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Friday, August 15, 2008

Since When Is Alan Colmes Allowed to Wear His Testicles to Work?

posted by on August 15 at 17:22 PM

On Fox’s Hannity & Colmes today earlier this week Sean Hannity asks the panel this question at about 2:12: “Explain to me, I’m just a regular guy, and I’m wondering uf you can’t keep your promise to your family, if you can’t keep your promise to your wife, you’re having an affair, you’re lying about the affair … why should the American people trust you when you say you’re not going to lie to them? Why should we trust you?”

They’re talking about John Edwards, who actually isn’t running for president.

Alan Colmes points out that John McCain, who is running for president, broke his promise to his first family, broke his promise to his wife, admits to having at least one affair, etc. So how can we trust John McCain?

It’s hilarious—and you gotta love Hannity’s response after the break: John McCain was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, so he gets a pass—oh, and anyway McCain’s adultery happened three decades ago. So adultery isn’t always wrong; in fact, it’s permissible under certain circumstances, and in special cases.

Remember when right-wingers condemned this kind of moral relativism?

And, hey, if refraining from committing adultery is a test for office, why isn’t Hannity supporting Barack Obama?

And for those of you keeping score at home: Adultery that end in divorce? (McCain, Gingrich, Reagan, et al.) That’s okay. Adultery that doesn’t end in divorce? (Clinton, Edwards.) That’s not okay.

RSS icon Comments

1

If by "today" you mean, "three days ago".

The internet is a race and you lost.

Posted by lol | August 15, 2008 5:27 PM
2

@1

Gee, that's the best come back that you can come up with? If I was that lame, I'd probably be very quiet instead looking like a tool, but keep trying there Skippy.

Posted by Sad Comment | August 15, 2008 5:34 PM
3

Darn.

Posted by Dan Savage | August 15, 2008 5:34 PM
4

Anyone who says "the internet is a race and you lost" lost.

Posted by w7ngman | August 15, 2008 5:51 PM
5

Points for pushing them on the double standard, but he's simply no match for Hannity's neocon bait-and-smear. But that's how Faux News wants it, isn't it.

Regardless, double standards are one of the core foundations of the neocon belief system. The fact that McCain is a Republican absolves him of any wrongdoing.

Posted by rb | August 15, 2008 5:53 PM
6

So torture victims get an automatic license to cheat on their spouses for life? Is that how it works? Weird.

Posted by tsm | August 15, 2008 6:06 PM
7

Russia invading Georgia. The Stranger dumping Ellen Forney. And now Alan Colmes actually saying something interesting and challenging his keeper. I fully expect locusts and plague by midmorning Tuesday.

Posted by laterite | August 15, 2008 6:12 PM
8

Draft dodging, cheating on your wife, being a drunk and/or drug addict, lying to Congress and the American people and then covering it up, being implicated in campaign finance scandals, allowing yourself to be associated with loony and divisive religious leaders, changing your mind on issues of importance based on opportunistic reading of opinion polls -- all these things are only damming character flaws if Democrats do them. Otherwise, they're simple mistakes that anybody could make, mistakes that make you older, wiser, more experienced -- and it's in very poor taste to bring them up, thankyouverymuch.

Conversely, being a war hero only works in your favor if you're Republican. Otherwise it's just rank hypocrisy.

It's called a double standard. They work great if nobody ever calls you on it.

Posted by flamingbanjo | August 15, 2008 6:14 PM
9

allowing yourself to be associated with loony and divisive religious leaders

When a Republican does this, it's not a mistake, it's desirable. It shows he's a man of God.

Posted by keshmeshi | August 15, 2008 6:23 PM
10

@ Dan: I agree with you, but McCain's adultery did end in divorce. At least it did with the first wife.

Come to think of it, that guy belongs in both categories.

What a Maverick!

Posted by Mac | August 15, 2008 6:49 PM
11

McCain also dumped his wife after she was in a tragic car accident.

KO so we will bitch about this on Slog but guaranteed, the Democrats nationally and Obama will not figure out how to mount a sustained character attack on McCain an GOP the way the right has done to us for 50 years. D's are just too wussy.

Posted by PC | August 15, 2008 6:52 PM
12

@11: You of course know all about sustained character attacks.

Posted by sugarfree | August 15, 2008 7:16 PM
13

reagan and mccain were consumers and they procurred richer more glamourous wives which is what big business is all about. edwards and clinton stayed small scale and how is that going to grow the economy.

Posted by jiberish | August 15, 2008 7:51 PM
14

I think it's yet another example of IOKIYAR -- “It’s OK If You’re a Republican”

Posted by newt cheated on his cancer-ridden wife -- how's his career doing? | August 15, 2008 9:09 PM
15

I am shocked that Republicans talk show hacks would employ a double standard. Shocked. Shocked. Shocked.

What a crock.

The best part was that Hannity didn't even see it coming.

Posted by Shocked | August 15, 2008 10:21 PM
16

"Adultery that doesn’t end in divorce? (Clinton, Edwards.) That’s not okay."

Maybe, but don't think for a second that the MSM and the comedy skit shows on Saturday nights didn't try to break them up.

Posted by MadderTV | August 16, 2008 12:09 AM
17

I love watching the "morally superior" getting their feet stuck in their own muck.

Posted by Vince | August 16, 2008 6:24 AM
18

So the logic is that five and half years of being tortured and tormented understandably permits quit your wife and family

...but it's still okay be be President?

Seems the Right Wing is trying to play the "Mental Instability" card offensively.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | August 16, 2008 9:17 AM
19

I'm really glad that at a place and time in history where western civilization is faced with a burgeoning food shortage, seemingly unstoppable global environmental change for the worse, terrorism, the specter of a cold war redux, stagflation, rampant governmental corruption at virtually all levels, a rise in religious extremism worldwide, racial tensions, complications from an aging population and a rise in obesity-related health issues that threatens to bankrupt the United States for generations, I must say it's truly comforting to know that our watchdog news-media is keeping its focus on what's really important:

where powerful men like to stick their dicks.

Now, if you'll excuse me I believe there's a "America's Next Top Model" marathon I absolutely must watch.

Posted by rjsplow | August 16, 2008 10:12 AM
20

I love how at the start Amanda Carpenter says while he was running Edwards had adopted "conservative moral values" -- sneaking in the lie that sticking by your sick wife makes you a "conservative." Idiot bitch!

(btw, thx for posting this, even if it was a day late. I wouldn't have seen it anywhere else.)

Posted by sara | August 16, 2008 10:57 AM
21

So where Hannity is concerned, there would have been no presidential administrations for the adulterers FDR (Lucy), DDE (Kay), JFK (Judith), LBJ (imagination fails but I'm sure he fucked someone besides Lady Bird), RMN (Bebe Rebozo), GHWB (somebody younger than Barbara) RWR (Nancy Davis), WJC (Monica), GWB (Johnny Walker and the whore, Cocaine)...

from Beijing: "Hu cares..."

Posted by RHETT ORACLE | August 16, 2008 11:46 AM
22

@19,

(insert sound of Mr. X falling off of chair simultaneously laughing and weeping uncontrollably).

Posted by Mr. X | August 16, 2008 2:13 PM
23

I remember seeing a quote from McCain, before the presidential campaign, saying that he couldn't really blame his adultery on his time as a POW, much as he would like to. I guess Hannity can do it for him.

Posted by MBI | August 18, 2008 8:32 AM

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