Many people rushed to judgment when the photo of Olympic champion Michael Phelps inhaling marijuana made the rounds in early February. He must pay, cried the masses. Take away his endorsements. We hope he goes broke.
Upon further consideration, most intelligent folk realize they deeply admire the work ethic and commitment to excellence demonstrated by young Phelps in recent years, and that a lapse in judgment at a private party is just that, a lapse. He remains the greatest swimmer of all time, if not history’s greatest Olympic champion. I for one would not discourage my child from emulating Michael Phelps’ approach to competing. He has been blessed and he has not wasted his physical gifts. How many kids with athletic ability never fulfill their potentials?
This was not a steroids rap on Phelps, after all. Let it go. There are serious ethical and legal breeches happening in a much more consequential arena.
With all eyes currently on our elected leaders in Washington, I think the time has come to apply the Phelps Test to their actions and inaction. If a public servant long ago smoked pot as a teenager or college student (or was nailed for DUI, or disorderly conduct, or unpaid parking tickets, or the like) and today is seriously, legitimately carrying out the duties of a Congressman or Governor or City Councilman, representing his constituents to the best of his ability and adhering to the Constitution, then he passes the Phelps Test. (Many voters overlook drug abuse in elections. Barack Hussein Obama’s well documented use of illegal drugs was scarcely a blip on the election landscape).
We ought to care less about what our lawmakers and political leaders smoked in another life. We ought to care deeply when they act as if they are smoking something mind altering in the here and now.
Such as? Sens. Charles Schumer, Patrick Leahy and Harry Reid. Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Rep. and Finance Chair Barney Frank. And, of course, the Inhaler in Chief, B. Hussein Obama. Clearly, these individuals do not pass the Phelps Test. Ask the central questions: Do they make you feel proud to be an American? Do they elevate America’s stature in the world? No and hell no.
They do not push themselves to honor their countrymen. They do not strain to “touch the wall” to proudly represent America. They barely keep their heads above the deepening economic and ethical waters in which they now furiously tread, and into which they seek to cast each of us. They are our Constitutional lifeguards, but they can’t swim.
If Schumer and Frank want to go out and enjoy a few cocktails at Billy Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown, and stagger up and down M Street with a couple of party girls on their arms (or party boys, in Frank’s case), I would not deny them those few hours of frivolity if … the if is the deal breaker, of course … if, they’d heeded the warnings during the Bush Years and stemmed the home mortgage tide through proper oversight and regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the governmental lending institutions.
They did not. Instead they cheered from the sidelines like pot addled college kids as millions of Americans and, in some cases, illegal immigrants were signing lethal no-doc mortgage agreements. They essentially doomed the economy.
Sen. Leahy meanwhile is threatening hearings to discredit and humiliate President Bush and members of his cabinet, to get to the “truth” behind the intelligence reports that prompted Bush to send troops into Iraq. Though Iraq today is a stable, fledgling democracy populated by hopeful people, Leahy wants to scandalize the gallant effort of the U.S. military and dishonor those who gave their lives in defense of freedom and democracy.
Clearly, Leahy already flunks the Phelps Test.
Reid and Pelosi, who would forsake a genuine strategy to stimulate the U.S. economy in favor of a pork-laden $800 billion spending bill unprecedented in scope and waste? They are Phelps Test rejects, too.
We only wish young Tim Geithner had merely forgotten that marijuana possession is illegal when he was coming up through the ranks of the world of high finance. But he committed a far more sinister act. He “forgot” to pay taxes on income paid in U.S. dollars earned while he worked abroad. You won’t find a salacious photo of Geithner not paying taxes floating around the Internet, but it’s fairly certain that some sort of impairment was involved among those who vetted his record and declared Geithner fit to be Secretary of the United States Treasury. A bong was bubbling somewhere.
Who was on that vetting panel, Cheech and Chong? Willie Nelson? Snoop Dogg?
The bottom line is this: Let’s not rush to ruin an individual’s life until such time as it becomes obvious that individual is determined to ruin ours. A lapse in judgment and a lack of judgment are different things entirely.
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