Do you want to run for an office that will be heavily contested in the general election? Begin considering your decision with the Bible.
Really. Specifically, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8, verse 17: “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.” (The New King James Version.)
Roman Catholics have long been urged to reflect often on “the four last things”: death, judgment, heaven and hell. The “judgment” comes along with the consideration of a mans or womans entire life. The fundamental premise about the nature of God is that God knows all things â that he is omniscient (as well as omnipresent and omnipotent).
That has not always been the case with political media. Sometimes the national and even local press were complicit in hiding facts known to some but not widely shared. President John F. Kennedys escapades were well known to many in the Beltways elite media and perhaps in Massachusetts, but those who knew and liked or even loved him were not about to tell. That is perhaps the most famous example of media complicity in burying scandals, but its a bipartisan tradition to not launder some dirty garments in public.
That era is over. President Obama is said to have believed “if you can win, you should” as an explanation for playing hardball in politics. Lots of Republicans live by the same rule. Politics is far, far from actual war or even life-and-death struggles, but as Finley Peter Dunnes famed creation Mr. Dooley put it, “politics aint beanbag” either. Its a rough-and-tumble game, and lots of lives get upended, if not even more seriously wrecked, when national attention turns to the backstory of every candidate on whom the searchlights turn.
Now more than ever, every candidate must be warned again and again that Luke 8:17 is very much true and indeed inevitable for every candidate in every race in which any opponent has the means to dig deep. As the number of media platforms has grown and grown, so too has the number of reporters eager for a “scoop” or anything close to one.
NEW YORK TIMES UNDER SCRUTINY OVER GRAHAM PLATNER COVERAGE AS ACCUSERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST PAPER
Producing the soiled linen on any candidate â “R” or “D” â produces clicks and thus heightens the profile of the journalist with the byline. No rumor is too outrageous to check out. And every old girlfriend or boyfriend, business competitor or colleague, and even family member with a score to settle views campaigns as an opportunity not to be missed.
Which is why every would-be candidate ought to subject himself or herself first to self-scrutiny and then to a gauntlet of “friendly” professionals who specialize in digging up “opposition research.”
If an unflattering story exists, it can be found, and it will be found. And it will be on every front page.
PLATNERS THREE-DAY VETTING JOB COMES BACK TO HAUNT DEMS AS RAPE ALLEGATION ROCKS SENATE BID
Which brings us to the people who recruited Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner. Platner dropped out of the race for Senate in Maine on Wednesday night. Platner owns his own life story. Whatever he did and didnt do cannot be undone or made up for. Its just the facts of every life, and no life is going to emerge unscathed from searching â and often searing â reviews.Â
This is what candidates have to fully grasp. It will all come out. Every bit of the bad and not much of the good. Forewarned is forearme
