Washington Post's Poll on the Political Scandals of the Year Mixes Sex Scandals and Real Scandals

Over at The Washington Post blog, the obviously wildly unscientific "idea marketplace" poll asks people to vote on the biggest political scandal of the year. The current options (with opportunity to suggest your own) are an odd mix of the sexy and the very serious.

There's plenty of instinctual schadenfreude that should come with every political scandal, no matter how small. And there are added bonuses for every social con who rails against the gays just a little too much, but shouldn't the former Reps. Anthony Weiner, Chris Lee, and David Wu, the former Sen. David Ensign, the former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the former GOP frontrunner Herman Cain (man, that takes me back) and their various sex scandals still be considered fundamentally less notable than the $500 million (at least) boondoggle known as Solyndra, and the Gunwalker/Fast and Furious scandal?

Two of these things are not like the other six. I'm all for constantly reminding folks that politics is terrible, scandalous, and ignoble even without the presence of Donald Trump. I just think there should be separate categories for deservedly fallen politicians and frustratingly under-reported scandals which prove once again the incompetence of the government when it tries to play venture capitalist or fix the cartel problem it helped create in the first place.

Commenters, any nominations for scandals of the year? (The libertarian answer that all of government is a scandal is absolutely acceptable.)

Reason (mostly Tim Cavanaugh) on Solyndra. Reason on fast and furious.