The corruption trial of Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, has ended in a mistrial, and one is tempted to wonder if any of the jurors were swayed by the Menendez character witnesses such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC. A mistrial is not an acquittal, and Menendez retains that proverbial presumption of innocence, a privilege not extended by Graham or others in the GOP to Alabama Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore

Most Americans don’t even know Menendez was on trial thanks to a legacy media that censors accusations against Democrats, and if it does mention the accusations doesn’t mention that the accused is in fact a Democrat. But they’ve heard a lot of allegations about Roy Moore which the likes of Graham accept as gospel.

You may also have not heard of the actual arrest of a candidate for Congress, Democrat David Alcon, who is running for an open seat in New Mexico when is not stalking women. He, too, will be granted the presumption of innocence denied Roy Moore. Will the Democrats disavow him and cut off funds? Will they refuse to seat him if elected or expel him from Congress? As the Daily Caller reports:

David Alcon, who is running for an open congressional seat in New Mexico, was arrested this past Friday on a felony stalking charge after a woman accused him of sending her frightening and lewd text messages and showing up at her home. Alcon was previously convicted of stalking his ex-girlfriend in 2007 and was described as “infatuated” and “clearly obsessed” by the judge in the case.

The story has been met with silence from a number of media outlets despite their breathless coverage of the sexual assault scandal surrounding Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.

According to a search of the television database TV Eyes, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC have given zero on-air coverage to Alcon’s arrest. The networks have also not published any stories about Alcon’s scandal on their websites in the past week.

Meanwhile, ABC, CBS, and NBC spent more than 79 minutes talking about Roy Moore between November 9 and November 13.

Count Sen. Graham as one of those double-standard devotees who shows righteous indignation over Roy Moore’s alleged sexual transgressions while looking the other way when it’s a Democrat. Graham does not explain how it happened that he was a character witness at the corruption trial of Sen. Menendez, against whom, dare we use the word, credible allegations of dealings with underage hookers have been made:

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez thanked two of his Senate colleagues for testifying at his corruption trial Thursday, saying they “showed extraordinary courage” in defending him.

Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) argued Menendez, who’s facing bribery charges related to trading political influence for luxury vacations and rides in private jets, is honest and trustworthy. 

Graham needs to explain why he has called on Roy Moore to step aside while defending Menendez, who has actually been charged with crimes and sexual misconduct:

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) said on Friday that if the allegations against Alabama candidate for U.S. Senate Roy Moore are true, he should step aside, and “should be dealt with severely.”

But Graham not only hasn’t called for Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), accused of having sex with underage prostitutes, to step aside -- he also went to New Jersey on his own dime two weeks ago to testify as a character witness in Menendez’s corruption trial, telling the judge that Menendez is “very honest” and “honorable.”…

Menendez is on trial for corruption -- the first sitting senator in a decade to be prosecuted on corruption charges. At the heart of the case is whether he accepted money and trips from his close friend, West Palm Beach ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, M.D., in exchange for using his position as a U.S. senator to help Melgen.

The allegations were first published in The Daily Caller, but the Department of Justice, in a court filing, later referred to “corroborating evidence” having been turned up to support the claims of underage prostitutes. The filing alleged that the prostitutes were hired to attend sex parties with Menendez and Melgen at Melgen’s villa, at a luxurious resort in the Dominican Republic called Casa de Campo.

In an email exchange posted on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Spanish-speaking female said she’d attended sex parties with Menendez and Melgen in the Dominican Republic and that Menendez “likes the youngest and newest girls.” A whistleblower also came forward to describe the parties.

The alleged penchant of Menendez for underage prostitutes was described by one of the hookers in the Daily Mail and described activities more heinous than signing a teenager’s yearbook: :

The alleged prostitute says that she was working with a Dominican escort service called The Doll Palace and that a code word, 'chocolate' was used to summon her and other girls to Melgen's alleged sex parties.

To prove herself she gave detailed descriptions of Melgen's pimp and the houses where she slept with house guests.

The account is the most detailed since allegations emerged in November that Senator Menendez had attended sex parties in the Dominican Republic….

That young prostitute said she had sex with Menendez 'three times at least' in 2009.

'The first one in February, and then in May and June. I recall his visit in June so well because that month was my 17th birthday.'

Even when Menendez was officially charged, few deemed the charges credible, said he should step aside, or demanded he be expelled from the Senate. Needless to say, neither did Lindsey Graham or any of his righteous colleagues. Exposing the hypocrisy and double standard employed by Democrats and their media sycophants is not a GOP strongpoint.

With Menendez it is trial first, sentence later. With Moore, it is sentence first -- guilty without benefit of a trial. The double standard. Say what you want about Roy Moore -- he never drove off a bridge with a young blonde in the back seat.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.