The chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, unwittingly set the stage for the exchange on Tuesday, in his solemn and seemingly uncompromising remarks about the evils of lying under oath.
"If citizens are allowed to lie with impunity -- or encourage others to tell false stories or hide evidence -- judges and juries cannot reach just results," said Hyde, R-Ill. "At that point, the courtroom becomes an arena for artful liars and the jury a mere focus group choosing between alternative fictions." . . .
But some people recalled what Hyde said in 1987, in Congress' inquiry into the Iran-contra affair. Defending the Reagan administration, Hyde said condemnation of all lying "just seems to me too simplistic."
"In the murkier grayness of the real world, choices must often be made," Hyde said of the Reagan administration's covert aid to anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua.
Hypocrite or not, adulterous papal knight Hyde sure doesn't suffer from the hobgoblin of small minds, eh, JLA?
. . . Republicans on the Judiciary Committee replied Friday night, "Context does matter, and the facts of the Iran-contra affair and President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky could not be more different."
"No one lied under oath, after swearing to tell the truth, and no one ever lied for personal gain," said the Republicans' statement, issued by their spokesman, Paul McNulty.
Saying no one lied under oath in Iran-contra is a bit dubious, if you hold with the legal standard of proof. There was a bit of profiteering among the back channel arms merchants too, as I recall. Then there was the drug running, but everyone knows that Mena airport thing was all Clinton's fault, and CIA drug running for the contras had nothing to do with it. Plus Iran-contra had some real Constitutional issues involved, like war powers. Secret wars, arms for hostages, so trivial compared to BJ's in the oval office, evasive testimony in an inadmissible deposition in a politically motivated civil case later settled out of court, and insufficient cooperation with the Starr inquisition. Of course, McNulty left out the most important element of context, Reagan and Co. were Republicans and Clinton's a Democrat. It's all politics.
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