Tuesday, July 03, 2007

What's Past Is Past


Mr. Starr's view holds that in a society founded on the rule of law, false swearing or witness tampering, abuse of office or obstruction of justice by the person vested with the highest legal powers is impermissible no matter how petty the subject. - "Shame at the White House," New York Times (12 September 1998)



The idea seems to be that perjury about sex is not as serious as perjury about other matters. That won't wash.

Lying under oath strikes at the heart of our system of justice and the rule of law. It does not matter in the least what the perjury is about. - Robert Bork & James Rosen, "The Clinton Meltdown," National Review (12 October 1998)



And we know that when a person testifies under oath that he doesn't remember something when in fact he does, he has committed perjury. - William Bennett, "What We Know," Wall Street Journal (10 November 1998)



Perjury to cover embarrassing personal behavior is still perjury; and such perjury is sufficiently serious a federal crime for Sen. Herbert Kohl to have argued that the president could still be "criminally prosecuted, especially once he leaves office." - Gary McDowell, "Rule of Law," Wall Street Journal (30 August 1999)



since the 1960s, truth has been a conspicuous casualty: not only particular truths but also allegiance to the very ideal of truth as an indispensable component of any just and moral life. The competing, countercultural ideal holds that loyalty to the personal trumps loyalty to the truth - Roger Kimball, "Leftists Sacrifice Truth on the Altar of Friendship," Wall Street Journal (22 February 1999)



And this was the essential problem, it was the going around the Justice Department that created all the scandals that are now flowering." - David Brooks on the Marc Rich Pardon, February 22, 2001



And finally:


"I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own," -
George W. Bush on why he signed death warrants for 152 inmates as governor of Texas. The quote is from his own book, "A Charge To Keep."


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