Wait a damn minute, here. What happened to "the rule of law"????

Remember when the rule of law was important to Republicans?

Years before Scooter Libby was sentenced to prison, long before unannounced Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson was Libby's champion on the right. Republicans cared very much about the rule of law and perjury and obstruction of justice back then.

A few years ago, the priapic Democratic president could have made a fortune charging Republicans a quarter every time they used those three words. He kept the rule of law in business, when he wasn't on the phone in the Oval Office, talking to a congressman about sending American troops to the Balkans, while otherwise engaged with an intern under his desk.

It was just sex, hissed the Democrats. It's the rule of law, hissed the Republicans.

Now Republicans want a pardon for Libby, the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in the investigation of the Bush administration's leaking the identity of a covert CIA officer whose husband had the wrong politics on the Iraq war.

Republicans make convoluted arguments about who leaked what first. And Democrats insist he is Cheney's fall guy. I guess it all depends on what the definition of the rule of law is.


Libby was convicted of his crimes. And the rule of law should be important to everyone, particularly to those who presume to lead us.

You take an oath. You give your word. It is not only your own word, but ours too, if you're in leadership over us.

If the rule of law was good enough for Republicans then and if it's good enough for Democrats now, it should be good enough for all of them, and all of us, all the time.