Throughout the Clinton years, those of us who were supportive of the Presidents moves to grow our economy, decrease the dependence on welfare without punitively hurting those that tried to work, and safeguard the rights of all Americans constantly heard about how terrible the Clinton agenda was.

A strong majority of Americans approved of those years, but because the GOP lacked substance, their attack dog, Ken Starr, turned his federally funded investigation on the Whitewater land deal into any way he could attack the President or the first lady. What started out as an accusation over wrongdoing with the land deal, turned into an investigation about a blow job.

My Republican friends said it wasn’t about a blow job — it was about lying. In a pained way, they asked me how they could explain to their children that it was bad to lie if the President did it. At that time I accepted their seemingly genuine outrage as legitimate concern. It was only later than it really sunk in that they were just buying into GOP propaganda.

Last month the GOP stronghold of Waukesha County voted overwhelmingly for ne0-Conservative State Assembly Rep Dan Vrakas as their new County Exec. The race seemed to center on whether Vrakas or his opponent, County Board Chairman Jim Dwyer, had better Republican credentials.

Before entering office, Dan Vrakas was busted for use of cocaine and what sounds like general rowdiness and bad bad behavior. Some of my same friends who showed outrage over how they would explain to their children that the President lied, told me they planned to vote for the cocaine user.

This is something I can’t understand. How can those same voters who seemed so genuinely hurt about how they would explain to their children that the President lied, explain to their children that the person they supported for County Exec was a cocaine user?

What they are really saying to their children is that drugs (including cocaine) are ok as long as you don’t lie about taking them.

Is it their parental outrage or their sense of morality that has simply evaporated?