The False Moral Superiority of the Bush White House

[Huckleman2000]

It is with sadness and confusion that I've read postings on this forum, from both people whose opinions I respect and those I dismiss, that seem to draw some sort of moral equivalence between President Clinton's legal investigative problems and those of the current administration. People have self-righteously claimed that they consider perjury an unforgivable sin, using this opportunity to again rail against Clinton, while dismissing the far larger moral and ethical lapses (if not yet fully developed legal indictments), of the Bush administration.

Lying to a grand jury (and lying to FBI agents, and obstruction of justice...) is a serious crime. However, the plausibility of "forgetfulness" in the Plame case refers to a matter of months, during which the incident in question was an ongoing news story and there exist contemporaneous documents that contradict the testimony of key players. the Whitewater case occurred a decade prior to the investigation.

Under the auspices of the Independent Prosecutor laws ended after the Clinton administration, the investigation was required to produce a report about the reasons for choosing to prosecute, or not prosecute, any allegations. Patrick Fitzgerald is not required to produce such a report, so much of what this investigation has learned may well fall by the wayside.
Here's Paul Begala's take:

As a former Clinton aide, the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby and the announcement that Karl Rove remains in the prosecutorial hot-seat gives me no schadenfreude. First because many of my fellow Texans in the Bush White House are friends of mine; others are acquaintances I've known for years. I feel their pain.
Second, because no one who loves the White House and reveres the presidency can take joy in seeing it besmirched. And third, because the ultimate result of the alleged criminal conduct was to march 2,000 young heroes off to die in an unjust, unwise, unprovoked and unwarranted war.

The plain fact is that after a seven year non-stop investigato-rama, no senior Clinton White House official was ever even charged with wrongdoing. Much less indicted. Much less convicted. In fact, the highest-ranking Clinton official to be convicted of wrongdoing in connection with his public duties was the chief of staff to the Agriculture Secretary. Betcha five bucks you can't even name the Clinton Agriculture Secretary in question, much less his chief of staff. Unlike Nixon (whose Watergate crimes were manifest), unlike Reagan (whose White House was corrupted by the Iran-Contra crimes), unlike Bush 41 (who pardoned White House aides and Cabinet officers before they could testify against him), Bill Clinton presided over the most ethical White House staff in decades.

And yet George W. Bush campaigned on a pledge to "restore honor and decency to the Oval Office." He spoke of moms and dads on the campaign trail who showed him photos of their children and asked him to give them a president their kids could be proud of.

We all knew what he meant. With a wink and a nod he told us he wouldn't cheat on Laura. And after he took office Mr. Bush and his henchmen smeared the Clintonistas, falsely accusing them of vandalism and theft. They told the press that in this Oval Office the gentlemen would wear suits, the ladies, skirts. And no more paper coffee cups. Nothing but the finest bone china. The Bushies even claimed moral superiority because of their punctuality. Everything was designed and marketed to stress the virtue of the Bushies and the vice of the Clintonians. And it worked. In the first year of George W. Bush's presidency, one major media figure told my wife and me to our faces that the difference between the Clinton crowd and the Bush team was that, "They're just better people than you are. They're more loyal to their President, more patriotic, less self-interested and ambitious. They're just better people."

Now we learn that these Better People have turned the White House into a criminal enterprise. And that the purpose of that enterprise was to mislead the country into going to war. 2,000 Americans killed. 15,000 horribly wounded. $200 billion gone. And a Muslim world -- and a non-Muslim world, for that matter -- that hates our guts. Al Qaeda is recruiting terrorists faster than we can kill them. And there is no end in sight.

But thank God there were no blow jobs. They really are Better People.

That is why this prosecution is important. No one is criminalizing policy differences. Rather, the Bush White House stands accused of hijacking the public policy process in service of a criminal conspiracy to smear, lie and obstruct justice.

The Fitzgerald probe, it should be noted, is the first independent investigation into alleged wrongdoing in the Bush White House. And it has hit paydirt. Contrast that with the dry holes of Whitewater, Filegate, the billing records, Vince Foster's suicide, the cattle futures, the Buddhist temple, and all the rest. Good Lord, Congress even spent two years investigating Clinton's Christmas card list. Just to list the trumped-up Clinton "scandals" is to recall how trivial -- and yet how destructive -- they were. Innocent people were impoverished, reputations were damaged, careers derailed. But at least history can give the Clinton team a clean bill of ethical health. No White House was more thoroughly investigated -- and more thoroughly exonerated. But it's telling that the first time anyone had the courage to scratch the surface of Bush, Inc., he found corruption.

It is not boilerplate to state that those accused are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But that is a legal matter. As a matter of morality, the Bushies are already guilty. Guilty of smearing the Wilson family. Guilty of twisting intelligence. Guilty of lying about the role of White House aides in outing Mrs. Wilson. Guilty of sanctimony and hypocrisy and hubris. Most of all, they are guilty of misleading us into this God-awful war.

So, yes, I feel sorry for those indicted and those under investigation, and especially for their families. They are going through hell. But it's nothing compared to the pain of 2,000 families who've lost a loved one in Iraq, or 15,000 families whose loved one has shed blood or lost limbs in the war Mr. Bush and his "better people" have started.

 

[elsol]

There is a moral equivalence between one act of perjury and another act of perjury. Actually, it's the exact same thing.

Is there a moral equivalence between a blowjob and treason?

Clinton was a fucking moron for committing an act of perjury to cover up a blowjob; regardless of anything else that pissed me off.

Libby... for now... Rove and Cheney (possibly Bush but no one has actually connected the dots back to him yet although if everything else is true he's going to get my peg because he's the fucking boss) are playing in an entirely different ballpark.

I'm waiting for the screws to be applied to see how far afield and wide it goes.

But I have a feeling from everything I've read if it comes down it, Libby may fall on his sword as long as a charge of treason isn't leveled.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[elsol]

*burp*

So on a serious note... cause I like 'nuclear scenarios'.

What happens if people retire and Bushie Boy starts throwing pardons around?

His daddy did it.

Just curious if there's a way for a pardon to be overturned.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[rgraham666]

*burp*

So on a serious note... cause I like 'nuclear scenarios'.

What happens if people retire and Bushie Boy starts throwing pardons around?

His daddy did it.

Just curious if there's a way for a pardon to be overturned.

Sincerely,
ElSol

That is exactly what I expect Shrub II to do.

And it won't just be members of his administration and his friends in the legislature that he pardons. It will include people like Jeff Schilling and Kenneth Lay.

ETHICS A matter of daily practical concern described glowingly in universal terms by those who intend to ignore them. John Ralston Saul - The Doubter's Companion

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't know how any semi-rational adult can watch a modern press conference with the lies, half-lies, distortions, sidesteps, and blatant misrepresentations, and then talk about honesty in government.

The only difference between the parties in that regard is that the Republicans subscribe to a more elevated brand of hypocrisy.

 

[impressive]

The only difference between the parties in that regard is that the Republicans subscribe to a more elevated brand of hypocrisy.

Neiman-Marcus hypocrisy ... as opposed to the Wal-Mart hypocrisy of the Democrats?

 

[elsol]

Neiman-Marcus hypocrisy ... as opposed to the Wal-Mart hypocrisy of the Democrats?

Tailor-made hypocrisy of Republicans... as oppossed to Brooks Brothers off-the-rack hyporcrisy of Democrats.

Sincerely,
ElSol