The Trivialization of Treason

The very same Republicans who were hysterical during the last administration about a consensual blowjob as being the biggest threat to the nation are now shrugging their shoulders about the leaking of a CIA NOC officer for petty political gain. Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday referred to Patrick Fitzgerald's case as "some perjury technicality" and William Kristol has referred to the "criminalization of politics" In short, supporters of the Administration have all but said what they obviously believe: Everything is Permissible When You're A Republican. Yes, they really DO believe in this kind of double standard, in which a Democratic sexual encounter is a threat to the Republic, but Republican treason is A-OK.

The embattled New York Times is reporting today on these Bush surrogates:

On Sunday, Republicans appeared to be preparing to blunt the impact of any charges. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, speaking on the NBC news program "Meet the Press," compared the leak investigation with the case of Martha Stewart and her stock sale, "where they couldn't find a crime and they indict on something that she said about something that wasn't a crime."

Ms. Hutchison said she hoped "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."

President Bush said several weeks ago that Mr. Fitzgerald had handled the case in "a very dignified way," making it more difficult for Republicans to portray him negatively.

But allies of the White House have quietly been circulating talking points in recent days among Republicans sympathetic to the administration, seeking to help them make the case that bringing charges like perjury mean the prosecutor does not have a strong case, one Republican with close ties to the White House said Sunday. Other people sympathetic to Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have said that indicting them would amount to criminalizing politics and that Mr. Fitzgerald did not understand how Washington works.

Some Republicans have also been reprising a theme that was often sounded by Democrats during the investigations into President Bill Clinton, that special prosecutors and independent counsels lack accountability and too often pursue cases until they find someone to charge.

All of this would be less infuriating if it wasn't coming on the heels of Karl Rove telling the nation that Democrats were soft on terrorism. After all, what's softer on terrorism than putting a CIA front company involved in investigation of weapons of mass destruction at risk for petty political revenge? How dare they say that Democrats don't care about America's national security, when they were willing to put those working for Brewster-Jennings at risk because a previously-unknown former ambassador dared to say in public print what half a million protesters had said in the street five months earlier -- that the Bush Administration's justification for war was a LIE, that the war was based on a LIE, and that this so-called pro-life Amdinistration sent American kids to die based on what they KNEW was bullshit.