A New Standard for Scandal – By Susan Milligan (US News) / Jan 13, 2023
In the current hyper-partisan environment, ‘scandal’ is in the eye of the beholder – or at least the eye of the party looking to navigate a political calamity.
A Republican congressman from Florida is under federal investigation in connection with the sex-trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. He won reelection in November by a more than 2-1 margin. A Democratic senator from New Jersey was indicted on federal corruption charges in 2015 and was “severely admonished” by the chamber’s Ethics Committee after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. He was nonetheless reelected by a double-digit margin in 2018 – the same year federal prosecutors dropped their charges against him.
Scandal? What scandal? House members in both parties have been subject to allegations and convictions ranging from sexual misconduct to financial impropriety and ethics violations – and nonetheless kept their jobs.
In the current hyper-partisan political environment, “scandal” is in the eye of the beholder – or at least the eye of the party looking to oust a lawmaker or to free itself of a political liability.
In other words, congressional historians and political experts say, it’s not about what you did. It’s about whether what you did is a problem for your party.
