We need to prepare for the BeltlineBoyesque arguments that will fly from the right-wing crap machine once Rove is formally indicted:
that Fitzgerald's case is so weak and contrived he could not indict upon the original purpose of his investigation -- outing an undercover CIA officer.
So let's remind them of the nature and consequences of lies.
1. A government should not lie to it's citizens.
2. Lies can cause deaths. Many deaths. Some lies can be punishable by death.
Flip with me....
One absolutely fabulous, recent example of the legal nature of lies can be found in the just-completed trial of Zacarias Moussaoui for the murder of at least one and possibly all of the persons killed on September 11, 2001. The government's often repeated main case was that if Moussaoui had not lied to investigators soon after his capture, the disastrous events of 9/11 could have been prevented. This was
the primary thrust of the government's case against Moussaoui and was doubly emphasized during the penalty phase of his trial. He was not sentenced to death, no. But a very careful legal system allowed the jury that option. The jury was given the option of sentencing Zacarias Moussaoui to death upon the basis that he caused at least one human death... how? By telling lies. The parallels between Rove's and Moussaoui's lies are many. Neither man directly caused people to be killed (that we or the legal system know of). But didn't both
cause human death by not telling the truth?
I'm not saying that Karl Rove should be sentenced to death or that this should be an option given his jury. Just that lies can be capitol crimes. Our own government says so.
It is so important that a government not lie to it's citizens, that the lies in and of themselves are impeachable offenses. Thus, President Bill Clinton was impeached for lying. The actual effects of Bubba's lies? None. Not a human life. Not a hangnail. Not a pimple. Lies themselves are plenty serious.
We know for a fact that Fitzgerald's case against Rove will be minimized by the crap machine. It will be minimized by Fred Barnes, certainly. But let us not dream that it will not be minimized by Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzer using the exact same talking point. Moussaoui's case gives us an apt rebuttal. We should use it. We should use it right now.