October 26, 2005 6:56 AM

Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener

DOUBLE STANDARD: Texas senator who voted to impeach President Clinton on perjury and obstruction of justice now calls such charges ‘technicalities.’

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson: What Crime?

Taking On a Leak

What would we be telling Americans if the Senate of the United States were to conclude: The president lied under oath as an element of a scheme to obstruct the due process of law, but we chose to look the other way. I cannot make that choice. I cannot look away.

  • Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), 1999 (Uh, yeah…that was then, this is now, eh?)

DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener #309: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)

There are few things more despicable in a poltiician than a poorly camouflaged ability to pillory those on the other side of the aisle for real or perceived crimes while protecting those on their own side for similar transgressions. In 1999, Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted to impeach then-President Bill Clinton for lying about his affair with zaftig White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In doing so, she made it clear that she would not be party to condoning the sort of moral, ethical and legal failures that Clinton had in her mind demonstrated. Of course, the fact that Clinton was a Democrat had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with her impeachment vote.

Yeah, right….

Now that VP Dick Cheney and his Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, find themselves in some potentially uncomfortably warm legal water, Hutchison has suddenly changed her tune, revealing herself as the corrupt, craven political animal she truly is. Truly, Sen. Hutchison has taken the final step and ascended to full DUMB@$$ status, eh?

BACK in 1999 when the U.S. Senate tried and ultimately acquitted President Bill Clinton after he was impeached by the House, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas had no doubt about the seriousness of the alleged crime. Clinton stood accused of lying under oath and obstructing the investigation of his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky….

As news accounts indicate special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald might be preparing to bring perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Bush administration officials involved in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, Hutchison is taking a different view. Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday, she seemed quite willing to look away from such violations this time around.

Well, of course, because, as we should all know by now, being a Republican means never having to say you’re sorry OR be held accountable for your transgressions. Moral reprobates like Hutchison make sure of that.

The senator decried the tendency of prosecutors and district attorneys to “go for technicalities, sort of a gotcha mentality in this country.” If Fitzgerald does return indictments, she hoped that they would involve a crime and not some “perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on a crime.”

When Meet the Press host Tim Russert pointed out the contradiction between her past and current positions on perjury and obstruction, Hutchison responded that there were other charges against Clinton and, “I’m not saying that those were not crimes. They are.” Hutchison went on to express sympathy for homemaking maven Martha Stewart, convicted “where they couldn’t find a crime and they indict on something that she said about something that wasn’t a crime.”

There were no “other charges” against Clinton that complicated his case. The only difference here is that Clinton was a Democrat and Cheney and Libby are Conservative Red Meat Republicans, and therefore, to Hutchison’s way of thinking, should be held to a much different, and apparently far less stringent, standard. After all, what good Republican doesn’t stand up for her own kind? Especially when she might be able to see an Ambassadorship or a run for Governor in Texas somewhere down the line?

And I’m not the only one incensed about Hutichison’s two-faced, fungible moral outrage. The editorial staff of the Houston Chronicle, not normally know for their Left-wing leanings, are not at all happy with Hutchison and her fluid moral standards:

One cannot pick and choose when a charge is justified. Lying to investigators and grand juries is not a technicality. Our system of law depends on the ability of law enforcement to get at the truth, both in interviews with investigators and in sworn testimony in court. The penalties can be personally devastating and often do not hinge on other crimes. Former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros continues to be dogged by a decade-long investigation set off by his admitted lies to FBI agents vetting him for a Cabinet post about how much money he had paid a former mistress, an act that was not a crime.

If Hutchison found perjury and obstruction reason enough to throw a president out of office, surely those offenses would be sufficient cause to charge people if they obstructed a probe of a potential violation of national security laws. The unmasking of a covert CIA operative can have life and death consequences for previous associates met over the years in countries around the world.

Public officials such as Sen. Hutchison do not enhance their stature when they seem to support one standard of justice for officials of the opposing party and another for their own. What was good for the Democratic goose in the Clinton impeachment trial should be good enough for the Republican gander in the Plame investigation.

What does it say about a Republican Senator’s moral standards when her outrage and righteous indignation is heavily dependent on which side of the political fence an alleged offender happens to sit? Well, to me it says that Hutchison’s moral standards have nothing at all to do with the alleged transgressions of the individuals in question. It has EVERYTHING to do with party affiliation and ideology. And that is just about the most reprehensible thing imaginable in a politician. Of course, this IS Texas, and Republicans voters will forgive an incumbent for buggering goats if he or she votes reliably Conservative and flashes the occasional burst of righteous indignation. Even so, it is difficult for me to believe that Texas votes are so ignorant and undemanding of their elected representative. Then again, 99.937% of Texans DID vote for Our Glorious Leader….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 26, 2005 6:56 AM.

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