Hypocrisy in politics drives me crazy! I know… the two words almost go hand in hand these days and I for one think it’s very unfortunate.

So enter now our latest example of it… and it is a blatant example.

Sunday, the Washington Post ran an exclusive story about Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s thesis, written while he was a master’s student at Regents University in Virginia. The document outlines McDonnell’s apparent beliefs about family, government, and moral leadership.

Here are the first few graphs of the article:

        At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell
        submitted a master’s thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women
        and feminists as “detrimental” to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over “cohabitators,
        homosexuals or fornicators.” He described as “illogical” a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by
        unmarried couples.

      The 93-page document, which is publicly available at the Regent University library, culminates with a 15-point action plan that
      McDonnell said the Republican Party should follow to protect American families—a vision that he started to put into action soon
      after he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

      During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell pursued at least 10 of the policy goals he laid out in that research paper,
      including abortion restrictions, covenant marriage, school vouchers and tax policies to favor his view of the traditional family. In 2001,
      he voted against a resolution in support of ending wage discrimination between men and women.

Reasonable people can argue whether this thesis is relevant to the campaign. And, I can easily respect both sides of those arguments.

What I have trouble respecting is hypocrisy. And here’s where that comes in.

The Republican Party of Virginia issued a news release today questioning the legitimacy of this story. Tim Murtaugh, the spokesperson for the party, wrote in part, “Trailing badly in every public opinion poll, Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds has once again broken his promise to avoid injecting divisive social issues into the campaign by exploiting an academic paper written decades ago. Deeds has made the centerpiece of his campaign a master’s thesis written by Republican Bob McDonnell before the fall of the Berlin Wall and before many of the people who will vote in this election were even born.”

In a second email today, Murtaugh questioned why this story was getting play when, as he asserted, the writing of Democrats has gotten a “pass.” He wrote, “A recent review of political history shows that in many cases, Democratic writings were excused and minimized as a distraction and not worthy of attention during the course of campaigns.”

Murtaugh points to the writings of two well known politicians: Jim Webb and Barack Obama.

A Politico.com article last year, outlined some of the political pitfalls of Obama’s 1995 memoir which explored his upbringing as a mixed race teenager, his past drug use, and some of his thoughts on race. In the book, some of his racial views were colored by the sermons of the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Webb’s was an article written in 1979 titled “Women Can’t Fight.” In it, Webb made the case for excluding women from the battlefield.

Murtaugh’s memory of the Webb/Allen campaign seems a little off. First, Webb’s article got significant attention at one point in the campaign. Tim Russert questioned him about it during a Meet the Press debate between Webb and Sen. George Allen. Afterward, I peppered Webb with repeated questions about the article.

Republicans pushed the Webb article in off the record conversations and in news releases. It was relevant to them.

In the other, Obama’s book was thoroughly explored by the media as were the sermons of Rev. Wright. Plenty of Republicans also pushed the sermons of Rev. Wright. It consumed talk radio for weeks. Cable news devoted hours of time to Rev. Wright and his sermons.

Of course at the time, Democrats called both irrelevant. They said Webb had matured and that Rev. Wright wasn’t the candidate, Obama was.

Now, the shoe is on the other foot. It’s the Republicans who are crying that McDonnell’s thesis in immaterial and that this race is about jobs, the economy, our transportation crisis and education.

And the Democrats are pushing this story at every turn. They found Jim Webb’s article and Barack Obama’s book side shows, distracting from the real issues. But, Bob McDonnell’s thesis is of the utmost importance. They have sent out countless news releases and already had one reporter conference call.

It’s hypocrisy at its height, and it’s coming from both sides.

Are past writings by candidates relevant? I personally believe they are… NO MATTER the candidate’s political party. I think the writings should be thoroughly and fairly covered. They help form the overall picture of the candidate, along with his/her voting record, stances on the issues, and overall leadership skills. All of that will give the voters the most information possible so they can make a smart, well-informed decision in the voting booth.

One footnote, prior writings haven’t had a big impact on the outcome of elections. You’ll note that both Barack Obama and Jim Webb won their races.