Capitol crimes and Misdemeanors: honesty and justice in politics

In a feisty discussion of politics last week a friend told me, “Face it. There ain’t no justice and you all are partly to blame. Why don’t you call a spade a spade, demand answers and rein them in? When will the media do more than serve as voyeurs or a steno pool for the power brokers in government?”
He may be right. This week the media gave us footage of the weepy farewell duo, Stinky and the Brain, and it was enough to reduce us all to tears. Dubya and Karl Rove, cutting the cord at last. There was the decided stench of dissembling in the air. Fleeing the scene of the crime(s), Rove mewled that old political saw, “It’s time ... I just want to be with my family ... ” It begs the question: Which investigation, which subpoena, sir, is about to rise up and bite you on the keester? The CIA leak? Jack Abramoff? The Justice Department fiasco?
Maybe Rove only misspoke about his reason for leaving. He does that a lot. Often enough that he had to answer to the Libby grand jury over and again to “correct” his misstatements. Pols misspeak. They insist they’re smart enough to lead the country but their memories fail them at critical moments and slips-of-the-tongue plague them both before taking office and after. Bush/Cheney et al misspoke about reasons for war, misspoke about the cost, the length, the hardship their war would entail. “Mission Accomplished” was a misstatement. So was “The insurgency is in its last throes.” John McCain says he misspoke about his carefree (heavily armed) shopping spree in Baghdad awhile back. Giuliani admits he recently misspoke about all the long hours he spent — as long or longer than those laborers on site — sucking up the poisoned air at ground zero after 9/11. Mitt Romney, when asked why not one of his five strapping sons is in the military fighting the war he so ardently supports, claimed his sons’ version of equally patriotic service to their country in wartime is helping him get elected. The lofty pursuit of a Romney presidency trumps bloody military service any day. “I misspoke,” Romney said when the statement backfired.
To be fair, Democratic legislators who voted to authorize Dubya’s Iraq War are queuing up in the “I misspoke” line rather than admit they were too cowardly to vote their common sense and conscience in the face of a “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists!” tack on the part of the White House. Can’t get re-elected if you’re an unpatriotic terrorist sympathizer, so go along.
Seems the powerful elite can slide by, doing or saying whatever they deem necessary to get or keep power, legal or not. Ethical or not. Unless it’s about sex. And they never lie. They only “misspeak.” Unless it’s about sex; then a lie’s a lie and somebody must be held accountable.
Ordinary folk can’t get away with it. Lie little and your reputation is shot. Lie big — and you’ll pay the price. We don’t have the mass media serving as tail-wagging PR flunkies.
So we’re supposed to believe a sudden yen for family time is Karl Rove’s noble reason for getting out of Dodge? Right. I’ll still respect you in the morning and the check’s in the mail.

Linda Hansen has been a published working writer and poet for over twenty years. She has a love/hate relationship with politics.