John McCain has been defended for doing a lot of things because of his five and half years in a prison camp. He cheated on his first wife numerous times, and then married a beer heiress. When Colmes compared John Edwards affair to McCain’s, Hannity’s response was “Don’t you know he was a POW?” When accused of cheating “Don’t you know he’s a POW? Why would he cheat?” When accused on not remembering how many house he owns “Well, there’s was a five and a half year period where I didn’t have a home, or a kitchen table.”

I’m not making any of this up. This is what he and his surrogates have said.

Roman Polanski survived the holocaust. lost his mother in Auschwitz. Spent the years in a ghetto, and then sleeping in a cattle stall as forced labor. After he moved to America, his wife, Sharon Tate, and unborn child were murdered by Charles Manson. A couple years later he had sex with a minor, may have raped her.

We are dealing with apples and oranges here. Though, that said, McCain cheated on his wife a number of times, so you can longer call it a crime of passion. But you can say he was in a bad emotional place, just as you can Polanski.

But who forgives Polanski? Could someone tell me how they can support McCain and not feel that Polanski got a raw deal? And if you suggest that surviving something horrific is a way to forgive smallish or largish things, how then does Polanski weigh in this moral judgement. I have no idea.