The continued hypocrisy of the left

Bad-Mouthing the President (directly from Best of the Web)
USA Today is trying to start a kerfuffle by accusing President Bush of being too affectionate toward some of his cabinet appointees:

Bush has bussed two women in public in the past two days. First, Condoleezza Rice, whom he kissed on the cheek twice when he nominated her for secretary of State on Tuesday. He went even further with Margaret Spellings, whom he smacked on the lips when he nominated her as secretary of Education on Wednesday. . . .

Risky business, says Amy Oppenheimer, a California business consultant on workplace harassment issues. Powerful men kissing their subordinates in public can be misconstrued by the kissee or people watching the kiss.

And there's the whole male-female thing, too: Bush didn't kiss his close pal Alberto Gonzales when he nominated him for attorney general last week.

"Kissing is social behavior, not professional behavior, and people have different boundaries about it," says Oppenheimer. "The only person who would know if (a woman is) uncomfortable with it is her--and why would she say anything if she weren't?"

We wondered if Oppenheimer had anything to say about Bill Clinton's behavior toward his female subordinates, and we weren't disappointed. In 1998, when Judge Susan Wright dismissed Paula Jones's sexual-harassment lawsuit, she was quoted in the Houston Chronicle:

Attorney Amy Oppenheimer, an expert on sexual harassment lawsuits, said no one should be shocked by Wright's decision. "It's not surprising that the court would find a one-time incident that was obnoxious and inappropriate wasn't enough to deprive her of her constitutional rights even if it could be proven," Oppenheimer said.

Of course, Clinton didn't actually kiss Jones; he just (allegedly) ordered her to "kiss it." On the other hand, when Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of groping her and the White House tried to discredit her by releasing friendly letters she'd subsequently written to him, Oppenheimer seemed to side with Willey in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:

"On the one hand, she wants to make it clear that she finds the behavior unacceptable," said Amy Oppenheimer, an attorney in Berkeley, Calif., who trains employers and employees and testifies as an expert in sexual harassment cases. "But on the other hand, she needs to make it clear that she's not going to betray him, she's not going to cut off the relationship, and she still wants the advantages of knowing him.

"I think that's a really understandable reaction."