5 Feet of Fury

Mark Steyn: When Clinton-era Dems scoffed ‘Everybody does it’, they weren’t kidding

When someone tells you what they are, believe them.

Mark Steyn writes:

This is not to say that Hastert is not an utterly repulsive creature and, if the allegations are true, someone who deserves every torment with which he can be afflicted. But this is the equivalent of nailing Al Capone because he forgot to put his W2 in with his tax return. It’s all very clever getting somebody on technicalities, but it turns a land of law into a land of legalisms.* It’s entirely appropriate for public outrage to hound Hastert into obscurity, but to charge him with a pseudo-crime simply for the satisfaction of the attendant public humiliation is a use of state power I would be reluctant to encourage.

(* Loyal 5FF readers know my views on that matter…)