DC Liars Club

"We believed in him, and he lied."
David Bonior, former national campaign manager for John Edwards (1)

"It (the Lewinsky affair) is nobody's business but ours."
President Bill Clinton, 1998

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004 and failed presidential candidate this year, now qualifies to join the Washington Liars Club (Bill Clinton, President for Life) by admitting he lied about his affair with a woman who had assisted his campaigns.

Other prominent members include senators from Louisiana and Idaho, who were caught "looking for love in all the wrong places", namely a virtual whorehouse and airport men's room, respectively. Former Senator Gary Hart may have found it aboard the yacht "Monkey Business." The ex-governor of New York is enrolled in the Big Apple chapter. But why do so many prominent politicians keep having extra-marital affairs and then lying about them?

I contend that the human male is hardwired to lust after nubile girls and young women, even as he and his wife get older. The Torah, recognizing this proclivity, permits a man to marry more than one woman. Many great leaders of the Jewish people had more than one wife : Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon, to name a few. Islam and many African traditions also permit polygamy. On the other hand, the founder of Christianity was apparently a lifelong bachelor, and the Catholic Church to this day forbids divorce and re-marriage and forbids clergy to marry at all.

About a thousand years ago the rabbis of Europe met and established the Cherem (ex-communication) of Rabbi Gershom, which forbids Ashkenazic Jewish men from having more than one wife at a time. (The rabbis of Asia and Africa did not accept this stricture.) Since then Jews of Europe (and later America) have joined Christians in embracing monogamy. When the Mormons re-introduced Old Testament-style polygamy into mid-19th century America, they were driven from Illinois and Missouri, and found refuge in the desolate area now known as Utah. (2)

Although efforts to legalize polygamy in the United States have gotten exactly nowhere (3), state laws against adultery have been either repealed or fallen into disuse. American society has become far more tolerant of sex outside of marriage in recent decades, including adulterous affairs. Men with power, money and fame have more opportunities for extra-marital sex than other men, so it is not too surprising that quite a few have taken that bait.

Although many men seeking high elective office in our time are not faithful to their wives, it would be politically disastrous to admit that publicly. They must appear to embrace "family values," particularly loyalty to one's spouse. And that is where the lies begin. President John Kennedy avoided this problem only because the press in his time embraced the attitude "Don't ask, don't tell" about presidential adultery.

Some say that it is not important if a politician "just lies about sex." The trouble is that even this type of lying indicates that the man is not trustworthy. Show me a man who lies about sex, and I'll show you a liar.
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(1) Associated Press, August 9, 2008.

(2) Utah was admitted to the union only after the Mormon Church banned polygamy in 1890.

(3) Wisconsin State Representative Lloyd Barbee (Democrat, Milwaukee) introduced a bill to legalize group marriage in 1970, but it garnered no support. In 2006 the Wisconsin Constitution was amended to limit marriage to "one man and one woman."

Liberating Libby

On July 2 President George W Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, who had been convicted of perjury, lying to investigators, and obstruction of the investigation of the Valerie Plame case. He will still have to pay a quarter of a million dollar fine, however. Unless his conviction is overturned on appeal, which is unlikely, he will be barred from practicing law or holding any government position for the rest of his life.

Libby was convicted of telling the FBI that he heard about Plame's role as an undercover CIA agent from reporters, while the truth was that he heard it from his boss, the Vice President. Although the leak of this information to the press was ultimately traced to State Department official Richard Armitage, no else was charged in the case.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, commented " Only a president ...incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today."(1) But House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R, Mo.) said " President Bush did the right thing.....the punishment did not fit the crime."

Who is right? Who is wrong?

First , I will concede that there are many people sitting in federal prisons today convicted of offenses no more serious than those of which Libby was found guilty . Unlike Libby, they did not have powerful connections to the Bush White House, and the President does appear overly concerned over their incarceration. Although we aspire to equal justice for all, the fact remains that people with wealth and political connections fare better in the criminal justice system than the poor and unimportant. (Just ask O J Simpson!)

However, in the context of lying and misrepresentation in the White House, Libby' s sentence was unusally harsh and the commutation was justified. Here are some examples:

Richard Nixon: President Nixon told numerous lies about his knowledge of the Watergate break-in, and urged subordinates to lie to federal agencies and commit perjury. By doing so, Nixon was able to hide the truth until after he was re-elected, and it took more than two years for the truth to emerge. When it did, the credibility of the presidency was undermined for a generation.
While many of his underlings went to jail, Nixon received a full pardon from his successor Gerald Ford on September 8, 1974. When Ford died earlier this year, his decision to pardon Nixon was widely praised. Unlike Libby, Nixon (whose offenses were far more injurious to the nation) never had to contend with a trial , conviction or fine. If Ford's pardon was right, Bush's commutation was even more so. Let's see how many of those who praised Ford's action taken in 1974 will now salute the more modest clemency provided by Bush now.

Bill Clinton: President Clinton lied repeatedly about the Monica Lewinsky affair in a deposition under oath and in many public statements. After securing the dubious distinction of being only the second US President to be impeached (2), Clinton refused to resign and ultimately beat the rap in the Senate. He could have been indicted for perjury after leaving office in 2001, but the Bush Justice Department never pursued the matter. The term of Special Prosecutor Kenneth W Starr had expired, so Clinton incurred no penalty at all (aside from humilation) for his lies.

Iraq Lies: You might consider these examples as not applicable to the Libby case, since both Nixon and Clinton were President of the United States when they told their fibs. One might conclude that Presidents can lie with impunity, but appointed officials will be held legally accountable for doing so. Recent history actually shows that many officials have told lies about far more serious matters than the Valerie Plame case, and were never even charged.
Then Secretary of State Colin Powell stated in early 2003 that President Bush "did not have a plan for invading Iraq on his desk." Powell knew that Bush had planned to topple Sadam Hussein since becoming President (3), and had ordered the Defense Department to prepare a plan to invade Iraq. The fact that the plan was not "on his desk" at the moment that Powell made the statement is a "red herring" that does not detract from the the intentionally misleading nature of the statement.
Vice President Cheney said, at about the same time, that the President was certain that Sadam was developing nuclear weapons. Since we now know that the Iraq nuclear program was dead since about 1991, there was no way that President Bush could be certain that the program was succeeding. Of course, Cheney knew this when he made the claim.
National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice spoke about an Iraqi "mushroom cloud" at this time, giving the American people the false impression that the Government had secret proof that Sadam had, or was about to have, atomic bombs. Like Powell and Cheney, Rice knew that the evidence for an Iraqi nuclear program was inconclusive at best.
None of these people, nor anyone else, has even been charged with lying about the pretext for attacking Iraq, which has resulted in far more harm to Americans and US interests than the Plame case.

Since Libby is no danger to the public, and will never have the opportunity to lie again as a government official, imprisoning him would really accomplish nothing. The "message" that the commutation sends to others in government jobs (now or in the future) is only that if you lie and get caught, you might be lucky enough to avoid jail via executive clemency. But then again, you might not be well enough connected to get the ear of the President, or he may have left office by time your trial is over. Either way, you will still lose your job, your career, and much (or all) of your life-savings. Is that enough of a deterrent?

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(1)Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 3, 2007, page 9A.

(2) Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 and narrowly acquitted. Nixon resigned before the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on impeachment in August, 1974.

(3) As revealed by then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Powell was present when regime-change in Iraq was first proposed in 2001.