Lysistrata for Congress

   This is not to suggest that women in Congress today use a similar tactic that Lysistrata used to persuade men in ancient Athens to change their ways.
   According to the play by Aristophanes, the women of Athens withheld their sexual favors until and unless the men stopped warfare. The issue today is, of course, somewhat different.
   Women today can and do vote. They can withhold their support for male colleagues in Congress, and women voters in the several states can withhold their support for candidates who do not conform to moral and ethical behavior.
   This is, in effect, what happened in Washington when several dozen woman senators led the demand that Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota resign. Meanwhile, there is no such similar move among Republicans to persuade the president to step down because of similar accusations.
   Some of the complaints, of course, are valid and should not be ignored, while others are as phony as a three-dollar bill. The clue lies in believability and evidence, knowing that some accusations are little more than ploys engineered by political foes designed solely to discredit someone of the opposite party, regardless of any connection to fact or reality.
   Suppose, however, that complaints of inappropriate sexual behavior ranging from unwanted advances up to and including assault are true. Fairness dictates that if Democrats accused of such misbehavior should resign, so also should Republicans, those in office as well as candidates.
   Otherwise, those who insist on punishment for men on one side of the political divide, but remain quiet about colleagues in the same party who do the same or worse, are guilty of hypocrisy.
   Hypocrisy among politicians? Good grief! Who would think such a thing?