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Monday, October 24, 2005

Perjury a crime? Naw, just a little "technicality"

When Bill Clinton's supporters protested that getting it on with a White House intern didn't warrant impeachment, Republicans insisted that it was lying about the crime, not the crime itself, that was an impeachable offense.

Funny how the story has changed. Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson said on October 23, 2005 on Meet the Press that 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.
On February 12, 1999 Senator Hutchinson said:
Willful, corrupt, and false sworn testimony before a Federal grand jury is a separate and distinct crime under applicable law and is material and perjurious if it is 'capable' of influencing the grand jury in any matter before it, including any collateral matters that it may consider." I vote `Guilty' on Article I, Perjury. I vote`Guilty' on Article II, Obstruction of Justice.
She also said:
When the Chief Justice of the United States administered this oath and I signed my name to it on January 7, 1999, as one of one hundred triers of fact and law in the Court of Impeachment of the President of the United States, I did so with a heavy heart, but with a clear mind.

That solemn occasion in the well of this Senate, and the weight of the burden imposed on us as 'jurors' in only the second such proceeding in the history of our Nation, reminded me with vivid clarity that our Constitution belongs to all of us.

I was reminded as well, however, that the laws of our Country are applicable to us all, including the President, and they must be obeyed. 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. [emphasis mine]
So which is it, Senator Hutchinson? Bill Clinton lies about a sexual encounter and gets impeached. Members of the Bush administration lie about their involvement in the outing of a covert intelligence agent, that risked the lives of everyone she ever had any contact with during the time she was on station, and brought her usefulness in intellegence to an end, and it's a "technicality"? As AmericaBlog pointed out, in any other war but this one, revealing the name of an undercover agent would be a crime carrying the death penalty, and lying about one's complicity in the crime would probably have been seen as equally heinous.

Not to mention that apparently insignificant little commandment that our self-described "Christian" leaders seem to have forgotten: Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness.

But I'm forgetting. IOKIYAR.
posted by Liz @ 9:51 AM     |


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