The case for obstruction was on its face very weak. And is now revealed as exceedingly weak. It will only get more so, if cross examination, etc. is actually undergone. As it need not be.
The case for perjury before the Grand Jury, which is a legal term subject to precise legal determination, is now revealed to be exceedingly weak. And again, could only become more so.
And the case for perjury, under all the circumstances, in the Jones deposition is also very weak. The President makes a very good case that he was trying, hard, not to technically commit perjury. Perhaps it could be shown he slipped up somewhere. But especially when one considers the materiality of his Lewinsky testimony to the Jones harassment case, no jury would ever return a guilt verdict there either. Even on present facts.
Starr has shot his best shots. Cross and all would only help the President, unless the lawyers who do it are utterly incompetent.
This is a laughable High Crime and Misdemeanor case. Laughable.
Made serious only by eight months of media drumbeat. Where they have acted as fully complicit leak conspirators, for their own professional reasons. And have acted as co-prosecutors, both for the ratings, the personal fame and TV face time, and for their quest for the mantle of Woodward & Bernstein.
In a case that deserved to be treated very differently.
Doug |
