The Tweet Bird of Their Youth

Sure, dump on A-Rod for the flimsy "I was young. I was stupid," argument. As the Pinstriped Bible's Steven Goldman says, "Nor does the 'youthful indiscretion' thread ring true, given that the guy was 25 when he started. Whatever maturity issues the guy was facing, it's pretty clear he had a fully developed sense of right and wrong or he wouldn't have tried to hide what he was doing."

But he was just a baseball player. I'm still wondering where the outrage, where the ramrod stiff morality the press has adopted over A-Rod, was in, oh, 2000. Here's some of a New York Times article that goes on to excuse the subject (he's even won the love of his wife back, something A-Rod can't say...heck, he can't even stay with Madonna):

It was a sedate cocktail party on a summer evening when the wild man of the ____ clan wobbled up to an old friend of his parents, a prim, well-dressed matron who had recently turned 50, her hair pulled tightly back from her forehead in the most severe way.

______ had enjoyed a few too many drinks, and his family members knew enough to watch him nervously.

''So,'' he asked her, by way of conversation, ''what's sex like after 50, anyway?''

It was a vintage ____ moment, recounted by friends, the kind of incident that made young ____'s buddies laugh and cringe at the same time. He could be hilarious company, but also often outrageous and childish. Some acquaintances were offended by what they saw as Mr. ____'s arrogance and immaturity, by his penchant for drinking too much and thinking too little. Even his wife, _____, wanted him to grow up.

''_____ was acting like a little kid'' in those days, recalled Mel Turner, a fellow Republican activist in West Texas in the 1970's and 80's. ''He was an immature rich-kid brat.''

Not everyone is that harsh, and many of his friends welcomed the ''bombastic ____kin,'' as they called him, as a breath of fresh air. But the upshot was that as he approached 40, an age when Al Gore was already a senator running for president, ________ was just a heavy-drinking, fun-loving oilman struggling to control his temper, salvage his business and hold on to his marriage.

Kind of amazing he "grew up" by stopping drinking but being no less arrogant, immature, or losing that penchant for thinking too little. Even more amazing is he ran this country (into the ground) for eight years.

So maybe we cut Rodriguez some slack?