When asked the difference between a calamity and a misfortune, 19th-century British Prime Minister Disraeli responded of his opponent: "Well, if Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune; and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity."
The Rich Sybert affair is a misfortune, only in this case he did not so much fall as leap; but we should not lift him into office--that would be calamitous.
His actions say much of Sybert's fitness for office, but also something about the state of our politics today. When a Harvard-trained lawyer, successful local business executive, former head of the governor's policy planning and research staff and experienced political candidate (two runs for Congress) believes he can get away with dirty tricks and blatant lying, we have to pause and wonder whether part of the problem lies with us.
Is the political environment in the Conejo Valley perceived as so morally (re)lax(ed) and free for all as to invite such behavior?
Regarding Mr. Sybert, three strikes and you ought to be out. Accused of vandalizing an opponent's signs (which one might note are so omnipresent any self-respecting slasher had only to cough to hit one), Sybert affected pure outrage and asked rhetorically, if he was out there, who was that man in bed with his wife at 3 a.m.? Indeed. The next day, video tapes revealed Sybert clawing at the signs the night before, a rat frolicking in full frenzy under the street lights.
Strike one: caught in an illegal act. Strike two: caught lying publicly about it. And now comes strike three. Sybert announces he won't quit and alleges his opponent ripped down signs while working for Sybert two years ago. In short, he claims his opponent is as bad as he is himself! A curious and self-defeating logic.
Even if his opponent had committed the same petty vandalism (and Sybert and his campaign chairman are scarcely disinterested, credible witnesses), two wrongs do not make a right. Moreover, Sybert has inadvertently confessed that he knew of illegalities done on his behalf in his other campaigns. Was he too busy in law school in the 1970s to catch the Watergate Follies, where a minor crime was compounded into a major political scandal through attempts at cover-up? There too, a long-standing pattern of campaign dirty tricks was revealed and, most instructively, a seasoned politician was forced from the highest office in the land.
