Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Or, a little lying to WaPo readers?

Pottle, Kettle, Black Award for the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz for criticizing Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison thusly:

It is true that prosecutors who can't prove the original crime often wind up bringing perjury and obstruction charges. But lying to investigators, or to a federal grand jury, strikes at the heart of the law-enforcement process. This happens to be the message that GOPers pounded over and over again when Clinton dissembled over Monica, so surely they take it seriously. Or is that only when a Democrat is president?

Hutchison likened the senior administration officials who might or might not be indicted to Martha Stewart, who was only charged with a cover-up (lying about insider trading is okay as long as you're not convicted of insider trading? ....).

But, a quick phone call to former Clinton Administration official Walter Dellinger--now Martha's legal representative for her appeal-- would have disabused Mr. Kurtz of the idea that his client was even charged with lying about insider trading, much less convicted of that charge.

Or, Kurtz could read Dellinger's appeal brief which explains that the prosecution effectively conflated the illegal insider trading of Imclone CEO Sam Waksal with Martha's perfectly legal sale of what remained of her Imclone holdings on December 27, 2001.

Which is exactly Senator Hutchison's point.

No comments: