If Hypocrisy Were an Olympic Event…..

James Wagoner hopes that everyone saw the stinging blurb in Roll Call yesterday on our wayward friend, Senator Vitter, and his adamant support for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

I hope that everyone saw the stinging blurb in Roll Call yesterday on our wayward friend, Senator Vitter, and his adamant support for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. If not here's an excerpt:

The lover of family values (and, apparently, escorts) was one of the chief backers of a bill to reauthorize the program that gives states money to conduct abstinence education. A letter he and a handful of colleagues sent to the committee working on the bill includes this line, rendered particularly relevant in light of the Senator's Monday confession: "These programs have been shown to effectively reduce the risks of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by teaching teenagers that saving sex until marriage and remaining faithful afterwards is the best choice for health and happiness," the letter reads.

Let's see if we follow this. Vitter is saying that being faithful is the best way to avoid STDs and out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Might HOH suggest another method of doing just that—namely, not hiring call girls?

As the comedians like to say, "you can't make this stuff up!"

If hypocrisy were an Olympic event, Senator Vitter would get the gold medal. And he wouldn't be the only "family values" champion lining up for the gold. Remember Randall Tobias, former AIDS Czar and defender of the abstinence-only ideology at PEPFAR? Didn't he tap into the same Madam's services as Senator Vitter?

And how about Mr. Wolfowitz at the World Bank? At a time when he was trying to undermine support for international family planning programs, wasn't he also arranging "sweetheart deals" for his live-in (as in not married) girlfriend? And who can forget the Administration's abstinence-only-until-marriage "enforcer", Claude Allen, who resigned after being charged with felony theft. And, of course, there was the famous family values champion—and two-time adulterer—Newt Gingrich.

I suppose this would all be very funny were it not for the real damage these "family-values" hypocrites have caused to real young people through their championing of discredited abstinence-only programs.

Which brings me to our Democratic "friends" in the House who just yesterday staked out their own claim in the hypocrisy Olympics by passing an appropriations bill that increases funding for these failed abstinence-only programs by 25 percent—more than the Republican House was ever able to do. And this is supposed to represent the Democratic vision of "prevention first"? Infuriating!