• 1972: Republicans send burglars to break into Dem Headquarters in Watergate for uncertain reasons, perhaps attempt to steal documents. Burglars arrested, sent to prison. Pres Nixon forced to resign because of coverup, never proved to know about it in advance. Scandal still talked about 50 years later.
• 2022: Rep Nehls (R,TX) accuses Capitol Police of surreptitiously entering his office, photographing white board, sending agents to interrogate his staff about what congressman is doing. Capitol Police under control of Speaker Pelosi (D,CA). No media coverage, no scandal, so nothing to talk about even for a day, much less 50 years.
Under any objective standard, it is far worse to use federal police to spy on political opponents than to send criminals to do so. The latter is just a crime, the former is a dangerous prelude to fascism.
It is a cliché to say that if Democrats didn’t have double standards, they would have no standards at all. But the reason something becomes a cliché is that it is generally true.
