Mike Pintek's Feeble Argument

Caught a little of Night Talk last night. Mike Pintek interviewed Jennifer Victor, professor of Political Science over at Pitt.

It was an impressive choice for Pintek. He ususally interviews an obvious (and right-wing) partisan as a "political analyst" (Bill Green comes to mind here) but this time he actually seems to have snagged someone who spoke about politics without tilting the political scales in one direction or another.

And I think it threw Pintek a little - and that was fun to watch.

Anyway, they got around to discussing the latest Republican sex scandal when Pintek unveiled his defense. He asked "Isn't there something of a double standard at play here?" When Professor Victor asked what he meant, he brought up two sex scandals that involved Democrats: Gerry Studds' intern and Barney Frank's prostitution ring. Pintek said Studds was re-elected after the scandal hit and Barney Frank's still in the Congress after his scandal - I guess he was trying to point out how the Democrats go easy on their scandals, while the Republicans don't.

At this point I was feverishly trying to call in to correct the record. But all I got was a busy signal.

Let me point out a few things - perhaps someone can send Mr Pintek a link to this posting so perhaps he can learn a thing or two.

On Barney Frank.

Here's how Mediamatters describes things:

In August 1989, Stephen Gobie reportedly told The Washington Times that he ran a prostitution ring out of Frank's Washington, D.C., apartment and that Frank was aware of his operation. While Frank admitted to paying Gobie for sex several years earlier and to later hiring Gobie as an assistant, Frank denied any knowledge that Gobie allegedly ran a prostitution ring out of Frank's apartment. Frank maintained that he fired Gobie upon being told by one of his landlords that Gobie was using his residence for his prostitution business. As The Guardian reported on August 30, 1989, Frank actually "asked the House ethics committee ... to investigate his relationship with" Gobie.

The Boston Globe reported in 1990 that the House Ethics Committee found that Frank had "violated House rules by writing a misleading memo that was used in an effort to end prostitute Stephen Gobie's probation on felony charges and by allowing his House privileges to be used to waive 33 parking tickets that Gobie might have received while driving Frank's car." And for that, Frank was reprimanded in July of 1990.

The Ethics Committee absolved Frank of allegations that he was aware of any prostitution ring being run out of his house.

Not only that, but the Ethics Committee seems to have doubted that there was a prostitution ring in the first place. Here's Mediamatters quoting the ethics committee report:

Not only have Representative Frank's landlords, Colonel and Mrs. James Daugherty, submitted sworn testimony contradicting Mr. Gobie's assertion, Mr. Gobie's assertion has also been rendered questionable by the fact that his claims of call-forwarding service were contradicted by the telephone company.

Something else Mike Pintek didn't say. But take a look at when this all happened. This was 1990. And while it's true that the name of the man sitting in the Oval Office was "George Bush" it's still 17 years ago. Pintek is reaching back a generation to find this Democratic sex scandal.

On Gerry Studds.

Gerry Studds admitted to having an affair with a 17 year old male congressional page. That much Mike got right. What Mike Pintek didn't say was that Studds admitted this in 24 years ago in 1983. And the affair itself? It took place 10 years before that in 1973. So Pintek is reaching back 34 years to find this sex scandal involving a Democrat. By the way, the affair was consensual and the page, being 17 years old, was over the age of consent - so it was legal. The House censured him by a vote of 420-3.

It was embarrassing to watch, to be honest.