Melissa Howard

abandoned her congressional campaign in a rare display of something we don’t see much in modern politics anymore, shame, writes Scott Maxwell.

Maybe there are still some standards in modern politics after all. Earlier this week, I wasn’t sure. A Florida politician had been caught in an elaborate lie — traveling all the way from Sarasota to Ohio to stage a scene involving a fake college diploma — and yet she was still in the race.

Not only that, her supporters were cheering her on.

Sure, she lied. Sure, she’d been caught red-handed. But the campaign of Melissa Howard — an aspiring legislator who liked posing for pictures with guns and flags — had simply declared the proven truths “fake news.” And that was good enough for her fans.

When asked whether Howard, 46, should withdraw — to allow the other Republican in the primary race to proceed — Sarasota GOP Chairman Joe Gruters told the Herald-Tribune didn’t seem to understand the fuss. Yeah, she lied. But he said “it’s a slippery slope when you start asking candidates who lie to remove themselves from the ballot.”

“A slippery slope toward what?” asked a minister friend of mine on Facebook after she read the story. “Honesty? Integrity?”

I almost wanted to pat that poor minister on her saintly, naïve head. She was trying to apply the values most normal people appreciate to the most abnormal of people … politicians, who rarely seem to face consequences for bad behavior.

But then Tuesday afternoon, something encouraging happened. Howard abandoned her campaign in a rare display of something else we don’t see much in modern politics anymore … shame.

Here’s how the flame-out played out:

The story started in the suburbs of Sarasota, where Howard was engaged in a heated Republican primary for Florida House District 73.She was a little bummed she didn’t get the endorsement from the NRA. But she promised voters that she owned “many shotguns” and that she would fight to curb English as a Second Language courses in public schools. With the backing of establishment players like the Florida Chamber of Commerce, she was cruising toward Election Day. Until she hit a roadblock. Questions surfaced about whether Howard actually graduated from Miami University in Ohio as she claimed. First a conservativenews website started asking ques-

tions. Then the Sarasota Herald-Tribune joined in.

Both asked a basic question: Can you prove you graduated?

This irked Howard. So she zipped off to Ohio, grabbed a framed copy of her (alleged) diploma and posted a picture of her posing with it on Facebook, declaring: “The truth shall set you free!” Except it wasn’t the truth. At least not according to the university. An attorney for the school said that, while Howard attended classes, it had no record of her graduating.

Even more damning, the attorney told the Herald-Tribune that Howard‘s “diploma” featured a degree the university didn’t offer. Oops. Faced with that evidence, Howard’s campaign consultant, Anthony Pedicini, called the story “fake news” — the go-to defense for those who have nothing else.

But the story was already told. The truth was out there — in news reports from Seattle to Singapore.

First, Howard apologized for making “a mistake” (apparently unaware of what that word actually means) and vowed to keep campaigning.

Except the noise was too loud. It’s hard to run for a local office when half the planet is laughing at you.

In less than 24 hours, Howard went from vowing to soldier on to telling the Herald-Tribune: “I have come to the realization that the right thing to do for my community is to withdraw from the race.”

And Gruters — the GOP chairman (and state legislator) who’d worried just hours earlier about that pesky “slippery slope” — finally decided Howard’s withdrawal was “the right thing for the community.”

I know there are some Democrats jumping for joy, eagerly wagging fingers and saying: “See, I told you that was the fraud party!”

Pipe down, partisans. Fraud isn’t limited to one party. Just ask Corrine Brown. The former Democrat Congresswoman is sitting in Coleman penitentiary right now after faking something worse than a college diploma — a “charity” that feds say funneled money directly to her pocket.

I’ve yet to find the party that has the market completely cornered on fraud … or integrity.

I’m just glad to know we still have some standards. That there are some things too rotten even for politics. And that more people can now clearly see the motives of those who scream “fake news.”