They see in others what they hate the most about themselves - and then they rant, scream and yell about how horrible other people are, while they are subconsciously pointing the finger at themselves.

And Craiig - being against Gay Marriage means that you are a bigot and are encouraging a gay-apartheid in this country where all persons are, supposedly, created equal.

If "It's good for me but not for you, so do as I say and not as I do" applies, then it's hypocrisy and any politician caught out should be hounded from office. Republicans typically like to run as coocoo Christians, so when they violate that creed, they are hypocrites. Democrats, on the other hand, are much less uptight abut sex. The reason Spitzer was so bad is that as a prosecutor he relentlessly pursued prostitutes. Ergo, the "do as I say " test applies. Edwards allowed his wife and family to somewhat stand in for him, but at the end of the day he never explicitly ran on any kind of a platform that actively condemned adultery, so I am inclined to give him a pass. Clinton was the president, for god's sake, he should not have done what he did but again he never pretended to be something he wasn't. Ensign and Sanford and Gingrich and Hyde and Foley and Haggart and Livingston and so on Republicans ad infinitum, on the other hand, should rot in hell for what they have done.

This article ended by claiming that we have become a nation of peeping tom's. What a case of blame the victim; if you can't indict one of your own, indict a dysfunctional society instead!

The truth is that these conservative, bible-preaching, chastity lecturers are all about self-flogging when it comes to their own "sins" as a sadistic form of penitence. Worse, they can't even commit their penitence in private, they do it for the whole world to see because they want to seem like pitiful self-sacrificing creatures!

Mea culp, mea culpa, mea culpa.

Larry Craig! Trolling for any kind of sex (with anyone wearing shoes) in a public restroom, then trotting out his wife for public humiliation.

Really, are you Repub. apologists trying to say that the ledger is even?

Jeff "Cut" Gannon/Guckert, slimey ho with pictures of his hard-on widely available, but none-the-less given a white house press ID? By whom exactly?

Foley's predation (For years and widely known) of Congressional Pages? Covered up by whom?

Tim haggard's claim of "total heterosexuality" again trotting out the wife as a "proof". Dick-sucking on meth, a simple lapse in an otherwise distinguished career.

You guys could not get enough of murdering Bill Clinton for a fairly tame dalliance. Now own it you weird, constapated, closeted self-haters.

I'm thinking about changing parties; you guys have all the sex... Oh that's right; never mind.

I would agree with the general premise of Lyon's article. When the Republicans want to be self-righteous they harp on Religion or Nationalism. When the Democrats want to moralize they use race or sex as their preferred weapon of choice.

“They see in others what they hate the most about themselves - and then they rant, scream and yell about how horrible other people are, while they are subconsciously pointing the finger at themselves.

And Craiig - being against Gay Marriage means that you are a bigot and are encouraging a gay-apartheid in this country where all persons are, supposedly, created equal.”

It’s amazing how projection is always a one way street. A conservative will make a statement, an ought statement, then the left pours out a stream of venom of how viscous, mean spirited, horrible and bigoted the conservative (or republicans or Christians, etc.) movement is. There goes that wonderful liberal tolerance again – as you said of me, “you are a bigot”. You could have said I was wrong, but instead you called me a bigot. No doubt, there is ranting, yelling and screaming on both sides, but it always projected this way. Here’s the problem, I think your wrong (mistaken), but you think I’m evil.

What is an "ought" statement?

gov. sanford mentioned his admiration for country music in one of the love missives sent to maria.

An earlier post correctly made a distiction between ought and is and how they can be confused. Ought means how things should be or what I ought to do, vs is, which is the way something is.

"This river don't go to Aintree boy, you done took a wrong turn".

These accusations of hypocrisy, however well-founded, are in a deeper sense just an excuse to gossip about other people's personal lives, an excuse to invade others' privacy and cast asparagus on their decisions. It appeals to the prurient interests that we may all have about other people's lives but are too polite to ask. Isn't that why these celebrity-gossip magazines exist in the first place?

Yes, during the '90s the republicans really crossed a line. Ken Starr's obsession with Clinton's sexual behavior should have been a sign of mental illness (on Starr's part) and not due diligence for the taxpayers. Ditto Gingrich et al. Hypocrisy doesn't begin to cover it. These people are seriously deranged about sex and sexuality. Voyeurs, maybe, in any case they have no recognizable boundaries that civilized people should respect.

But two wrongs do not make a right.

Let me hear one , just ONE, of the trolls admit it, and I'm done.

Will NEVER happen. Therein lies the problem; exactly who is the aggressor?

Sadism is bad sex -- akin to jingoism and prudery, and recognized as such everywhere but in the Bible Belt. These pitifully compensatory substitutes were once collectively called The Return of the Repressed, until the Republicans reclaimed the public rituals of sin and redemption from the evil clutches of liberal psychologizers, and in the process, left themselves with nowhere to hide.

"Theologically speaking, the two parties have divided the Seven Deadly Sins as follows: Republicans oppose lust, sloth and envy; Democrats scorn gluttony, greed, wrath and pride. Little progress is reported."

Fantastic writing. Quote it to hypocrites everywhere.