What will the indictment be?
A special prosecuter is closing in on members of an administration.
Last time this happened - to the Clinton administration, it was a special prosecuter who was hired to look at business dealings of the President before he was even elected to office. There were probably 7 people in the entire country who even understood what Whitewater was. I wasn't one of them. The basis for the special prosecuter seemed tenuous at best, and when he couldn't find anything naughty in the Whitewater investigation, he turned his focus onto the personal sexual life of the President, and struck pay dirt there! (Mr. Clinton made that job easy with his quick release zipper.)
Then, Republicans saw no problem with either the questionable nature of the investigation in the first place, or the fact that the investigation became a snoop dog / watch dog for anything that the President might have done wrong. When these issues were brought up at the height of the Clinton scandal, Republicans generally were indignant - wrong is wrong - it doesn't matter how we came to the indictment.
The worst part of the Whitewater investigation was that it still is. That is, as I understand it, we are still spending money for that investigation to continue. Hello - when does this end?
The tables are turned a bit now, and it is pure entertainment all over again. This time, the nature of the investigation makes sense. That is, someone in the administration has committed a shameful act at the very least in leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent - and purely for political motivation it would appear. In my opinion, I can't imagine how such behavior doesn't rise to the level of at least "high crimes and misdemeanors", or more likely grand treason!
But the Republican press is busy smearing the special prosecuter already, preparing for the possibility that people like Karl Rove or Scooter Libby (or others?) might actually be indicted for something like conspiracy rather than treason. If there isn't enough evidence for treason, then it doesn't seem fair to them that some other charge might be considered I guess.
What if the special prosecuter were to start to dig into the pre-election business dealings of either Mr. Bush or Mr Cheney - I wonder what they might find...
So here we go again folks, but this time, the massive Republican media machine might be able to stop the special prosecuter machine before it reaches critical mass.
The Relevance of the Special Prosecuter
And what about the special prosecuter anyway? Can't this get out of control?
I think it can. I think that limits should be placed on these people to prevent them from digging into issues that are either irrelevant, (as Monica Lewinski was), or trivial.
However, I also think that in this era when way too much power seems to be getting concentrated into the office of the presidency - especially when that office also controls Congress and the Supreme Court as they do today - a special prosecuter might just be the only check and balance that we have on an office with way more power than was ever intended by our founding fathers.
Fair Game
At the end of the day, what should be fair game for Fitz to go after?
I think that we have a clear precedent in this matter - the Whitewater investigation. In the end, we indicted the President, (but failed to convict him), on charges that he lied about who he slept with. With that precedent, I think that we can fairly say that that anything is fair game - the prosecuter should be able to put the President of the United States on the stand, and ask him about his personal sex life, and if he lies, then he is open to impeachment. (sic)
That was absurd when it happened to Clinton, and would be absurd today. I hope that my friends who support these people who are in power today and who call themselves Republican see now just how silly the Clinton/Lewinski ordeal really was. I also hope that my friend who are Democrats see how silly it would be to repeat our past folly.
But, anything that involves the security of this country, or the business dealings of the office of the Presidency, should be fair game.
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