There are no parallels among these men.
David Letterman did get out in front of the “scandal”. That was smart media. As long as the women with whom he was intimate were consenting adults — that means without fear for their jobs or career advancement — then it is just another philandering person. What makes it news is that he is a TV star. What is sad is that sexual harassment happens everyday and there is no famous star to blackmail to make it stop. David Letterman has a lot of heartache ahead of him. But he doesn’t need to apologize to me.
Conversely, Senator Ensign needs to apologize to his voters because he is a fraud — he is not the “family values” candidate that his constituency elected and he broke the public trust in the cover-up. His extra-marital affair was not criminal or actionable — consenting adults without any specter (so far) of harassment in the workplace.
Roman Polanski is, based on the information available, a scoundrel and a sexual predator. A thirteen year-old is a child and is not capable of consent in sexual circumstances. Justice delayed is justice denied. Lock him up and throw away the key.
Let’s not lump these men and their actions together. None is a shining star, but in only one case was there a sexual criminal. In another, it was the cover-up that is criminal. The third, well, unless we hear more, is just disappointing and ooky.
There is one guy, whose handle is TheFlaCracker on Twitter, who refers to all Libiots (liberal idiots) as defending Roman Polanski. That’s unfair. I am a G-d damn Democrat and liberal and a Hillary-lover. I am proud of it. But, child abuse is not a liberal or conservative issue. It is solely about our expectations and demands for the safety of society’s and our children.
The true measure of our society is how we treat the children others have “cast off”and those who abuse them.
