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Much ado about Ivanka clothing line comment

Kellyanne Conway, one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, broke a rule recently. She dared, on national television, to suggest people ought to buy clothing from Trump’s daughter’s clothing line.

Horrors! Has she no shame? Is capital punishment too good for her?

Pardon our sarcasm. But to hear the reaction to Conway’s slip-up, one might think she had endangered national security.

Trump himself is upset that a few major stores have decided to stop carrying daughter Ivanka’s fashion line.

Conway, asked about it by a television interviewer, urged viewers to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”

That is breaking a rule against officials in the executive branch providing “endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”

Conway was “counseled” about her lapse, according to the White House.

Not good enough, many in Washington, including some Republican leaders in Congress, insisted. More harsh discipline is needed, they maintain.

With all the challenges facing our nation, why is energy being wasted on what, by any rational judgment, was a minor slip?

Is similar indignation being demonstrated over far greater ethics lapses? At the Department of Veterans Affairs, for example?

Again, it is not as if Conway over a period of months engaged in behavior that was illegal and damaging to national security — then escaped any punishment whatever, is it?

Speaking of which, wonder how Hillary Clinton feels about the Conway controversy?

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