August 16, 2004

Defining Deviancy Down in NJ

I have to dissent from Outside the Beltway's take on McGreevey's resignation:


McGreevey's crime is not that he is homosexual or even that he is a lying bastard who ruined the lives of his family in order to gratify his sexual desires and advance his political career. Rather, his offense was criminal abuse of his office to appoint his illicit lover, a non-citizen not even remotely qualified for the job, to a high government post. As director of homeland security, no less.

Is it still acceptable to think that somebody who leads that much of a double life, who can lie to not one but two women and have children with them while practicing biologically risky sex on the side is unfit for office even if he weren't also paying off his illicit lover from the public purse? Should such condemnation be just in the privacy of the voting booth and once we are in public we dare not say our true opinions?

That's really defining deviancy down. This man betrayed two families, including innocent children that he fathered. While the corruption itself was sufficient for an immediate resignation, absent that political corruption, would it have been sufficiently forgivable for McGreevey to stay in office? I don't think so, though I do agree that the misuse of taxpayer funds and reckless disregard for the safety of NJ citizens in wartime is the easiest charge and more than sufficient to eject him from the statehouse.

Posted by TMLutas at August 16, 2004 01:01 PM