Skip to main content

Further Thoughts on Plamegate

Further Thoughts on Plamegate

John Steele Gordon asserts that there is some profound difference between the Valerie Plame affair and all previous Washington scandals, that there is no scandal because “no one has endangered the Republic,” and that if Fitzgerald indicts anyone, this will be a case of the criminalization of normal politics. This seems premature at best, since unlike some special prosecutors’ investigations Fitzgerald’s does not seem to leak like a sieve, so we do not know what charges, if any, he will make, or what indictments he will seek. But the odds seem pretty good that he is thinking about obstruction of justice, making false and possibly perjurious statements, illegal disclosure of classified information, and conspiracy. In other words, some of the possible charges sound a lot like the ones that fueled the Watergate and Monica Lewinsky scandals, and the ones that differ seem more serious than any crime President Clinton(or Sherman Adams) can be plausibly accused of having committed.

Whatever anyone thinks of the merits or applicability of the law the CIA first thought had been violated, obstruction of justice is not a trivial charge. Criminalizing normal politics is a admittedly a serious and dangerous business, and to a majority of the electorate, it looked as if that was what the Republicans were up to during the Clinton administration, when they pursued impeachment charges. It seems odd to say that this is what Fitzgerald is doing now, or what he will be doing if he seeks indictments on the charges enumerated above. John Steele Gordon does wisely warn that “a fully enfranchised people” can, “when roused, take their sovereign power seriously” and slap “down their misbehaving public servants sooner rather than later.” Indeed, that is what a fully enfranchised people did to the Republicans in the 1998 Congressional elections, and for that matter in the 1974 Congressional elections. Current polling data suggest that it is at least possible that they will do so yet again to the Republicans, in the 2006 Congressional elections. But the chance that the electorate will turn against the Democrats because Republican White House aides are accused of, for example, obstruction of justice, seems derisory.

In retrospect, there are some ‘90s lessons about criminalizing politics that might have been acted on. When the Supreme Court assumed that President Clinton could defend himself against civil litigation while discharging the duties of his office, it appears to have been grievously mistaken. It would be good if the Republican Congress and commentariat had admitted that and sought to change it. The use of litigation as a political weapon by Paula Jones’s lawyers might also have set off some alarms. It didn’t. There are a lot of lessons we might have drawn and acted on—but none of them seem relevant to the current investigation of the Valerie Plame affair.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Featured Articles

Famous writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts turned Sleepy Hollow Cemetery into our country’s first conservation project.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.

Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.

Born during Jim Crow, Belle da Costa Greene perfected the art of "passing" while working for one of the most powerful men in America.