Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Another Stop On The Hypocrisy Express
It's been a while since we've noticed that familiar whistle, but probably because we just haven't been paying that much attention. Anything you see all the time is less likely to stand out.
That said, Texas Democrats have a damn fine candidate in the race to oust Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Houston Attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky will give Hutchison a race for her money, mainly because Hutchison has such a shoddy record to run her race on. Between now and November, I plan to devote a lot of space on this blog to Hutchison's history in the Senate. It won't be pretty. Let's start our look at that history now.
It seems that the Senator has a different outlook on a particular crime, depending, of course, on who's committing it. I take the following from an e-mail exchange I was part of earlier today.
Republicans ran on ad nauseum about truth, integrity and morals when it came to Bill Clinton. They asserted that telling the truth during investigations is such a serious concern that it is necessary to impeach a sitting president in order to protect the rule of law. Even though the investigation was really about an affair with an intern, Republicans insisted it was necessary to establish morals and pursue any possible infraction of law in order to retain equal protection.
How things have changed! Now that it is the ethics of Republicans are being examined, we find them singing a very different tune. On February 12, 1999, Hutchinson was specific in her condemnation of Clinton, speaking quite forcefully about perjury, honesty and truth. Ascribing to herself the importance of morals and consistency, Kay Bailey Hutchison said the following about perjury and obstruction of justice.
"The concept of equal justice under law and the importance of absolute truth in legal proceedings is the foundation of our justice system in the courts. To say otherwise would be to severely lower the moral and legal standards of accountability that are imposed on ordinary citizens every day. The same standard should be imposed on our leaders. If only the President had followed the simple, high moral principle handed to us by our Nation's first leader as a child and had said early in this episode 'I cannot tell a lie,' we would not be here today."
When asked about the possibility of perjury and obstruction indictments against Republican Scooter Libby, Hutchinson said the following on NBC's "Meet The Press" on October 23, 2005.
"And secondly, 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 and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. So they go to something that trips someone up because they said something in the first grand jury and then maybe they found new information or they forgot something and they tried to correct that in a second grand jury."
When it was Clinton, Hutchinson piously insisted it was necessary to protect the rule of law and impeach Clinton for the offenses of perjury and obstruction of justice. When it comes to Republicans like Libby and Karl Rove, Hutchinson suddenly "thinks" perjury and obstruction of justice are "technicalities".
Let's recap. Lying about blowjobs is bad. It deserves impeachment. Lying about national security is cool. It was probably a "technicality."
Once again, all of this begs the question: do you feel safer? I don't.
That said, Texas Democrats have a damn fine candidate in the race to oust Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Houston Attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky will give Hutchison a race for her money, mainly because Hutchison has such a shoddy record to run her race on. Between now and November, I plan to devote a lot of space on this blog to Hutchison's history in the Senate. It won't be pretty. Let's start our look at that history now.
It seems that the Senator has a different outlook on a particular crime, depending, of course, on who's committing it. I take the following from an e-mail exchange I was part of earlier today.
Republicans ran on ad nauseum about truth, integrity and morals when it came to Bill Clinton. They asserted that telling the truth during investigations is such a serious concern that it is necessary to impeach a sitting president in order to protect the rule of law. Even though the investigation was really about an affair with an intern, Republicans insisted it was necessary to establish morals and pursue any possible infraction of law in order to retain equal protection.
How things have changed! Now that it is the ethics of Republicans are being examined, we find them singing a very different tune. On February 12, 1999, Hutchinson was specific in her condemnation of Clinton, speaking quite forcefully about perjury, honesty and truth. Ascribing to herself the importance of morals and consistency, Kay Bailey Hutchison said the following about perjury and obstruction of justice.
"The concept of equal justice under law and the importance of absolute truth in legal proceedings is the foundation of our justice system in the courts. To say otherwise would be to severely lower the moral and legal standards of accountability that are imposed on ordinary citizens every day. The same standard should be imposed on our leaders. If only the President had followed the simple, high moral principle handed to us by our Nation's first leader as a child and had said early in this episode 'I cannot tell a lie,' we would not be here today."
When asked about the possibility of perjury and obstruction indictments against Republican Scooter Libby, Hutchinson said the following on NBC's "Meet The Press" on October 23, 2005.
"And secondly, 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 and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. So they go to something that trips someone up because they said something in the first grand jury and then maybe they found new information or they forgot something and they tried to correct that in a second grand jury."
When it was Clinton, Hutchinson piously insisted it was necessary to protect the rule of law and impeach Clinton for the offenses of perjury and obstruction of justice. When it comes to Republicans like Libby and Karl Rove, Hutchinson suddenly "thinks" perjury and obstruction of justice are "technicalities".
Let's recap. Lying about blowjobs is bad. It deserves impeachment. Lying about national security is cool. It was probably a "technicality."
Once again, all of this begs the question: do you feel safer? I don't.
