Criminalization of Politics

As always, the Republican Party has a handy set of “talking points” for every occasion. In anticipation of the Plame leak indictments, in Stepford fashion, the party is preparing a response. Kay Bailey Hutchinson recently provided a sample when she spoke out against the dangers of indictments based upon a "perjury technicality," which is a variation of the "criminalization of politics" theme. (See video at Crooks and Liars).

The Democrats may be accused of the “Criminalization of Politics,” but the Republicans have mastered the art of the “De-criminalization of Hypocrisy.”

Compare Hutchinson’s words, found at TalkBlue, now:

"I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars." -Kay Bailey Hutchinson this week on Meet the Press

With her words from 1999, when another Administration was facing perjury charges:

"The two Articles of Impeachment before the Senate in this proceeding do in fact accuse the President of committing three actual crimes, 'perjury before the grand jury,' ''obstruction of justice,' and 'witness tampering,' that meet the requirements for conviction of an indicted defendant in a criminal case brought under Federal law. The House Managers and Counsel for the President reviewed those laws extensively. Thus, in order to find the President 'guilty' under either Article, this Senator must conclude that all of the statutory prerequisites to conviction are present that would be required to convict the President of one or more of those crimes, if this proceeding were, instead, the prosecution of felony criminal indictments in a United States District Court under Federal law. I will not demean our Constitution or the office of the Presidency of the United States by endorsing the felony-plus standard....Lying is a moral wrong. Perjury is a lie told under oath that is legally wrong."

See the difference? If so, then you’ll no doubt discern the fine points of the distinction between the comments of John Hinderaker, "That Was Now, This Is Then," found at Is that Legal?.

Blogger firedoglake has also gathered a compendium of quotes from various Moral Mavens reflecting on Clinton and his crime against humanity that may not match their words today.

Finally, Bill Maher had his own take on the medley of the “Criminalization of Politics” on Real Time (Video at Crooks and Liars) that is right on target.