Tuesday, July 10, 2007

David Vitter, a Senator from Louisiana, has committed a "serious sin." What is a serious sin? What is a frivolous sin? Why should I care? I don't know about the first two questions, but the answer to the third is that I don't care, at least not about the sin part. A Senator slept with a prostitute. So what. First of all, prostitution should be legal. Second, how does sleeping with a prostitute impact Vitter's ability to be a senator? The answer to that is it doesn't. In America we have a real problem with the quality of our elected leadership, and it's not because of their questionable morals. Americans have come to expect their leaders to be perfect, in their private lives. Unfortunately, no one who really tries to be a good person is perfect in their private lives. So who can pass the 'perfect morals' test? Liars can pass it, as can people who renounce their sin and claim the forgiveness of the Lord. People who make mistakes and learn from them are apparently too dangerous to elect. As are flawed people, who also happen to be great leaders. FDR, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson are all very dangerous men. If somehow a qualified person happens to sneak into the White House, politicians, the press, and the people line up for a chance to drum him out of office.
No, the problem with our elected leaders isn't sin. David Vitter may be less than qualified for office, but that would be because he's a self righteous idiot and not because he's a sinner. Senator Vitter said "In the metropolitan area in general, in the huge majority of areas, it's not rising at all. It's the same or it may be lowering slightly. In some parts of New Orleans, because of the 17th Street breach, it may be rising and that seemed to be the case in parts of downtown. I don't want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is filling up like a bowl. That's just not happening." He also doesn't think there is any issue more important than banning gay marriage. He is supporting Giuliani, despite his views on a number of issues, because he has been assured that Rudy won't try to advance "a liberal social agenda." Vitter may be an incompetent opponent of much of what appears in our Constitution who has a horribly twisted priorities, but what really counts is that he slept with a woman who wasn't his wife. Yeah America!