Tag Archives: family values

national news, political news

What if roles were reversed?

clinton and trump

Do you want a good idea of the lunacy attached to this year’s presidential election campaign?

Try this on for size.

It’s making the rounds on social media, but I’ll share it here.

Just suppose Hillary Rodham Clinton was mother to five children from three husbands. Suppose, also, that she had cheated on two of her husbands and then bragged about it. What do you suppose would be the reaction from conservatives?

They’d be outraged. They’d vilify the Democratic nominee for flouting the very “family values” to which conservatives adhere.

Why, then, aren’t political conservatives as outraged that the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has produced five children with three wives, cheated openly on two of them and then boasted about it in public?

Gosh. There’s that terrible “double standard” so prevalent these days.

Trump keeps assailing Hillary Clinton’s husband because of his own alleged indiscretions — and the Clinton haters cheer him on while ignoring the amazing irony in Donald Trump’s attempt to grasp some kind of moral high ground.

Where is the outrage? Where is the indignation?

Someone has to explain to me how this guy gets away with this astonishing hypocrisy.

national news, political news

Trump channels late Texas congressman … more or less

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Donald_Trump_hair

Donald Trump said recently that he intends to respond to negative attacks and added — somewhat incredulously, in my view — that he’s not one to initiate a negative campaign.

Interesting, yes? Well, I think so.

He’s been pretty darn negative ever since he announced his Republican presidential candidacy.

He took it to a new level when he said that likely Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton, has demonstrated a worse record regarding women that Trump has.

Hillary Clinton had accused Trump of being hyper-sexist in his outlook toward women. So, Trump decided to bring up President Clinton’s relationship with a young White House intern.  He vows to make an example of the former president.

Well, my thoughts turned to a former Texas congressman I used to know quite well. The late Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Wilson used to say much the same thing about negative campaigning. He once told me he’d never start a negative campaign, but would be always be prepared to respond if an opponent decided to get nasty.

A candidate once did get quite nasty during the 1992 campaign, criticizing Wilson’s lifestyle — including his self-acknowledged affection for attractive women. She aired TV ads while running against Wilson for the East Texas congressional district he’d represented since 1973. The ads were highly critical of Wilson’s “Good Time Charlie” reputation.

What happened next remains a bit of a mystery. An audiotape showed up at the newspaper where I worked at the time; it contained a heated — and profanity-laced — conversation between the Republican challenger and her married campaign treasurer. The two of them discussed their own extramarital affair, with the candidate demanding that her lover leave his wife for her.

I suppose I should mention that Wilson’s opponent had portrayed herself as a deeply religious candidate who ran on what used to be called “family values.”

Wilson, who at the time served on the House Select Intelligence Committee, denied having anything to do with the tape. I couldn’t prove otherwise.

The difference between that example and the one that Trump is threatening to use is that the candidate who challenged Wilson was an active politician, while the former president that Trump threatens to drag into the campaign hasn’t been a full-time politician since his presidency ended in January 2001.

Somehow, I believe Charlie Wilson would laugh at what Trump is pledging to do to a potential political rival.

entertainment news

So long, ’19 Kids and Counting’

Well, that was a big surprise … not!

The Learning Channel has canceled “19 Kids and Counting” in the wake of an admission by one of the “19 kids” that he molested young girls when he was a teenager; some of the girls were his own sisters.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/tlc-cancels-19-kids-and-counting/ar-AAd30kF

Josh Duggar’s been missing from family publicity photos. He’s become a sort of persona non grata while TLC decided what to do with the popular reality-TV series.

This cancellation had to occur. The Duggar family portrays itself as a group of deeply religious individuals. No, they aren’t “perfect,” as one or two of the daughters have sought to remind us. Then again, Mom and Dad Duggar have become politically active, supporting candidates who purport to stand for strict morality and, um, “family values.”

Well, young Josh messed up. He tarnished his very public family’s name and reputation.

TLC has decided it cannot continue the charade. The Duggars can now continue their rehabilitation in private, away from the TV cameras’ glare.

Good. So long, Duggars.

religious news

Say goodnight, Duggar family

Let’s just dispense with the rhetorical setup: The Duggars are done as TV celebrities.

That would be the family of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the parents of “19 Kids and Counting.” The Learning Channel has just announced it is dumping the reality TV series in the wake of reports that one of the kids, Josh, fondled and touched young girls inappropriately when he was a 14-year-old.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/tlc-%e2%80%9cdeeply-saddened%e2%80%9d-as-it-pulls-all-episodes-of-%e2%80%9919-kids-and-counting%e2%80%99-in-wake-of-child-molestation-allegations-%e2%80%93-update/ar-BBk8vEK

What’s more, Josh Duggar misbehaved reportedly with some of his sisters.

This a big deal at a couple of levels

One, Josh Duggar was a big hitter with the Family Research Council, a conservative think tank dedicated to the promotion of “traditional family values.” He’s quit his FRC post.

Two, Josh’s parents have been outspoken critics of the gay rights movement, particularly the push for “marriage equality,” and allowing gay people to marry. Jim Bob and Michelle have been harsh critics of LGBT citizens, saying that homosexuality leads to pedophilia and other immoral behavior. How can they say those things now while ignoring what’s been plainly obvious throughout all of recorded history, which is that “traditional, heterosexual” Americans are capable of precisely the same kind of behavior?

The Duggars are close friends of another Arkansan, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who’s running for president. Huckabee has acknowledged agreement with Josh’s statement that his behavior was “inexcusable,” but adds that it isn’t “unforgiveable.” True enough. Scripture does tell us we’re entitled to grace. But that will have to come from within.

The Duggars certainly are entitled to believe what they wish politically. However, when those political beliefs run head-on into a seriously flawed personal history, well, that’s when you have to excuse yourself from the public limelight.

The Duggars have a huge following across the nation, particularly among those who have admired them for their stated belief in family tradition and their strict moral code.

That trust has been shattered, at least to the extent that their TV network benefactors — TLC — no longer feels comfortable thrusting this family into Americans’ living rooms.

 

national news

Immigration reform = family values

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Remember the early 1990s when “family values” became a mantra for politicians seeking to return to the core values of our nation?

Vice President Dan Quayle once chided the TV character “Murphy Brown” for having a child out of wedlock. The debate was joined.

Two decades later, the term “family values” has taken a new turn. It became part of President Barack Obama’s pitch to fix a broken immigration system.

The president’s pitch is nearly perfect.

Obama went on national TV today to tell the nation he would sign an executive order that keeps families together. Mom and Dad may have entered the nation illegally, but brought their children along when they were small — or perhaps bore their children in this country, an act that gave the kids instant U.S. citizenship.

The president’s order defers the deportation of some 5 million illegal immigrants. His aim, among other things, is to keep families together. Obama told the nation that it’s impractical to deport all those who came here illegally. Must we deport their children? And what about those children who are citizens simply by virtue of their birth in the United States of America?

This won’t deter Republicans from challenging the president. The new Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner are vowing unspecified actions to fight the president’s action.

Well, let’s have that fight and let’s allow the public to decide whether it’s right to separate families, or to uproot entire families after they’ve found a better life in the Land of Opportunity.

 

national news, political news

'Kissing congressman' testing voters' values

By all rights, Vance McAllister should be toast. Done. A goner from public life.

The Louisiana Republican congressman got caught on a video laying a seriously wet kiss on a female staffer. They were making out, man. Oh, McAllister and the staffer have spouses. The woman’s husband was so angry he declared their marriage to be over; I haven’t heard the latest on that one.

As for McAllister, he apparently is still married to the mother of their five children. He had declared his intention to leave office after this term, then he changed his mind. He’s running in that free-for-all Louisiana system in which Democrats and Republicans run against each other in the general election.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/vance-mcallister-the-kissing-congressman-112015.html?hp=t1

You know what? The guy just might win — again.

It looks as though the congressman is testing his constituents’ tolerance for misbehavior.

He represents a reliably Republican district. His constituent base is generally quite conservative. So, I’ll presume that under most circumstances they’d frown terribly on their elected representative in Congress making out with someone other than his wife.

Doesn’t Scripture tell us that “adultery” results even when we look lustfully at someone other than our spouse? By that measure, McAllister has committed a serious sin, correct? What’s more, McAllister campaign for election while declaring himself to be a God-fearing, wife-and-children-loving family man.

Well, he’s back in the game. He’s running hard for re-election, only he’s kissing babies this time.

This will be most intriguing. The incumbent’s constituents reportedly are looking past the kind of misbehavior that used to get politicians into serious trouble.

Wow!

national news, political news

Mark Sanford's back in the public eye

Mark Sanford had dropped off my radar. Indeed, I thought he was gone forever.

Until now.

He’s back. The reason has something to do with why he was such a notorious character in the first place.

http://news.msn.com/us/us-rep-sanford-calls-off-engagement-to-soul-mate

Back when he was the Republican governor of South Carolina, he famously disappeared for a few days. He told his staff to put the word out he was “hiking on the Appalachian Trail.” Turns out he was cavorting with his mistress — way down yonder in Argentina.

He lied to the public about his whereabouts and as AWOL from his elected duty as governor of the Palmetto State.

What a goofball.

Well, he later got engaged to his “soul mate,” Maria Belen Chapur, after his wife, Jenny, divorced him. He then got elected to Congress, where he served before becoming governor.

Now the nutty guy says he’s calling off his engagement to Chapur, apparently because of continuing difficulties with the former Mrs. Sanford, the one on whom he cheated with Chapur.

“No relationship can stand forever this tension,” wrote Sanford in a Facebook message to Chapur. He alluded to possibly getting re-engaged if his situation with Jenny Sanford calms down. There has been trouble over visitation with one of the couple’s children.

According to MSN.com: “His Facebook posting comes after attorneys for Jenny Sanford last week asked a family court judge to limit the lawmaker’s visitation with his youngest child. They also want Mark Sanford to undergo psychological tests and take anger management and parenting courses.”

Let’s remember that Mark Sanford once slept on his couch in his congressional office so he could be sure to get home every weekend to be with his wife and their children; he cited his belief in strong “family values.” Then he cheats on his wife, lies to his constituents, gets engaged to his mistress, and then breaks off his engagement while lawyers try to get this goober to undergo “anger management and parenting courses.”

Go away, congressman. Please?

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Kissing congressman to bow out

Vance “The Kissing Congressman” McAllister has announced he won’t seek re-election to a seat he’s held only since this past November.

Good deal. He should go home and try to restore his marriage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/28/vance-mcallister-wont-seek-reelection-but-plans-to-finish-his-term/

McAllister is the Louisiana Republican who was caught on video making out with his married female staff member, who since has resigned from his staff. Meanwhile, her husband has all but declared his marriage to be over.

What makes this story so bizarre is that McAllister sold himself to his Louisiana constituents as a God-fearing, Bible-thumping, family values-oriented congressman who loves and cherishes his wife and five children. Why, he even ran TV ads touting his love of family.

Then he got caught planting a serious wet one on his staffer … and all heck hit the fan.

What’s more, the husband of the staffer then revealed that McAllister said prior to the election that he was going to remake himself into Mr. Family Man just for the political advantage he would gain.

Well, Rep. McAllister will be gone at the end of the year. Congress will shed itself of one more hypocrite. If only the rest of them would follow suit.