The Pooh-Poohers

...No conservative who understand what conservatism is would argue that human failings aren’t well distributed across the political and ideological landscape. The question is how we as individuals and institutions respond to them. The liberal-Democratic position seems to be that personal sins are never relevant, except for the sin of hypocrisy. So Republicans who stand by a moral standard can be condemned for not living up to it, while liberals who pooh-pooh such standards never can be. As Howard Dean explained not long ago, “Everybody has ethical shortcomings. We ought not to lecture each other about our ethical shortcomings. . . .I will use whatever position I have in order to root out hypocrisy.” What a convenient principle.

- Jonah Goldberg writing in National Review magazine, 10/23/06