The general public often views "moral leaders" as the antidote to the amoral, and too often immoral, realm of politics. They make public stands talking about values, rather than pragmatic results, echoing what then-Congressman David Vitter (R-LA) said in 2004. During that pivotal election year, he blasted the left for "redefining [marriage,] the most basic institution in human history..." and said "we need a US Senator who will stand up for Louisiana values, not Massachusetts's values."

But while in an ideal world, moral leaders are genuinely focused on revivifying the moral climate in America, the real world too often gives us moral leaders who are the products of political opportunism and the public's naive hunger for clean-cut politicians.

Trumpeting the causes of family values and delivering moral lectures on the campaign trails, politicians of all stripes have increasingly amassed what is often called "moral capital." This, of course, puts them in a precarious position. If a moral leader's morality is falling in the forest of their personal life and no one is around to hear it, it doesn't make a sound. But if someone is: kaboom!

The scandals surrounding now Senator Vitter (R-LA) and state Rep. Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island and co-chairman of John McCain's Florida presidential campaign) are the latest installments in a series of "do as I say and not as I do" extravaganzas. These have been running rampant among so called moral leaders who have been destroyed by the high standards they advocated and set for themselves.

Vitter, who last week admitted to "participating" in an escort service that was being probed by federal prosecutors as a "prostitution ring," was outed by none other than Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt. The pornographer recently announced that he is behind 20 ongoing federal investigations into "the hypocrisy in high levels of government."

You know the state of moral leadership in the country is in disarray when the king of smut has the moral high ground against a Republican Congressman who was championed by the Religious Freedom Coalition as a "true social conservative."

Of course, this would be alarming only if you believed social conservative leaders ever had the moral high ground. "Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad," reportedly said Henry A. Kissinger — a trenchant observation. When politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, promise, without any credentials, to bring moral guidance to the realm of politics, eyebrows should raise. Vitter and Allen's examples show us shocking contradictions in their public and personal lives, contradictions so damning they should cause us to rethink our faith in the blending of moral preaching and politics.

Vitter, who co-sponsored a 2006 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to protect the sanctity of marriage, released a press statement that read: "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them."

Translation: Keep out of my business.

But in 2004, when Vitter "[stood] up for Louisiana values," he opened the doors of his personal life to voters when it earned him political capital. This is true for Allen as well: the man who police say they arrested for "offering to perform oral sex on a male undercover cop in a Titusville, Fla., public restroom" co-sponsored HB269, the Lewdness and Indecent Exposure Bill, which proposed enhanced penalties for "offenses involving unnatural and lascivious acts or exposure or exhibition of sexual organs committed within specified distance of certain locations."

Hypocrisy fans the stink of a scandal, and it is tempting to unfurl the growing list of louses who have used their moral capital to advance their careers and to advocate for the imposition of their rock-solid morality on public policy. There were preachers like Jimmy Swaggart, who was hanging out in Louisiana motels with prostitutes around the time he called televangelist Jim Bakker a "cancer in the body of Christ" for paying off a secretary who accused Bakker of rape; right-wing talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh who bemoaned that the law was too soft on illegal drug use and blasted cultural icons Jerry Garcia and Kurt Cobain for their moral failings all while "doctor shopping" for pain pills; and Washington legislators like Mark Foley, chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, who tarnished the popularity he earned from his tough stance on sexual offenses by sending homoerotic private messages to congressional pages. Et cetera.

The hypocrisy of so many political leaders gives us the unavoidable impression that politics is no less slimy even when it is enveloped in sermonizing. Former President Bill Clinton, who had a now-legendary fondness for a pudgy white house intern, was not at all coy about broaching the topic of family values in presidential speeches. Neither was Newt Gingrich, who capitalized on the Lewinsky Scandal during the '98 midterm elections even while he was in the midst of his own extramarital affair.

This is not to say that moral or family values are unimportant things to consider when selecting the right candidate. But as the great Bill Maher once said: "Be more cynical!" Let us stop giving more credit to those who pound the rostrum and grow an artificial halo on the campaign trail.

E-mail Jeremy Foster at jcarlosfoster at gmail dot com.