When an assault occurs on the streets of Washington D.C. is the standard operating procedure to simply accept the apology of the person who initiated the assault?   Or, is an apology simply all that is required when that person committing the assault is a US Congressman.  Perhaps it is more narrow.  Perhaps an apology will be sufficient when that person is a Democrat Congressman who votes with the Speaker.  

http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/2010/06/etheridge-freak-out-draws-silence-from-the-dems.php

This cannot be left alone.  I know that it will be played and replayed for political advantage all over the Internet and especially in fall ads against this Congressman in North Carolina but concerns should go deeper.   We have for decades provided a status for those who represent us that has placed them above the law and in a position of privilege when compared to every other citizen.   Had that young man defended himself I am left to wonder whether the young journalist might have been arrested for assaulting a Congressman.  It is apparent thus far that this Congressman will not be arrested for his actions.  This is more than inappropriate, Congressman Etheridge committed a crime.  He had no right to put a hand on that young man.   He must be made to pay a price and I do not mean politically.   Forty years ago we had a young Massachusetts Senator attempt to hide his involvement in a vehicular accident that claimed the life of a young intern in his office.   Proper charges were never brought because he was "a Kennedy" and instead the man was treated as the icon of the Senate until his death in 2009.   We must stop treating these people as rulers and treat them instead as fellow citizens who are no more entitled to special privileges than the young man he assaulted.   We certainly must not exalt this man to a level of privilege and immunize him against US law because of his elected office as we did Ted Kennedy.