I can appreciate the difficulty in spinning a scandal as serious as the Plame Game, but when Republican senators are reduced to arguing that perjury is a trivial “technicality,” you know the party is bottoming out. And yet, that’s exactly what Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) did on Meet the Press yesterday. (C&L has video)
“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 and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.”
There was, unfortunately, no indication that Hutchison was kidding.
For what it’s worth, Hutchison’s argument about perjury not being a crime is patently ridiculous. As Think Progress noted, “perjury is just a little technicality punishable by up to five years in prison.”
Moreover, it’s fascinating to see the dramatic change in Hutchison’s approach to this issue. In fact, Hutchison was singing a far different tune in February 1999.
“[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….
“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.”
Breathtaking hypocrisy notwithstanding, the “it’s only perjury” argument is apparently a part of the new White House strategy.
[A]llies 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.
These guys really don’t wear desperation well.