The "Criminalization of Politics" Dodge

Boy, oh boy, the Republicans are going to throw everything, and I mean everything against the wall to save DeLay, Rove, Libby, Frist, Cheney, Hughes, Fleischer, and whomever else happens to get indicted in the next few months.

They are already starting to whine and wimper about the "criminalization of politics." Of course, when they chanted "rule of law" about Bill Clinton's lies to Ken Starr's Grand Jury, they had no idea that they would be in the same position someday. Now they are.

But the reality is (and this is where their habit of ignoring reality is gonna come back and bite them in the ass) that almost none of the laws - except the campaign finance laws in Texas - they will have allegedly broken say anything about politicians. In fact, politicians, especially in DC, tend to exempt themselves from so many laws they must wonder how they forgot to exempt themselves from the treason and conspiracy statutes.

(We better keep an eye on those legislative agendas in the House and Senate the next few months -- there could be some finely worded amendments that just so happen to give "Get Out of Jail Free" cards to the entire gang. I wouldn't put it past them. Of course, that assumes President Bush doesn't uphold family tradition and pardon them all.)

So conspiracy, perjury, outing undercover CIA agents, money laundering, insider trading, and even murder charges are brought every day against every kind of person. If that person so happens to be a politician, well, so what? We are a nation of laws, as the Republicans like to say. And I agree. But since the press has abdicated their responsibilities at the national level, at least we can thank some prosecutors for still taking theirs seriously.

Finally, there is one, and only one way, to negate their phony talking point about the criminalization of politics: get the Criminals out of Politics. Mr. Fitzgerald is doing part of the job even as we speak.