A Scandalous Posting

There's no question that I've done wrong, but I did not break the law and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law."

- John Edwards responding to his indictment for violating campaign finance laws

“You know, I can’t say with certitude. We know for sure I didn’t send this photograph”

- Rep. Anthony Weiner - (D-NY) when asked if the photo tweeted on his account is of him

If you enjoy political sex scandals this past week has been a good one.

John Edwards, in the sex scandal that keeps on giving, was indicted for filling false campaign finance reports to conceal the fact that he was using nearly a million dollars of donors’ money to hide and support his mistress and their child.

Arrogance breeds stupidity. It was almost deranged that Edwards, in the 24/7 scandal mongering news environment of modern America, thought he could hide a mistress and a child while running for President.

Even Grover Cleveland couldn’t do that.

It isn’t that Edwards did something dumb. It was that Edwards repeatedly broke the law in ways that were easy to prove, while coldly using and destroying people to protect himself.

Then there is Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and his twitter account.

A picture of a man’s “package” tightly held in a pair of briefs was sent to a young woman in Seattle from Weiner’s twitter account. Weiner says he can’t tell for sure if the picture is of him. He maintains his account was hacked, but he thinks it was a prank and therefore hasn’t asked law enforcement to investigate.

The recipient of the picture states Rep. Weiner may have intended to send it to a porn star with a name similar to hers who follows him on twitter, but she received it by mistake. Darn type-ahead will get you every time.

The Republicans, smell blood.

They were behind breaking the story, and they continue to feed it. How many 20 year old women know a lot about porn stars? How did the woman who received the tweet know that a porn star was following Weiner on Twitter and that the two may have corresponded? Interesting how this came out in an interview with the NY Post.

If he sent it, it was stupid and disrespectful, but it wasn’t illegal. Because of Weiner’s serious mishandling of the press the story has traction. We are now reading more stories about Wiener’s tweet than of Moody’s threat to lower the US Debt rating - an act much more likely to studied in history class in the years ahead.

If John Edwards broke the law he got what he deserves. But is Anthony Weiner, who broke no laws, getting what he deserves? Are we getting what we deserve?

Is the bar for personal behavior now raised so high that good people don’t even try to jump over it?

Indiana’s Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, is sitting out this Presidential cycle. Not because he has done anything wrong, or that he has a poor chance of winning. He is out because he doesn't want to subject his wife and family to an examination of a painful period of their marriage that occurred over 15 years ago. Neither Daniels or his wife broke a law. They hit a rough patch and have since reconciled. What occurred has nothing to do with whether or not Gov. Daniels would make a good President.

But in the venomous world of Presidential politics, it isn’t hard to imagine the Daniels’ marriage becoming a political football.

The hunger for scandal is so strong that it would have consumed the story of the Daniels relationship with the same gusto as John Edwards breaking the law to hide his love child.

Its this lack of perspective, which puts the transgressions of Anthony Weiner and John Edwards on the same level, that does the country a disservice. At a time when we need all the talent we can get, good people like Gov. Mitch Daniels are frightened away from even trying to help.

That is a bigger problem than an errant Tweet.