Wednesday, August 22, 2012

It's only "McCarthyism" when it targets Democrats . . .

When it targets Republicans, it's just law enforcement. From Politico:

FBI INVESTIGATES GOP MEMBERS AFTER NUDE SWIM INCIDENT IN ISRAEL

The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff — and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses.

The FBI looked into whether any inappropriate behavior occurred, but the interviews do not appear to have resulted in any formal allegations of wrongdoing.

Wait a sec . . . .

Look, Congressional skinny dipping at the end of a busy day "factfinding" abroad kinda strikes me as fratboy behavior, but what bothers me here is that the FBI seems to have launched its "probe" without even an accusation of any laws being broken. Isn't that backwards? I thought that somebody had to make the allegation first, or the FBI had to come across some evidence of illegality, and then "launch and investigation".

And what is this business about "inappropriate behavior"? Is our country just a big fundamentalist boarding school where everybody is a child whose character needs careful molding? Since when is it the FBI's business to enforce "propriety", rather than, you know, the law.

Or perhaps the whole point of the investigation was to generate this particular headline.

1 comment:

Elusive Wapiti said...

"Or perhaps the whole point of the investigation was to generate this particular headline."

Yep. And I suspect that, if the tables were turned, we wouldn't even be hearing about it.

Example: While not quite hard partying on the taxpayer's dime--something that somehow was not photographed--I give you Secretary Clinton freak-dancing in South Africa a couple of weeks ago and broadcasted around the world.

So a nude skinny dip done a Republican Congressman draws an FBI investigation, but a crude display of low-brow behavior by the Secretary of State merits not even a hint of opprobrium?