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The Fox talkers were out trying to spin past the gruesome wreckage of Mark Sanford's political career yesterday, partly by claiming that Republicans always give the boot to such cases of gross immorality, while Democrats are so lascivious that they naturally tolerate such behavior within their own ranks.

First there was Faux Liberal Mort Kondracke on Brett Baier's afternoon show:

Kondracke: But look. You know, multiple affairs did not stop Bill Clinton from being elected president. But that's because the Democratic Party is a lot more tolerant of licentiousness than the Republican Party is. And that's the rub for poor old Mark Sanford here.

Then Ann Coulter attempted more or less the same claim later that day on Sean Hannity's show:

Coulter: But he's a Republican, so he will be gone. Unlike John Edwards, with all of his staff knowing that he --

Hannity: He may not be governor by the end of a couple of weeks.

Coulter: That's right. And even if he is, Republicans vote these guys out, generally.

Oddly enough, Coulter kept bringing up John Edwards, whose political career is pretty much toast -- so it's not a point that actually supported her claim. Moreover, she and Kondracke are glossing over the long history of other Democrats' careers being derailed by sexual hijinks: Gary Hart, Eliot Spitzer, Brock Adams, Jim McGreevy are just a few of the names that come to mind.

Meanwhile, it's not hard to come up with Republicans whose infidelities have been glossed over and "forgiven" (by the pundit class at least). Some of them are major figures in the party even today. To wit:

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(Yes, it's worse than what they're telling you, but I can't tell you how bad.")

"Senator Hart, you say there is a risk of a catastrophic accident at the nuclear plant, and you say it is difficult to quantify it. I'll respect that difficultly, but let me ask you this - do you think that the risk is sufficient so that Pennsylvania should be considering immediate or phased future evacuation of part of the area? Hart: yes I do."

Face The Nation - April 1, 1978. Senator Gary Hart (yes, the 1988 Presidential candidate) was Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee on Nuclear Regulation at the time and faced a panel of questioners (Robert Shakne of CBS News, David Burnham of The New York Times and moderator George Herman) who pretty much echoed the prevailing fear of the day. It was clear from the tone of the questions that there was a ton of miscommunication going on between Metropolitan Edison and the NRC and there was enough blame to go around. But the reporters did a pretty good job of hammering away, even if they didn't get anything concrete. That would all have to wait for the hearings.