"Swimming isn’t a scandal; refusing to raise the debt ceiling is" August 21, 2012
‘Freshman” is an odd
term to describe new members of Congress who typically range in age from
their 20s to their 60s. But it never seemed more apt than it did
Sunday, when word got around that a group of GOP lawmakers, including
numerous first-term House Republicans, had plunged into the Sea of
Galilee in various states of undress last summer, prompting a furious
scolding from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
The cavorters were among 30 lawmakers — some of whom brought family
and staffers — on a junket sponsored by an AIPAC-related group. While
the ostensible goal of the trip was to bring these already pro-Israel
House members up to speed on the latest developments in the Middle East,
the boozy rambunctiousness in the Sea of Galilee is hardly the stuff of
a serious fact-finding mission. Politico helpfully provides a list of who dived in fully clothed, partially clothed, and, in one case, totally unclothed.
But let’s be clear: This is a trivial matter, and a report that the
FBI stepped in to investigate only serves to raise unpleasant memories
of Hoover-era snitching and blackmailing. Many of these same freshmen
made a far worse display of callowness in Washington last year, when
they threw the solvency of the nation into doubt by threatening to place
the government in default. Their refusal to raise the debt ceiling, a
move made necessary by the House’s own passage of an unbalanced budget,
proved to be an effective way to show they were opposed to business as
usual, without having to make any hard budgetary or tax decisions. It
was, in every respect, juvenile. It pushed the political system to the
brink, sent alarm bells ringing throughout the economy, and brought
about a so-called “sequester” that will force deep, automatic cuts to
the Defense Department at the end of the year, unless further action is
taken.
Yet many of these representatives actually scored points with their
Tea Party supporters for creating a budgetary tsunami. If those same
supporters are now shocked by their representatives’ late-night dip into
the Sea of Galilee, it’s just deserts. But those supporters should
engage in some soul-searching of their own about what does and doesn’t
constitute a scandal.
--more--"
Related: Congressman’s naked swim in Israel was not the target of FBI probe
