My friend Jim Hoeft makes a salient point over at VPOD:
McDonnell is unpopular with a number of conservative factions for his role in former Del. Jeff Fredericks ouster as RPV chair and being a key lynchpin in passing the latest transportation initiative. And, he is unpopular with liberals for how he dismantled Sen. Creigh Deeds in 2009 to become governor and their desire to drive up GOP negatives and drive down McDonnell’s approval in advance of the November general election.
While McDonnell may be unpopular with elements of the political chattering class, though, two wrongs don’t make a right.
While we all might question the ethics of the McDonnells, our own credibility as bloggers and observers must also be credible. When any of us indiscriminately toss around speculation and innuendo as if it were fact or as if we have some sort of inside track on information when we don’t, the reputation of all involved is sullied.
When we suddenly get on our high horse of being bastions of ethical behavior, we better be darn sure our own house is in order.
…and I couldn’t disagree more. It strikes me as rather odd that — as Republicans are talking about the moral failings of Terry McAuliffe — we seem not to be able to take our own medicine.
One might also note the definition of “credible” in this context, the scales of which are weighed against “the ethics of the McDonnells” which at this point, no credible observer is willing to give the Governor’s Mansion the same free pass as one might have given as recently as a week ago.
Insofar as reporting vs. blogging goes, there’s an old saying about taking the King’s shilling and doing the King’s bidding.
Some of us are deeply attached to the access and spotlight that new media brings, whether that’s the splash-and-trash variety popularized by “macaca” that, at least in my humble judgement, ruined the Virginia blogosphere, or the sort of access granted by the political class to the chattering class — in lieu of good press and pushback on bad stories. In short, there are a great number in Virginia who have become what Hemingway would have called “the camp following eunuchs of literature”:
God knows, people who are paid to have attitudes toward things, professional critics, make me sick; camp-following eunuchs of literature. They won’t even whore. They’re all virtuous and sterile. And how well meaning and high minded. But they’re all camp-followers.
…and let’s be honest, much of the Virginia blogosphere has become precisely that — camp followers.
For one, while Bearing Drift takes advertising, there has always been the tension between editorial voice and opinion writers. There remains a smattering of bloggers out there that refuse to be bought, whether that is for access or price or prestige.
Long may it be so.
What the McDonnell gifts scandal is illustrating to me is that there are two types of opinion makers in Virginia’s new media today. Those who are primarily organs for their sponsors, and those who are unafraid to be independent voices. Those who are willing to preserve what was best about the old blogosphere — culture, arts, opinion, and yes honest disagreement in a contest of wit and ideas — and those willing to use the hammer of shame, access, and advertising. And sometimes, lawyers.
For those still defending McDonnell’s actions, either by comparing them to his predecessors or by insisting nothing illegal occurred, two things come to mind: (1) the poor actions of others do not elevate our own actions, and (2) the bar for resignation — should it come to that — is not held in the balance of legal or illegal, or even ethical or unethical. It is held in the balance of right and wrong.
If we cannot bring ourselves to be honest about McDonnell’s actions, from what perceived moral high ground will we ever contest Terry McAuliffe?
It’s easier to keep that sense of place — and our souls — when we are beholden to a free and open public square rather than the opinion or courtesies of the political class.
