Clinton’s Adultery

Once again, Robert Scheer has reminded us of the high levels of silliness which he can reach in defending President Clinton. What can one say when he says that 1999 has taught us that “adultery is as American as apple pie” (Commentary, Dec. 28) and, accordingly, that all those unreconstructed right-wingers should not bother Clinton.

Gone unremarked, at least by Scheer, is that armed robbery, lying, smoking and gun ownership also are as all-American as adultery and apple pie. But Scheer has not gotten around to similarly pooh-poohing laws punishing armed robbery, motherly admonitions about lying and the social opprobrium and more formal sanctions against smoking and gun ownership, not to mention imaginative lawsuits meant to drive tobacco companies and gun manufacturers out of business.

Congress, state legislatures, organized religions, mothers and yes, even Scheer, recognize that there must be prohibitions against conduct that tends to degrade a civil society. And they all know that it would be fatuous to prohibit only conduct which no one is interested in engaging in. Adultery may be common, but that does not make it acceptable.

R. CARLTON SEAVER

Arcadia

* Is Scheer the only journalist who has the guts to report the hypocrisy of Newt Gingrich? Where are conservative columnists and that band of moral Republican congressmen condemning Gingrich for his lack of family values and moral character? After all, these people have an obligation to their values and standards to be just as critical or be judged as hypocrites themselves.

JOE MARTINEZ

Carson