Are politics "relative", or "principled"

What I mean by that, is that all things being equal, if something is worth "slamming the opposition", should that same thing also warrant an attack on one of your own?

You see double standards all the time in politics. Both sides love to point out hypocrisy.. while they continue to engage in hypocrisy.

At a really fundamental level you should have some principles you plan around, but sometimes playing politics is instrumental to facilitating those principles, even if it doesn't look like you are on the surface. Or other times you tell yourself this but are just tossing the principles out.

tl;dr: the ends can justify the means, though sometimes people will just say this and not actually achieve a better end.