The events of this past week have lent credence to one of my most dearly held beliefs. A double standard in political life is better than no standard at all. The Democrats have — as to their behavior in politics — almost no standards at all. The stuffy Republicans have — as to their behavior in politics — a pretty hard-and-fast set of standards and they stick by them.

When the Hon. Trey Radel, a freshman congressman from southwest Florida, was arrested last October for trying to purchase cocaine from an undercover police officer in Washington’s DuPont Circle neighborhood, I figured his goose was cooked. Surely the Democrats would be against him. After all, he is a Republican. A more serious problem was his fellow Republicans. They would not stand by him. They almost never do stand by a Republican caught in flagrante delicto. Remember if you will the late Richard Milhous Nixon. Contrast his dark fate with the Democrats’ national treasure, Bill Clinton, who committed perjury and obstructed justice. House Republicans found him guilty as charged, but in the Senate both Democrats and Republicans let him off easy, and he has been having a jolly time of it for years while Nixon’s reputation has only darkened.