Ah, Independence Day, where we as Americans celebrate the right of people like Kate O’Beirne to make complete asses of themselves on national television. Huzzah! (“Ah’m PROUD to be an Amurricunnnn, whur at least Ah know Ah’m freeeee, etc., etc….”) O’Beirne, as most of you know, has been an iron-shod shock-trooper in the War on Justice as pertaining to Scooter Libby, and the commutation of his sentence has done nothing to dampen her evangelical zeal to appear on TeeVee in his defense.

Oddly enough, Tweety pulled his face out of the Kool-Aid™ pitcher long enough last night to call her out. I know, shock, horror. You could have knocked me over with a feather. And interestingly enough, Matthews was actually talking sense on matters pertaining to Bill Clinton, without even so much as a longing glance in the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Big Dog’s underwear drawer.

Truly, the End Times must be at hand. (Of course, he ruins the effect at the end by pulling his typical false equivalency deal, “Democrats do it too!”, as is his wont, never mind that President Clinton was not convicted of perjury or obstruction of justice by any court, before or after his presidency. Whatever makes those Dewar’s and sodas with Joe Klein go down easier, Chris…)

Let’s go to the transcript:

Matthews: Where were you on President Clinton’s perjury and obstruction of justice? Did you support impeachment of him for those crimes?

Kate O’Beirne: For his…yes, for his self-confessed, his self-confessed, for his self-confessed perjury…

Matthews: Well, let me get this straight. If a Democrat does it, it’s a High Crime. But if a Republican does it, it’s, what, “prosecutorial overreach”?

O’Beirne: (emphatically, condescendingly) Chris, he admitted to committing perjury.

Matthews: Right, I’m just trying to find some consistency here from Kate O’Beirne.

Hooboy, Mr. Matthews, good luck with that. You might as well try to find some sobriety here from Pete Doherty.

Don’t you get it, yet? O’Beirne only believes in prosecution of people who aren’t part of her own, wealthy, hard-Right milieu. If Li’l Kim lies to a grand jury? Well, we’ve never seen her at Lynne Cheney’s Chili Fridays, she must need to go to jail, whereas, say, if Michael Ledeen slaughters an entire immigrant family and their pets? Well, surely all the nuances and facts of the case should be taken into consideration before the White House throws him a bone and sends him on his way scot-free, the little scamp.

It’s how “Justice” works under the Bush Administration. We are only a nation of laws if no one in Bush’s inner circle was your college roommate. Ipso facto. Quod erat demonstrandum.

And of course, the lesson that the Democrats in Congress are sending to history by being too lazy and cowed to take this obstruction of justice rap and hang it around the Preznint’s neck like an anvil is this: If you are a Chief Executive who flagrantly abuses power and participates in criminal activity, don’t worry your precious Presidential head one bit. Congress won’t impeach you because it’s too hard, and because Rush Limbaugh might say nasty things about them.

Happy Independence Day, y’all. That drilling sound you hear? It’s James Madison rolling in his grave.

James Madison of Virginia argued in favor of impeachment stating that some provision was “indispensible” to defend the community against “the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate.” With a single executive, Madison argued, unlike a legislature whose collective nature provided security, “loss of capacity or corruption was more within the compass of probable events, and either of them might be fatal to the Republic.”40 Benjamin Franklin supported impeachment as “favorable to the executive”; where it was not available and the chief magistrate had “rendered himself obnoxious,” recourse was had to assassination. The Constitution should provide for the “regular punishment of the Executive when his misconduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal when he should be unjustly accused. (from the Washington Post archive of Documents from The Starr Referral)