Are We Asking Too Much?
Commentary by Phil Valentine  / December 18, 1998

After the revelation of Bob Livingston and his numerous affairs during his 30-year marriage, the cacophony of outrage from the right sounded eerily familiar. It seems as though we've heard this steady drumbeat from the left for the past four years:kill the messenger. According to the left-wingers, the President's problems aren't his fault. It's all because of that evil Ken Starr. Now the tables have turned. I'm by no means defending Hustler scum Larry Flynt but it seems to me that Larry didn't just fabricate Mr. Livingston's indiscretions out of thin air. Yet, conservatives across the wide spectrum of TV and radio talk shows are whining about the White House smear campaign and the effort to derail the impeachment proceedings. Granted, Speaker-elect Livingston's troubles have nothing to do with why President Clinton is being impeached but he also has no one else to blame but himself. If you don't manufacture the dirt yourself there's nothing to dig up.

So, what's the one truth that can be gleaned from the whole Clinton mess? Certainly we've learned that cheating on your wife is wrong and that lying under oath about it is even worse. But the one truth that shines through it all has apparently blinded the Republicans on the Hill. I refer back to Phil Valentine's ABCs of Reality in America. 'C' states that 'Character is the single most important attribute in a leader.' To put it in the words of Ross Perot who was queried as to why he fired executives of his company who cheated on their wives, "If your wife can't trust you, I can't trust you." That slogan should be emblazoned above the Speaker's chair on the House floor and on the desk of the Oval Office. Can we expect each and every congressman to be true to his or her spouse? Probably not but it's certainly not too much to ask that anyone in a leadership role demonstrate they can be trusted by honoring a basic marriage vow!

What disappoints me is that my Republican friends in Congress don't understand this. It's morality, stupid. After Mr. Livingston made his confession, he was given a standing ovation and slapped on the back for having the courage to come forward. Courage? What courage does it take to admit to something which is about to hit the national news? He would've demonstrated true courage had he found himself alone with a woman other than Mrs. Livingston and found the guts to say 'no.'