The other day here, I was talking about Donald Trump's use of a Neil Young song without Young's permission and I noted how often Republicans seem to do it. I also said "I'm sure there must be Democratic candidates who did the same thing." A reader of this site named David Simmons wrote to me…
I'm so tired of this "both sides do it" crap. If you have knowledge of Democrats who do the same kind of thing with the same kind of frequency, please share.
With the same kind of frequency? No — and I didn't say they did it with the same kind of frequency, but it has happened. Barack Obama was asked to stop using "Hold On! I'm Coming" by Sam Moore. (Here's an article about it.) I can't find anything online about it but I think Al Gore got in trouble with someone about this kind of thing, too. Anyway, the point is that it's not unique to Republicans. They just do it more often.
I do agree with you that "both sides do it" is often a lame justification for all sorts of sins but it's not always wrong. There are a lot of slimy things in politics that are done by both sides.