Perjury (R) versus Perjury (D)

One is hard pressed to detect a more significant "flip-flop" in American politics than what is currently occurring with regard to the Bush Adminstration cronies; namely Karl Rove (Senior White House Advisor) and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff).

Condemnation of Perjury as Applied to President Bill Clinton:

While still governor, George W. Bush presented his argument why Clinton should be impeached: "The man lied."

Bill Frist has said: "There is no serious question that perjury and obstruction of justice are high crimes and misdemeanors . . . Today, we punish perjury and obstruction of justice at least as severely as we punish bribery. Apparently, the seriousness of perjury and obstruction of justice has not diminished over time. Indeed, our own Senate precedent establishes that perjury is a high crime and misdemeanor. The Senate has removed seven federal judges from office."

Senator DeWine (R-Ohio) says: "[A] decision to place one's hand on the Bible and invoke God's witness--and then lie--threatens the judiciary. The judiciary is designed to be a mechanism for finding the truth--so that justice can be done. Perjury perverts the judiciary, turning it into a mechanism that accepts lies--so that injustice may prevail."

Representative Henry Hyde (R): "Lying under oath is an abuse of freedom. Obstruction of justice is a degradation of law. There are people in prison for such offenses."

Representative Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R): "[S]omething needs to be said that is a clear message that our rule of law is intact and the standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray. And I think it is most important that we make that statement and that it be on the record for history.

I very much worry that with the evidence that we have seen that grand juries across America are going to start asking questions about what is obstruction of justice, what is perjury. And I don’t want there to be any lessening of the standard. Because our system of criminal justice depends on people telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is the lynch pin of our criminal justice system and I don’t want it to be faded in any way." (Feb., 2, 1999)

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Now, the New interpretation of Perjury from the right under a Republican President (as coming from the party that declared themselves possessors of "a moral monopoly" in this country):

Representative Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R): ""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..."

A NY Times article also examines Republicans' efforts to now assert that what constituted a "high crimes and misdemeanor" as applied to Clinton, now is merely a legal technicality and not even immoral. This article indicates that "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."

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It is especially significant to note that this is an investigation regarding a leak of classified information. That information was required by federal statute to be kept confidential. Unusrprisingly, during the Clinton years, Ken Starr, or members of his prosecutorial staff, were responsible for nearly daily leaks of information from grand jury hearings; information required by Federal Statute to be kept confidential, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6 (e)(2)(b). There, the prosecutor himself was guilty of committing the very crimes that are now being investigated by Mr. Fitzgerald.

The republicans got away with it then, is it any wonder that they haven't stopped violating this law when it comes to seeking political vengence?