For those who want to clock Big Ben ...

Let's get this straight right away. Ben Roethlisberger recently invited trouble when he spent his 28th birthday partying with college chicks in an apparently seedy bar in a previously sleepy town.

But those who claim NFL majordomo Roger Goodell must meet with him now in the name of racial justice are off-target.

A frequent claim is that Goodell must suspend or otherwise admonish Big Ben in order to remain consistent with previous adjudication of Michael Vick and Pacman Jones. The truth is this: In waiting to scold Roethlisberger until the justice system has done something, the commissioner is displaying a consistent policy.

A brief history lesson:

L'Affaire Vick began when search warrants were executed on the now-infamous home of Bad Newz Kennels on April 25, 2007. Before ordering Vick to stay away from Atlanta Falcons training camp on July 23, 2007, Goodell allowed all of the following elements of the criminal-justice system to play out: the execution of a second federal warrant (June 7); the filing of paperwork by U.S. Attorneys detailing the dog-fighting ring (July 2); a third federal search (July 6); indictment (July 17); and the establishment of a July 26 arraignment date (July 18).

Only then did the commissioner step in.

Jones was arrested more than six times before Goodell finally had enough.

Now people want him to discipline Roethlisberger before the authorities have issued a single page of any report on the alleged incident. The Steelers' quarterback hasn't been arrested. He hasn't been charged. Not once.

Let's remember that the events that led to the civil suit in the Lake Tahoe area never produced an arrest or anything more than an cursory police investigation that went nowhere.

Because that suit is still alive, Roethlisberger was foolish to spend his birthday in very public revelry with women of his sister's age (20 to 22) whom he had never met. That kind of behavior justifiably raises his employers' concerns about his dedication to his work. It creates the appearance of impropriety and serves the interests of vultures. It does not mandate immediate sanction by itself.

Some are claiming a racial double-standard exists; the force of these claims alone should compel some sort of action, pundits say. The logic here is failing. It's like saying the Senate should have suspended the convention of the electoral college and held up the inauguration of Barack Obama simply because some desperate, paranoid and fearful segments of blogworld were questioning Obama's credentials as a citizen.

As a people, we've gone down this road before. JFK assassination conspiracy theories got so out of control in the 1970s that the House of Representatives felt compelled to impanel a select committee on the topic. Millions of dollars and years later, the committee said there "probably" was a conspiracy in the killing. In 2003, further investigation refuted the acoustic evidence that had led to the House committee's finding. .

In other words, you can't let public suspicion govern public policy by itself.