Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 15, 2018

If it was cancer, she would stay in Congress and collect the paycheck along with the health coverage.

Almost thirty years later and not much has changed. Except perhaps for the worse.

Wouldn’t say anything bad about one fighting cancer.

McClain is still in there giving it his best shot. When you have accepted a position of responsibility you don’t have the right to give up the fight because your feelings are hurt. You lick your wounds privately and then get back out there and fight for the people who elected you. That’s about personal honor and doing the right thing.

Well, in a way it is about cancer. One that has spread in the decades since this strip was first published.

Joanie’s explanation went in one brain and out the other.

There’s a TV Tropes page about this: “Evil Cannot Comprehend Good”. (There’s also a page for “Good Cannot Comprehend Evil”, so I guess it runs both ways)

“What are these concepts of ‘taking personal responsibility for one’s actions’ and ‘doing the right thing’ you speak of?”

If you’re dealing with “honorable” people, then you don’t NEED anything more than a “handshake” to seal the deal! that’s the reason we keep hearing about this, that, and the other thing being “unprecedented” and “outside the norm!”

If you don’t have “honor” then you need paper – reams and reams of paper – generated by high-priced lawyers!

Understand; speaking about “Honor” to a Congressperson is rather like having a discourse on “loyalty” with a cat – even the vocabulary for the discussion is lacking!