Some concluding Ethics Alarms from the Brown-Coakley Senate race, many with the same dispiriting lesson: hyper-partisan zealotry is causing many Americans to abandon their senses of fairness, proportion, and common sense : Continue reading
Sen. Harry Reid
Ethics Quote of the Week
“Loyalty is being outbid. There’s no money in political loyalty, but there’s money in being disloyal.”
—Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, quoted in the New York Times regarding the anonymous revelations of political aides included in “Game Change,” the gossipy back-story of the 2008 election by Mark Halperin and John Heilermann. The book has already plunged Sen. Harry Reid in political hot water.
Former aides and political appointees who embarrass their previous bosses with the content of conversations made under conditions presumed confidentiality and trust have no ethical defenses, unless they are divulging confidences to report or prevent criminal activity. For them to do so anonymously and without being personally accountable for the revelations adds cowardice to the breaches of loyalty, trust and confidentiality.
Steele, Reid, and “Tit-for-Tat” Ethics
Nobody will believe it on Capitol Hill, but the fact that someone did something unfair to you doesn’t make it right for you to do the same thing to them. Is it possible all of none of our elected leaders were taught that two wrongs don’t make a right? Continue reading
Reid on Obama: When the Apology is Worse Than the Offense
Publicly apologizing for conduct that wasn’t wrong creates a cultural misconception that such conduct is wrong. This confuses and misleads everyone. It would be nice, not to mention responsible and courageous, for public figures who find themselves being attacked by public opinion mobs for “offending” the wrong person or group, to demand some precision regarding their so-called offense before begging for forgiveness.
This is obviously too much to expect from politicians, perhaps because they seem to have such a difficult time figuring out the difference between right and wrong in the best of circumstances. Rep. Joe “You lie!” Wilson apologized, but made it clear that he was proud of what he did, making his apology a formality rather than a genuine expression of regret. Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has quickly apologized for private comments he made about Barack Obama, reported in a new campaign ’08 backroom gossip book by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Because the reporting of Reid’s comments has resulted in his being accused of racism, and because Reid himself has been quick to accuse others of racism when it suited his purposes, the apology was inevitable. It also has written another incomprehensible definition into Washington’s “Things Politicians Can’t Say” Code. Continue reading
Well, It’s Better Than Senator Burris’s Version…
[An Ethics Alarms reflection on the Christmas Eve Senate vote passing that esteemed body’s version of health care reform…in the tradition of “A Visit From Saint Nicholas,” because 1) you haven’t read enough parodies of that poem this year, 2) it seemed appropriate, but mostly 3) the version Sen. Burris read on the Senate floor was so terrible that I had to get its taste out of my mouth.]
The Resume, the Bigot, and “The Ethicist”
From Randy Cohen, “The Ethicist” of the New York Times’ Magazine, comes an ethics question that I would think has an obvious answer. The fact that it isn’t obvious to many people is worrisome.
It was obvious to Cohen. A lawyer evaluating resumes for applicants to join his firm asked if he could ethically reject a qualified applicant solely because the applicant was a member of the Federalist Society, an organization much in favor during the Bush Administration, dedicated to studying and promoting conservative ideology. The potential associate’s duties had nothing to do with politics. Cohen, a good liberal if there never was one, was emphatic about whether the reviewing partner could ding the applicant for liking Justice Scalia and agreeing with George Will: Continue reading
Landrieu’s Pay-off: Ethical and Playing by the Rules
[Like you, I am thoroughly tired of seeing Claude Rains’ Capt. Renault quoted in these situations, but sometimes his famous “Casablanca” line is too apt to resist. This is such a time.]
Pundits are “shocked—shocked!” that Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu traded her vote to allow debate on the health care bill for $100 million dollars of earmarked funds for Medicaid subsidies in her state. Fox demagogue/clown Glenn Beck called Landrieu a prostitute and a hooker. Time Magazine columnist Mark Halperin accompanied his condemnation of Landrieu with a disgusting photoshopped picture of the Senator sporting the infamous semen-hair gel ‘do from the raunchy comedy, “What About Mary?” The deal was widely called a bribe by indignant bloggers, angry conservatives, and even some liberals. Continue reading
Ethics Alarms 