Scandal of the Week... So Far

So the new darling of the MSM — the so-called "D. C. Madam" — has claimed her first victim.

I hold no sympathy for former Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias. He admittedly used an "escort service" (what he chose to do with these "escorts" is immaterial at this point) and must now pay the piper, so to speak. There are, of course, a couple of questions that now spring to mind:

1. How does it enter into the mind of any public figure, but especially a politician, that they are somehow immune to the potential consequences of such activity? Here we have a man in a position of no small power and authority who represents the interests of the United States to the world. At what point did he decide that calling in a few "Central American gals" for "massage" work would be harmless? (Okay... technically two questions asked, but closely enough related that I count them as one.)

2. Now that ABC has pulled down a Bush administration official, how long will it be before we hear the name of the first prominent Democrat to have imbibed from the Madam's seemingly exhaustive fountain?

As I say, I don't really care two figs for Tobias' fate. He made his choice, and he gets to suffer those consequences. Period. I would expect no less if it transpired that Bush himself were on that list of clients.

I will, however, be absolutely incensed if ABC targets only Bush administration officials (or any other prominent Republicans) and leaves the Democrats unscathed. I say this because, thanks to Clinton the Philanderer, I find it impossible to believe that there are no Democrats on those lists. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that Bubba himself was a benefactor of her services, except for the fact that he studiously avoids the D. C. area since leaving office, and Palfrey wasn't in operation during his term. But there are still a lot of Democrats in Washington these days. An awful lot of them.

ABC, of course, has a dilemma on their hands. Republicans, it goes without saying, are open season. But even if ABC begins leaking names of Democrats, they have to be careful to only leak those names that wouldn't potentially damage the campaigns of their candidate(s) of choice. So the real question becomes, are Obama, Clinton, or any of the others sacred enough cows that ABC won't pour any negative spotlights on their campaigns?

Only time will tell. In the meantime, good luck (and good riddance) to Mr. Tobias. Take your dirty laundry and your pending family troubles with you. On to the next "victim."