Crush Liberalism

A little compare and contrast from Protein Wisdom:

Former State Senator convicted of taking bribes in Tennessee Waltz sting

Unfortunately, he appears not to have been a (closeted? In denial?) gay Republican. Otherwise, his party affiliation may have found its way into the article. You know, eventually. From the Commercial Appeal:

His voice breaking and fighting to hold back tears, a contrite John Ford asked forgiveness Monday from his family, the public, and foremost, from the judge who holds his future in his hands.“I accept the jury’s verdict. And I take full, total and complete responsibility for my action,” the once powerful state senator said in a hushed yet direct voice.

Speaking from a podium 10 feet away, Ford looked directly into the face of U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen, who will issue a sentence this morning, and told of the pain, embarrassment and humiliation he’s endured since his 2005 indictment followed by his conviction in April on a single bribery count.

Unfortunately, the Commercial Appeal’s only coverage of the Sen Larry Craig story comes from the AP, which introduces the latest — Craig’s denial that he is gay — thus:

A defiant Sen. Larry Craig denied any wrongdoing Tuesday despite his guilty plea this summer in a men’s room police sting, emphatically adding, “I am not gay. I have never been gay.”Craig, a third-term senator from Idaho, proclaimed his innocence as well as his sexuality less than an hour after Senate leaders from his own Republican Party called for an ethics committee review of his case.

“This is a serious matter,” they said in Washington in a written statement that offered neither support nor criticism of the conservative senator.

A bit of compare and contrast. For what it’s worth.

Which is probably not much. After all, a teensy little discrepancy in standards for what prompts mention of party affiliation in stories of government corruption is not really all that important. I mean, it’s not like we’ve noticed a trend or anything, right?

Besides, Ford was just taking bribes and making threats to shoot people. Whereas Larry Craig? — he brushed his gay foot up against some cop hoping for a little bit of porcelain seat lovin.

Burn him, I say.

And of course, Newsbusters shows a similar little nugget:

In its continuing coverage of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), the Associated Press now reports:

A government watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against Idaho Sen. Larry Craig Tuesday after Craig said he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s room.
…
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee seeking an investigation into whether Craig violated Senate rules by engaging in disorderly conduct.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) may qualify to be described as a government watchdog group. What the Associated Press should have told its readers is that CREW is an extraordinarily partisan watchdog group.

According to its Web site, CREW has initiated lawsuits or lodged complaints against Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA), and House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH).

Moreover, CREW has launched Federal Election Commission complaints against the campaign committees of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), and former speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL).

Oh, and then there’s CREW’s complaint against Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) leadership PAC. And, of course, CREW has sued the Bush administration.

Even the Associated Press should be able to recognize a pattern here. It owes it to readers to clarify that this watchdog group only watches one side.

Just like PW and NB show, it’s not like this “Oops, I forgot to list the party affiliation of the perp and he just so happens to be a Democrat” incident hasn’t happened before. Nope…no liberal media bias!