Hewitt defends Vitter against charges of hypocrisy:
HH: Well, but it’s…to me, it’s one of the most interesting questions, because hypocrisy is bandied about, and sometimes does not mean what people think it means.
JT: Well, I mean, when one says…and in some ways, it’s like the definition of irony. But you know, when your behavior does not match your preaching, I would say, not just your personal views, but your preaching, when one, for instance, hypocrisy would be a liberal, anti-global warming activist who jets around in Leer jets, which consumes as much energy in one flight as a Hummer does in a year. That’s hypocrisy. Your private deeds are not matching your public words. And I think hypocrisy is mainly, in my view, you know, we don’t go chasing down private citizens who are hypocrites, and we all are in our own ways, because none of us measure up to how the people we want to be, but for public citizens. And I think David Vitter, you know, was, you know, fairly, unequivocally, somebody who was a social conservative, and in that way, did judge people’s private lives. He had made remarks during Clinton impeachment about how Bob Livingston stepping down should give President Clinton an example of what he should do. And Bob Livingston, of course, had not committed perjury. He had just, I guess he stepped down, or felt forced, compelled to step down, because of hypocrisy, right? I mean, so, I think there were comments made by Vitter that did not square with his private life.
HH: You see, the textbook, the definition in the dictionary is pretending to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel. And I think that’s a much more specific thing. You’d have to show me that Vitter had been on the record as saying I have never sinned before I would say that was hypocritical during his period of sin. I just don’t know…
JT: Well, what about all the statements he made about how important marriage was, and that the foundation of civilization is marriage, and family…
HH: Well now, stop right there. How in the world does cheating on your wife not…undermine the idea that marriage is…it means that you might in fact have erred against the standard. You see, Christians have a very different view of this stuff. Sin is kind of a given. Everyone’s standard is going to be broken. People understand that. It doesn’t in any way diminish his belief in the truth of the statement that marriage is the bedrock of society, that he has sinned against his marriage. I mean, that’s a subtle point, but I don’t think it’s particularly subtle for Christians. It happens all the time. In fact, it’s sort of built in. It’s the given of Christian theology, is that every single person sins in numerous ways.
JT: But he was active in the, he was a leader in the House and the Senate, in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.
HH: Sure, I would hope he would be.
“Everyone’s standard is going to be broken. People understand that.” I think the Republicans have a slogan for ’08.
{ 30 comments }
Matt 07.16.07 at 3:52 pm
A moment of honesty. Hewitt must be desperate– the old arguments aren’t working, the new arguments are inappropriate in some hard-to-understand way. As Duckman once said “…there’s a trick there, I used to know it.”
Steve LaBonne 07.16.07 at 3:59 pm
Hewitt’s “arguments” have never been anything but desperate. This is just his normal mode. It works fine for his brain-damaged audience.
Patrick 07.16.07 at 4:14 pm
There’s a long standing (mostly unspoke) view in christian conservative thought that says that its better to believe in a rule of morality and fail to follow it, then to not believe in that same rule at all. Its got a lot to do with christian conceptions of right and wrong as issues of sin, and carries with it the implied belief that someone who believes in a rule but doesn’t comply with it is feeling appropriately guilty for his sinful behavior.
Bloix 07.16.07 at 4:22 pm
Isn’t this just IOKIYAR? Look at the example of true hypocrisy.
The Washington Post published a letter to the editor the other day calling Stonyfield Farm owner and environmental activist Gary Hirshberg a hypocrite because he built himself a new house made of wood. Apparently if you care about the environment you’re a hypocrite unless you live in a tent and wear sandals made of recycled tires (in which case you’re a kook and can be safely ignored). But you can fuck anything that moves and not be a hypocrite as long as you sincerely believe in Christian marriage.
Bill Gardner 07.16.07 at 4:33 pm
I happened to listen to the podcast of this (Sullivan links to it). One surprising thing is how undaunted Hewitt is. He has very weak arguments, but blows Tapper off the court. Why he spends his time on radio instead of making a fortune litigating is beyond me.
"Q" the Enchanter 07.16.07 at 4:42 pm
“sometimes does not mean what people think it means”
Did Hewitt ever specify what he thinks it means? Did he give an example of what he thinks would be an authentic case of hypocrisy?
BG 07.16.07 at 5:35 pm
Alas, I think Hewitt has a point. From Hazlitt’s essay, “On Cant and Hypocrisy”:
It’s probably most accurate to say that Vitter is guilty of cant, not hypocrisy.
Steve LaBonne 07.16.07 at 5:40 pm
Somehow I don’t think Hewitt will want to use THAT argument, though…
Martin Bento 07.16.07 at 6:21 pm
This is a useful standard for them, so long as one’s morality concerns primarily personal transgressions. How does Vitter really feel? How does Rudy about the deathbed divorce? Who knows, so you can postulate what you like. Keeping morality focused on those issues, and saving “repentance” as a get out of jail free card conveniently leaves Christians free to be oh so imperfect and yet forgiven.
Are the Republicans hypocrites for filibustering everything the Dems try to do when just two years ago filibustering was the death of democracy? As this case is not sexual or violent, the uncontrollable urges ploy is harder to pull off, at least without making the Repubs seem even nuttier. Hence, the advantage to focusing morality on the war of man with his primal urges. Of course, the Repubs *are* in the service of a primal urge – for dominance – but that’s not a momentary failing. It rather leaves one out of the inheriting the Earth business.
mpowell 07.16.07 at 7:37 pm
This is a joke. Vitter didn’t just happen to be seduced by a beautiful and attractive woman he encountered in the course of trying to lead a virtuous life. He hired prostitutes regularly. There is a difference. And you would expect a man who had so fully failed in his marital duties to recognize this in his political speech and actions. The fact that he did not, contra to Hewitt and bg’s claims, is why he is a hypocrit as well as scum.
HH is dead wrong on Christian theology, anyhow. Sure, everyone sins. But if the pastor is hiring prostitutes, he is way out of bounds and needs to step down from his position. It is one thing to be a sinful Christian. It is quite another to purport to be a leader in that community while sinning so aggressively. But that’s what things have come to these days. As someone else somewhere else put it so well: Christianity is just identify politics for white people.
Russell Arben Fox 07.16.07 at 8:36 pm
Why he spends his time on radio instead of making a fortune litigating is beyond me.
That would require some actual work on his part.
Nash 07.16.07 at 8:52 pm
I was also struck by the strangeness of this comment:
Why he spends his time on radio instead of making a fortune litigating is beyond me.
Not only would Hewitt be forced to work, as russel says, but also he would be placed in the uncomfortable position of having to make arguments that could not be easily shown for the nonsense they would undoubtedly be.
Sebastian Holsclaw 07.16.07 at 10:38 pm
“he would be placed in the uncomfortable position of having to make arguments that could not be easily shown for the nonsense they would undoubtedly be.”
I suspect you have a higher view of litigation arguments than is warranted in many cases.
engels 07.17.07 at 1:40 am
Well, the OED gives the following example of an early use of the word “hypocrisy” (which it defines as “The assuming of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, with dissimulation of real character or inclinations, esp. in respect of religious life or beliefs…”):
David 07.17.07 at 2:26 am
I don’t see why Hewitt should stop where he did. Why not go on to claim that not only was Vitter not hypocritical, he was in fact exemplary and worthy of note as someone who made manifest the weakness of the flesh and power of repentance, even in the face of chance discovery. Vitter is a role model for all those for whom the spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak.
engels 07.17.07 at 2:33 am
Matthew 23
1Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
3All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
4For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
[…]
25Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Bill Gardner 07.17.07 at 3:03 am
Russell sez: That would require some actual work on his part.
Dunno. Gotta think that cunning and hustle count for something in both radio and the law. They have their use in science.
Nabakov 07.17.07 at 8:09 am
I trust he’s prepared to defend Gore’s carbon-rich lifestyle along the same lines against cries of hypocrisy.
““Everyone’s standard is going to be broken. People understand that.â€
Now where I have heard that sentiment and how it supports Hughie’s underlying argument expressed before? Oh, that’s right:
“…And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate’s code to apply and you’re not. And thirdly, the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner.”
I think the Republicans have a slogan for ‘08.”
Yup, but perhaps a bit long for a bumper sticker or ad logline. Perhaps:
“Your Standards. Our Guidelines. (insert name here) ’08”
abb1 07.17.07 at 9:48 am
Clearly if you’re a Christian, only scribes and Pharisees can be hypocrites. Vitter is apparently neither, but Hewitt certainly qualifies.
Aphoristic Style 07.17.07 at 4:34 pm
Hypocrisy is the vice of the virtuous.
Karl 07.17.07 at 4:59 pm
The Christian path is to be authentic, i.e. strive to be inwardly what you proclaim outwardly. Acknowledging sin (falling short) is a necessary first step in this process of continual self improvement. But one must also repent, i.e. change one’s behavior. To continue sinning while proclaiming the higher standard and feeling inwardly guilty about it (I’m giving Vitter the benefit of the doubt here) is clearly hypocrisy. Hypocrisy among the powerful is precisely what pissed off Jesus about the Pharisees. If you find Jesus deeply angry in the New Testament, chances are it’s about an aspect of hypocrisy by the powerful who use the Law and their social/priestly position to judge or exploit others. Another important aspect of acknoledging sin is, having discerned it in oneself, to be compassionate towards other sinners. Vitter is through, politically, because his base wants righteous judgement, not compassion, and Vitter can no longer deliver that with a straight face.
Aaaargh 07.17.07 at 5:26 pm
It’s easy really. According to Hewitt, only liberals can be hypocrites. Why, Republican Christians are Washed in teh Blood of teh Lamb. They have only to have faith, so Paul says, and they are in heaven, God’s Chosen Few™
JAG 07.17.07 at 5:28 pm
Hewitt’s argument again points out the total hypocrisy of Christianity and Christians if not religion in general as the Muslims do a good job of it too. They espouse all of these issues of “sin” then turn around and in the same breath say, “It’s a given, we sin” to excuse their violations. Yet they are all to condemning of Gays for being “sinners” to the point of killing as just happened when some Russian Immigrant Evangelical Christians killed a young Hindi man here in Sacramento for being presumably Gay and Hindi (racial AND anti-gay slurrs were yelled by the Russians. So, Christian hypocrisy is glossed over permitting even MURDER. Vitter’s indiscression is not an issue for me, sex is nice. But his hypocrisy in voting for the Marriage Protection amendment, his “family values ” crap is awash. The Catholic pedophilia issue is another fine example of Christian hypocrisy.
As far as I am concerned, Christians and other religions can just shut up, take their hate and hypocrisy back into their churches and close the doors behind them. All denominations are equal opportunity discriminators and hypocrites.
Koshchei 07.17.07 at 5:49 pm
It’s probably most accurate to say that Vitter is guilty of cant, not hypocrisy.
Posted by BG · July 16th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
From what I’ve heard, he cant unless he is wearing a diaper.
helenahandbasket 07.17.07 at 6:13 pm
Par for the course for “Hugh Blew-it”.
Allen 07.17.07 at 7:31 pm
Please be fair! Sometime what Hewett says is not what he means. What he’s really saying that Vitter is a slimeball hypocrite who should now go hide under a rock with shame.
Walrus Gumboot 07.17.07 at 8:35 pm
GOP = Family Values? NOT!!
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770711023
TITUSVILLE — Florida Rep. Robert “Bob” Allen, R-Merritt Island, was arrested this afternoon at Veteran’s Memorial Park on East Broad Street for solicitation for prostitution.
He is currently being booked into Brevard County Jail in Sharpes. The charge is a second-degree misdemeanor, according to police.
According to police, the park was under surveillance today by a detail of undercover Titusville Police officers. Officers noticed Allen acting suspicious as he went in and out of the men’s restroom three times. Minutes later, he solicited an undercover male officer inside the restroom, offering to perform oral sex for $20.
Walrus Gumboot 07.17.07 at 8:51 pm
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770711023
TITUSVILLE — Florida Rep. Robert “Bob” Allen, R-Merritt Island, was arrested this afternoon at Veteran’s Memorial Park on East Broad Street for solicitation for prostitution.
He is currently being booked into Brevard County Jail in Sharpes. The charge is a second-degree misdemeanor, according to police.
According to police, the park was under surveillance today by a detail of undercover Titusville Police officers. Officers noticed Allen acting suspicious as he went in and out of the men’s restroom three times. Minutes later, he solicited an undercover male officer inside the restroom, offering to perform oral sex for $20.
Martin Bento 07.17.07 at 11:18 pm
Walrus, various versions of that story were hashed out at talkingpointsmemo. It seems the straight scoop is that he offered to *pay* $20 to administer a blow job. Makes more sense than the reverse, since money was clearly not a motivator.
abraham 07.18.07 at 1:03 am
Hugh Hewitt is an idiot who interviews other idiots, so why should anything he or any one of his guests says be interesting?
WHO CARES.
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