It's been a tough time of late for America's heroes. If they're not leaping off their pedestals, they're being pushed. It's why we put them up there in the first place – and what's happening after they land – that has me worried.

Every day seems to bring yet another revelation. In the past week or so it was sports heroes, again. Baseball star Alex Rodriguez admitted he used unspecified banned substances from 2001-03 while playing for the Texas Rangers ("A-Roid," anyone?). Miguel Tejada pleaded guilty Wednesday to misleading Congress in testimony about performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals and admitted buying – but not using – human growth hormone. Controversy continues to rage over a tabloid photo of swimmer Michael Phelps engaging in "recreational" use of marijuana.

But it's not only the sports stars. Disgraced governors are accused of attempting to sell political appointments for personal gain (former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich), or patronizing a prostitution service (former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer). The White House couldn't escape the stain of controversy when in quick succession former Sen. Tom Daschle – President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Health and Human Services Department – and Nancy Killefer, ironically selected for a new position as the administration's chief performance officer responsible for scrutinizing government spending, both withdrew from consideration over issues arising from their personal taxes. Daschle got into trouble over a car service that was characterized as a "gift from a friend"; Killefer's story was another in the seemingly endless episodes of Nannygate.

The expected responses are predictable: requisite acts of contrition, emotional press conferences, admissions of culpability, apologies. President Obama himself set the tone when he made the rounds of the morning news shows after the Daschle debacle, saying, "I screwed up. I screwed up."

Accountability wasn't everywhere, though: Last week Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was reported as saying that A-Rod had "shamed the game," and that he was "saddened by the revelations."

"What Alex did was wrong, and he will have to live with the damage he has done to his name and reputation," Selig said.

What about Major League Baseball?

Selig's reply: "It is important to remember that these recent revelations relate to pre-program activity."

So much for examining the culture in which entering a clubhouse, if the Mitchell Report had it right, was at times akin to entering a pharmacy. But maybe we all own part of it – fans seemed content to turn a blind eye when ever more powerful demigods sent those home runs blasting over the fence.

As for the political officials? On his first day in office, President Obama unveiled new rules on government transparency and ethics to great fanfare, including tough measures on lobbyists that would bar them from working for agencies they had lobbied within the past two years. He then promptly carved out exceptions for two nominees – a former lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon positioned for deputy secretary of defense, and a nominee for deputy secretary of health and human services who had lobbied for stricter tobacco regulations.

Hard-line rules are tough to sustain, especially when the rhetoric of the campaign trail crashes into the reality of governing.

Another example of a mixed message? Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, now with the mandate for leading the nation out of financial crisis, and (the ironies continue) heading the Cabinet post responsible for the Internal Revenue Service, was confirmed despite a slight problem with more than $30,000 in unpaid taxes, calling the situation "careless," "unintentional" and "avoidable." Geithner apologized to the Senate panel considering his nomination for "putting you in the position of having to spend so much time on these issues."

Former Illinois Gov. Blagojevich had an even more interesting approach and threatened to take others down with him. He evidently figured he'd start getting even with those in state government who supported his impeachment and ouster in light of federal corruption charges leveled against him for alleged moves to "sell" the Senate seat vacated by Obama.

Paul D. Paton is associate professor and director of Ethics Across the Professions at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific.