprobation.
I’m not throwing stones from some sanctimonious high ground here. I’m a recovering drunk and addict, and I’ve plumbed moral depths no one should ever experience, but evidently unlike Vitter and those like him, I’m willing to own up to those moral lapses without advice from a bevy of image consultants and spin doctors.