Democrat Double Standard on Language

February 12, 2003

I’m trying to understand something.   How is it that one leader of a particular party can say something deemed to be insensitive or, possibly, racist and another can utter something far worse and get away with it?

Former Senate Leader Trent Lott, a Republican from Mississippi, waxed nostalgic for the days of Strom Thurmond’s presidential candidacy and was hounded by a relentless media.   I was certainly one of those who thought his comments were inappropriate, if not laced with racial overtones.   However, there seems to be a virtual blackout on comments allegedly made by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California.

It surfaced in the New York Daily News that former congressman Bob Dornan, a Republican from California, recalled a debate he had with Pelosi in the early ‘90s.   He was arguing his pro-life argument when he says Pelosi shot back, “What would you do if one of your daughters was raped by a black man?”   A black man?   Why a black man?   Would that be so much worse than being raped by a white man?

It begs the question, is Nancy Pelosi a racist?   I checked the FBI’s Uniform Crime Statistics and 56 percent of the rapes in this country are committed by white males.   Forty-two percent are committed by black males.   Now, that certainly is a disproportionate number of black men raping women, I won’t deny that.   But if you’re a woman and you’re raped, odds are it’s going to be a white guy.   So why did Pelosi add “by a black man” to the end of her argument?

Only Nancy Pelosi knows what’s in her heart but imagine if a Republican had said that.   The outcry would be deafening.   The calls to step down would be unceasing.   The NAACP would be up in arms.   Where’s the outrage?

When the allegation first surfaced, a Pelosi spokesperson said the congresswoman had no comment.   Now there’re in damage control mode but the damage, so far, is minimal.   As of this writing, there’s been no major coverage of the issue, only in the Daily News and a few web sites.   The Lott controversy had raged into a full-blown hurricane by this point.

The reason there’s no outrage from the major media outlets is because there’s a double standard.   Democrats, specifically liberal Democrats like Pelosi, are given a pass.   I understand that this is only an allegation at this point but where’s the digging?   The shovels that feverishly dig for the least amount of dirt on Republicans are still.   Reporters rest on the handle, whistling to themselves, while looking the other way when, in many cases, they could kick up enough dirt to scandalize some Democrats.   Remember Senator Robert Byrd and the klan membership?   Remember his cavalier use of the ‘N’ word in an interview?   Yet he still sits as “the conscience of the Senate.”

I, for one, grow tired of the hypocrisy of the gatekeepers of information.   Unfortunately, most consumers of news, conservatives included, don’t believe anything until it appears either in print or as a television report from one of these so-called stalwarts of news.

It’s time we ended the laziness of the news consumer.   There are plenty of other credible news sources other than the Washington Post and Dan Rather.   Wasn’t it the Internet that broke the Monica Lewinsky story?   As I recall the major news outlets rested on their shovel handles when that story surfaced, too, until the mountain of evidence became too overwhelming to ignore.   Then they reluctantly reported.

If Pelosi is a racist, we need to know.   No matter what party she belongs to.   That’s the job of the news media and heretofore their work has been woefully lacking.