"The Ethicist" Links Mark Foley to Bush's "Profound Assault...on Democracy Itself"
Randy Cohen, whopens "The Ethicist" column for the New York Times Magazine, was on CNN Monday night "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" (hat tip CJR Daily) to discuss the ethics of the Mark Foley scandal.
Guest host John Roberts inquired: "Help us out, Randy, with the moral standpoint. A couple of other people at least on the Republican side of the House knew about this, slap on the wrist, an admonition. Should they have done more?
But the Times' left-wing "ethicist" was less interested in the ethics and morals of the situation and more interested in weirdly linking everythingto Bush and Iraq.
"They certainly should have done more. And that, in a way, is the most profound ethical transgression, that this, it seems to me, is a part of a larger pattern of the administration's habit of secrecy, of cover-ups. We see other example in Bob Woodward's book. You know, democracy relies on transparency and openness. And to undermine that is really an ethical transgression. It's a profound assault on civic virtue, on democracy itself."
When asked by Roberts: "Does it not behoove people to come out and tell the appropriate authorities?"
Cohen again spins things back to the war:"Well, yes, it would behoove people to come out. And democracy relies on an informed citizenry. And it might behoove people to come out about the planning for a war, about second thoughts about a war, about shenanigans in Congress, yes. But openness has not characterized this government."
