To all the ways Americans have traditionally distinguished between the two major parties, usually on policy grounds like taxes and social issues, another is being added: ethics. Republicans tolerate ethical violations and even alleged criminality, Democrats not so much.

This week only produced the latest examples.

First, and unsurprisingly, we got more news from former president and offender Donald Trump. In addition to his mountain of alleged and actual misdeeds involving inciting insurrection, stealing state secrets, running a fraudulent charity and sexually abusing women, a New York judge ruled that Mr. Art of the Deal had for years increased the value of his assets by had blown up billions. dollars dollars to defraud banks, insurers and other companies.

The finding would have been a major scandal for any other politician. For Teflon Don, the runaway frontrunner for the Republicans’ 2024 presidential nomination, it was just another Tuesday. From his party, crickets. Reporters are tired of asking Republicans for their (non)response to his sins, and virtually none of the party’s poo

H-

bahs voluntarily offer any chastisement.

As it happened, reporters were busy this week soliciting and getting response from Democrats on the other big crime news in politics, about the alleged culprit and repeatedly accused in their party: Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

Initially, many Democrats, especially in the Senate, were silent after Friday’s sweeping federal indictment of the three-term senator, complete with photos of stashed cash, gold bars and a luxury convertible. It alleged that Menendez and his wife took all that and more as bribes to help Egypt and three New Jersey businessmen, in part by providing them with inside information that Menendez had thanks to his privileged position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

However, within days, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, most of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, numerous local officials, and about 60% of Menendez’s Democratic Senate colleagues had called on him to resign, including the other New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. (Missing as of Wednesday: California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who herself faced calls to resign over the age restrictions, and Menendez’s member of the Hispanic Caucus, Alex Padilla.) Under Senate Democrats’ rules, Menendez forfeited immediately chair the committee. apparently milked for personal gain.

On Wednesday, the senator pleaded not guilty, underscoring this fact: Menendez is indeed presumed innocent unless convicted. He escaped convictions on a previous federal bribery indictment in 2015 when a jury deadlocked in 2017 and prosecutors declined to retry him.

Still, a criminal conviction, a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, should not be the standard for deciding whether a U.S. senator, let alone a current or former president, is worthy of holding office. A lower standard is essential: does the person deserve the audience?

to trust. to trust?

Not Menendez. His first indictment confirmed his ethical blindness, if not his criminality. This second one provides more damning evidence that again convicts Menendez on ethical, if not legal, grounds.

And that is what the Democrats suggested in their call for his resignation. Booker, who previously was a character witness for Menendez, said the new allegations are such that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans and those he must work with to be effective have been shaken to the core.

They also need to be shaken. Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who has rightly criticized Egypt’s human rights record, went so far as to tell Punchbowl News that the Senate should investigate whether Egypt was waging an illegal influence campaign on the Foreign Relations Committee.

It may seem weak to leave it up to Menendez whether or not to resign. In fact, the House and Senate rarely move to

expelremove

a member, and for good reason: voters at home must choose, except in the most difficult of circumstances. (New Jersey voters chose

Menendez

again in 2018, despite the previous bribery allegations and trial.) That said, the circumstances in which Menendez is involved now favor giving him strong verbal leverage.

And for that, you’d think Republicans would have leveled Democrats, especially considering the senator is up for re-election next year in a blue state, and Democrats’ narrow majority leave control of the Senate for the lying around to pick up.

But no one was talking about the Trumpian party of ethical blinders. The gang is so entrenched in defending the indefensible Trump that it shies away from castigating others for fear of being accused of hypocrisy. The party is so hostile to federal prosecutors, again out of loyalty to Trump, that Republicans would rather bash the Justice Department than skin an indicted Democrat. Most have remained silent.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy quickly called on Menendez to resign, but then appeared to backtrack after it was noted that he continues to support New York Rep. George Santos, the legally troubled serial liar in his caucus. Last year, Republicans in the House of Representatives counted a controversial colleague, Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, until he claimed that some of them enjoyed orgies and cocaine; he subsequently lost re-election. And at the height of the #MeToo movement, Republicans regularly ignored allegations of sexual misconduct against fellow party members from Trump on down. The Democrats, on the other hand, turned around on their own and ousted some, including (in my view wrongly) former Senator Al Franken of Minnesota.

Democrats are not saints, as Menendez illustrates. And

all Republicans are not sinners. Republicans are not all sinners

. But because of the Republicans’ tolerance of the sinner Trump, they are redefining their party platform compared to the Democrats. They are the ones who condone the unethical and even the criminal.

@jackiekcalmes