Posted by
Defend America on Sunday, November 08, 2009 7:30:02 AM
The Scooter Standard
Libby was hounded, Villafuerte is to be promoted — but why?
By Andrew C. McCarthy
While
the most transparent administration in history continues to stonewall
Congress on its legal theories for supporting a would-be dictator in
Honduras, dismissing a civil-rights case against nightstick-wielding
Black Panthers, and flouting the plain language of the Constitution on
the D.C. Voting Rights Bill, it’s time once again to check in on the
president’s equally laughable commitment to disinfect the Justice
Department, removing all traces of political taint.
When it was
Scooter Libby in the crosshairs, Democrats were awfully sanctimonious
about the grave felony of lying to the FBI. The cornerstone of our
legal system, they reminded us, was the obligation of every American —
or at least every American who is not the 42nd president of the United
States — to provide truthful information when questioned in an
investigation. After all, this is America. Thanks to our Constitution,
no one is forced to submit to interrogation by the police, the FBI, a
grand jury, Congress, or a judge. If we have any good-faith concern
that answering questions may incriminate us, the Fifth Amendment gives
us the right to remain silent. But with that privilege, we were
reminded, comes an obligation: If one chooses to speak, one must speak
truthfully. If one doesn’t speak truthfully, that is a serious offense,
because false answers obstruct justice, sending our investigators on
wild goose chases and taxing the resources of our overburdened courts.
The
offense is especially egregious, Democrats lectured, when the
prevaricator is a government official — especially a lawyer. Unlike
laymen, government officials serve the public, implying a solemn trust
to support, rather than impede, the administration of justice. And
lawyers know better than anyone how lying perverts the truth-seeking
process. Thus, there was no getting around it: It didn’t matter that
the FBI’s grilling of Libby arose out of a contentious policy debate,
that he did not commit the crime for which he was actually being
investigated (in fact, nobody did), or that his prosecution effectively
criminalized our politics. He was a public official, he was a lawyer,
and he lied to the FBI, so he had to be prosecuted to vindicate all
that is good and right. Case closed.
Well what if he were not only a lawyer and a public official? What if
he were also a political operative for a top Democrat? What if he were
the candidate nominated by Pres. Barack Obama to be the top federal
law-enforcement official in the state of Colorado — the United States
attorney responsible for making such judgment calls as deciding who
should be prosecuted for making false statements to FBI agents?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzQzYzQ5YjRiMzI4M2Y2N2ZkNzk2OWMzOTJlMmM1ZTY=