“Republicans are always held to a higher standard by their own voters,” asserts Bob Novak in his latest insider newsletter, adding that GOP voters “tend to place special value on family issues.”

In making the claim whilst comparing wickdippin’ Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) to the “embattled” Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat, Novak doesn’t explain how such high Republican voter standards could’ve let Vitter into office in the first place. After all, as Novak himself writes, “this is not the first time Vitter’s morals have been called into question,” including during his run for the Senate. “His enemies brought up old accusations that he had had a year-long affair with a prostitute in the French Quarter of New Orleans,” says Novak, adding that “tales about Vitter’s behavior abound in Louisiana.”

This so-called “higher standard” Novak associates with GOP voters also seemed to have been waived while Republicans kept lowlifes like Newt Gingrich, Dan Burton, Tom DeLay, Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Tom Feeney, etc. in positions of power.

“Democrats will have lots of fun with this,” Novak cynically declares. “They may not be able to win the governor’s race, but they could make it more competitive by using Vitter to embarrass Jindal.” Not sure I understand this; from what I’ve heard, Bobby Jindal is a good man and a worthy candidate to govern Louisiana. Why would Democrats engage in such sordid political shenanigans? Oh, I forgot; this is Louisiana we’re talking about.

Novak also humorously reveals his own ridiculously low standards by asserting, quite soberly, that Sen. Vitter “cannot step down right now even if he wants to, because he would be replaced by a Democrat.” Egad. Better to leave an ineffective serial adulterer in office than have a Democrat replace him!

And speaking of ineffective, the biggest waste of space in Congress, Rep. Patrick McHenry, for the second week in a row gets a consoling shoulder to cry on from Novak. McHenry, who somehow keeps getting re-elected even though he’s constantly making a fool of himself, hilariously lost an earmark vote in the House recently after having ripped Democrats for their own earmark bills. “Democrats punished McHenry with a vindictive chuckle,” sympathizes Novak. Curiously, he notes that “searches of Lexis-Nexis and Google News suggest that no one — and we mean absolutely no one — has picked up on the story of [McHenry] and the embarrassing fight he lost to keep an earmark in his district.” Hm, maybe Bob oughta check out that fancy new gadget called the blogosphere, where the story was duly noted last week.

xpost: JAZZ from HELL