Over at Politico, Scott Horton makes a good case for it. If the former House Speaker had been willing for it to be more or less public knowledge—known to the government, at least—that he was taking out large amounts of cash, he wouldn’t have been charged with a crime. Since he tried to conceal that by making multiple cash withdrawals just under the $10,000 reporting limit, and lied about why he was doing it to the FBI, he’s facing legal charges and being tried in the court of public opinion for sexually molesting young men, which has revived memories of his (very) suspicious handling of Rep. Mark Foley’s sex-chatting with House pages back in 2006.
I’ve never been a fan of Dennis, who is in fact hoist on his own petard, because the “crime” of withdrawing lots of cash in increments slightly under the $10,000 limit was invented by the notorious “USA Patriot Act,” which Haskert, as Speaker, aggressively helped enact into law. Under the guise of protecting us from “terrorists,” federal law enforcement types threw in some extra goodies that basically make it a crime to act suspiciously, which is something just about all of us do from time to time. You can call Haskert’s indictment kismet if you like, and, as a heartlessly partisan Democrat, I don’t mind seeing the Republican brand collect a little more tarnish on top of the layer added by the once-adorable Josh Dugger, but, frankly, I think Denny got screwed.
Afterwords
Over at Slate, Amanda Marcotte properly wonders why Republicans insisted on embracing the Dugger clan in the first place. Keep ‘em barefoot and pregnant and choose their husbands for them? Is that what America wants?
I previously complained about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich going to jail for fourteen years for basically running his mouth.
Update
William Saletan, also over at Slate, argues rather reasonably that Haskert deserves to be indicted, not for being a big shot, but for being an asshole—more particularly, for voting to impeach President Clinton for the sort of “derivative crimes” with which he’s now being charged. I’m tempted to agree, but I think I’ll stick with the old “two wrongs don’t make a right” meme.
