Private Conduct Matters
Commentary by Phil Valentine  / September 4, 1998

Long before there was ever a 'Don't Ask. Don't tell.' policy for gays in the military homosexuality was banned in the service. Why? It's probably not what you think. Instead of the military being filled with a bunch of homophobes the policy was in place for a particularly good reason: blackmail. It was feared that a serviceman with sensitive top-secret information could be compromised if his secret sexual preferences were used against him.

The same logic can be used to justify why we as citizens have a right to know if our elected officials are having affairs. There's been much speculation in recent days that Speaker Newt is turning soft on Clinton over fears of his own personal conduct being made public by Sidney Blumenthal and the team at 'Smear Central' in the White House. Dirty politics? Perhaps. But if Speaker Newt has nothing to hide then he has nothing to fear. If he does and his actions are the result of fear then he's lost his capacity to lead effectively. The same goes for Dan Burton and Ted Kennedy and, yes, Bill Clinton.

We have a right to know if our elected officials are doing anything which may compromise their job. The plea that we don't have any business looking into their private lives rings hollow when we learn, as is strongly suspected in the case of John Kennedy, that decisions were made by him based on blackmail by a defense contractor.

If you still don't believe it matters what a politician does in his or her private life consider this. What would've happened if Linda Tripp, instead of taking her tapes to Ken Starr, had taken them to the Chinese embassy?