A big whiff of a double standard

Despite Ann Coulter's recent verbal faux pas, she makes a point about something that has had me wondering for a while. Why do prominent Democrats get off the hook when they commit crimes, and Scooter Libby has to do hard time for not remembering who gave him information about a covert agent who was not covert? Is it that we expect Democrats to ride on a list of shady and unethical behavior, and that we expect Republicans to have clean reputations?

The list of Democrats is long and notorious: Teddy Kennedy abandoning his "girl of the night" and letting her drown, Patrick Kennedy's wild ride under the influence of booze and meds, William Jefferson's $90,000 of bribe money in the freezer, Harry Reid's questionable land deals in which the 'take' was larger than Abramoff's, or Sandy Burger's deliberate and poorly hidden plot of stealing classified materials and stuffing them in his underwear and socks so he could destroy them.

Why the double standard? Even in academia, those who espouse liberal causes get away with saying the most outrageous things, whereas conservatives are drummed down and even out.

Are the American people so cowed and fearful that we might offend others if we stand against obvious ethical lapses? Or have we lost our will to care and to correct this imbalance?

I would love to hear what you think.

UPDATE:
Good Follow Up Reading:

A Verdict on the Wilson Affair