OPINION:
The innocent citizen has long speculated about what it takes for a politician to get fired from politics. Where is the line?
Molesting a young intern in the Oval Office, apparently, is not over the line. Not if you are a Democrat, at least. Nor is lying your way into a war, general thievery or incompetence.
It was with amusement and some confusion that the innocent citizenry watched a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives kick out of Congress one of their own — former Rep. George Santos of New York — last year for lying about his resume and misusing campaign funds. Specifically, Mr. Santos got caught using his supporters’ credit cards to rack up large amounts of debt.
Shocked! Shocked, I say, to find lying and stealing and debt-racking going on in this establishment!
And here we innocent citizens thought these were requirements to be in Congress. You embellish your record, make a bunch of false promises, spend other people’s money to advance your own career — all so you can get into Congress and pile up more than $30 trillion in debt that the children and grandchildren of today’s innocent citizens will be paying for the rest of their lives.
Mr. Santos is, after all, only one of three members of the current Congress who have been under federal indictment for bribery, stealing or whatever. His real sin, however, was that he was a Republican. The other two — Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas — are both Democrats and happily remain in Congress today.
The adage held that a politician could survive any scandal — so long as it did not include getting caught in bed with a dead woman or a live boy. These days, politicians appear to be doing all they can to test those limits.
Perhaps the mysterious line that ends a political career involves writing a book about how you took your family’s 18-month-old hunting dog down to a gravel pit on the ranch and shot it to death after the dog kills a bunch of chickens.
But none of these episodes can compare to the recent decision by President Biden to abandon his administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes that — according to his own administration — are killing so many African American men in our country today.
Of course, Mr. Biden wants you to know that he loves Black men. He just doesn’t love them as much as he loves his own political career.
It has been two years since his Food and Drug Administration determined conclusively that the minty flavor of menthol cigarettes should be banned. According to Mr. Biden’s own nanny government, menthol cigarettes lure new, young smokers in and are particularly addictive — especially to African American smokers.
According to Mr. Biden’s government, menthol cigarettes are smoked by 83% of Black smokers, while only 30% of White smokers choose menthols.
And, it turns out, smokers who enjoy menthol cigarettes don’t want them banned, no matter how much the Biden administration says they are killing smokers.
This being an election year and all, Mr. Biden quickly made the decision to scrap his administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes so as not to upset African American voters. In other words, Mr. Biden is willing to let his voters die of lung cancer in the name of getting himself reelected.
“This decision prioritizes politics over lives, especially Black lives,” Yolonda Richardson of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said in a statement.
Astonishingly, modern “civil rights advocates” from Al Sharpton to the American Civil Liberties Union support Mr. Biden’s decision to let African American voters die of cancer in the name of Mr. Biden’s reelection.
“It is especially disturbing to see the administration parrot the false claims of the tobacco industry about support from the civil rights community,” Ms. Richardson added.
The ACLU should rename itself the American Cancer Liberties Union for whoring itself out to support Mr. Biden.
So, smoke ’em if you got ’em. And if you contract cancer, be sure to vote early in case you die before Election Day.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.