Tucker Carlson Is An Asshole

Last night, on CNN, Tucker Carlson had Michael Rectenwald, founder of the group Citizens for Legitimate Government, on his show. Rectenwald's group, apparently, are the ones who released the DC Madam phone list on which Republican Senator David Vitter appeared. Vitter, of course, being a supposed champion of marriage and "family values" is rightly being called the mat now for hypocrisy, especially since he shat all over Clinton for the impropriety of his affair with Monica Lewinsky as if were a bastion of morality and monogamy.

Well, Carlson, who I'm sure never questioned why Clinton's sexcapades were fair game, was all outraged that Vitter's private life should become public and then started asking Rectenwald about Rectenwald's personal and sexual life in an attempt to claim that somehow if Rectenwald's private life should be private Vitter's should too.

Of course, Carlson is too smart not to know how full of shit he is, and that's why he's an asshole. There are two reasons why Vitter's private life is fair game and Rectenwald's isn't, both of which Carlson is surely aware of. First, Vitter is a fucking public official and Rectenwald isn't. Whether the private conduct of public officials should be fair game or not is a valid point, but it wasn't the point Carlson was making. As things stand now, though, the private conduct of public officials is definitely fair game. But, secondly, and more importantly, hiring prostitutes is illegal in Washington DC, so evidence that a goddamned lawmaker in a position of great power and public trust is breaking the law is certainly not a private matter and is fair game.

Now, personally, I don't care if Vitter saw prostitutes and I don't think prostitution should be illegal. But, as long as paying for sex is a crime in Washington DC, it is certainly within the public's rights to know if a public official is paying for sex in DC. As a matter of course, you forfeit your right to privacy when you commit a crime, and since Carlson didn't have any evidence that Rectenwald had committed a crime in his personal or sexual life, there's no comparison between probing Vitter's private life and Rectenwald's.

And, of course, though Clinton committed perjury by lying about getting blowjobs from Monica Lewinsky, getting a blowjob in the Oval Office isn't a crime, so where the fuck was Carlson when Ken Starr was probing into Clinton's non-illegal private life? Try as I might, I don't recall any righteous indignation from Carlson then. And Clinton was being forced to testify under oath about his private sex life by the Republicans, which is worlds away from simply publishing a list of phone numbers of the DC Madam's clients that Vitter's number is on.

A-S-S-H-O-L-E.