Breakin rocks in the hot sun

(Graphic from the effervescent darkblack)

It's all about the "Rule of Law". Except when it isn't. From today's Editor & Publisher:

“If jail time is issued, I would hope the president would issue a pardon,” said former Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., a member of Libby’s legal defense fund.

. . . During the scandal that led to President Clinton’s impeachment, while Democrats decried Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation as politics run amok, Republicans fell back on a familiar ground: “This case is not about sex,” Nickles said in 1998. “This case is about perjury.” Now Nickles and Libby’s other supporters find themselves on the other side, railing against Fitzgerald’s investigation.

Right. Nickles adds, unironically:

“I think he became so wrapped up in the case, he lost perspective and said, “I gotta get something for this. I gotta get a scalp,” Nickles said recently.

A little more of the Google re: "Clinton" & "rule of law" finds a wonderful book about which I'd forgotten, wherein several wingers, along with Nadine Strossen of the ACLU, take Clinton to task for various issues under that heading. From the book review at the Cato Institute we find some delicious quotes:

Senator Fred Thompson examines China's illegal contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign and the abject refusal of Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate the matter, concluding that "there can be no clearer example of the undermining of the rule of law."

Roger Pilon looks at Clinton's disdain for constitutionally limited government. Repeatedly, Clinton acted "as if the Constitution were an empty vessel to be filled with his policies and programs." In a similar vein, former Assistant Attorney General Douglas W. Kmiec examines Clinton's efforts to promote his policies through executive orders, "often without any citation of statutory authority, thereby bypassing legislative procedure."

Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Project for Criminal Justice, notes that "Clinton has exhibited contempt for the very Constitution he took an oath to uphold," as evidenced by his support for warrantless searches of public housing units, warrantless drug testing in public schools, a weakening of the right to trial by jury, and expanded property forfeiture.

Former Assistant Attorney General Theodore B. Olson chronicles how Clinton and Reno have thoroughly politicized the Justice Department. Berkeley Law Professor John C. Yoo discusses the imperial president abroad, showing how Clinton has abused constitutional restraints on his foreign power while ceding the authority of the federal government itself to international institutions.

All I can say is: are you freakin' kidding me? John "Unitary Executive" Yoo complaining that Clinton "abused constitutional restraints on his foreign power"?

That alone proves, although all the other quotes do as well, that it's not even ideological with these guys, it's purely partisan.

IOKIYAR. Look it up.

Bastards.