The Vapidity of Kathleen Parker

Washington Post editorial columnist and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Kathleen Parker--who I like to refer to as "our side's Maureen Dowd" (not a positive appellation), has written a column about the carnival that is South Carolina politics. First we had Governor Sanford's AWOL affair in South America and rambling apology, and now we have Republican favorite to replace him Nikki Haley being accused by not one, but two men of infidelity--with them.

Putting aside for a moment the considerable indiscretion of these males (I shall not grace them with the term "men") and the continuing ridiculosity of South Carolina politics--we have the unbelievable vapidity of Kathleen Parker (a resident of Charleston) who wins awards for sounding like the ditz you sat next to in homeroom. A sample:

" I've known Folks (one of the miscreants) , a take-no-prisoners political blogger, for years and take him at his word when he says that a story was about to break about his alleged relationship. Recently married and a new father, he says he was attempting damage control when he broke the story himself. I don't condone or agree with his decision, but he's no Marchant, whose earnest confession reeks of the self-service to which he has now consigned himself."

And then there's this:

"I also know Haley and take her at her word when she denies the allegations. But let's get at the deeper truth and ask: Is this really where we want our politics to go? Are only perfect people acceptable for public service? As Bill Bennett once put it to me: "If perfection is our standard, then no one gets to talk."

So let's see here--she takes at his word a man who claims to have had an "inappropriate physical relationship" with a married woman, and then takes at her word the woman who denies the allegations? How can this be? How can anyone be so vacuous? Are there no editors at the WaPost with the guts to call her on this stuff?