It's the crime

Josh over at Talking Points Memo has another good point to make:

There's this old line the wise folks in Washington have that 'it's not the crime, but the cover-up.'

But only fools believe that. It's always about the crime. The whole point of the cover-up is that a full revelation of the underlying crime is not survivable. Let me repeat that, the whole point of the cover-up is a recognition that a full revelation of the underlying bad act is not survivable. Indeed, the cover-ups are usually successful. And that's why they're tried so often. Just look at this administration. They're the ultimate example of this truth.

Just consider Watergate -- the ur-scandal from which this bit of faux wisdom emanates. Of course, there had to be a cover-up. How long would Richard Nixon have lasted in the White House after he came forward and admitted that he had a private team of professional crooks breaking into the opposition party's headquarters and committing various other crimes at his behest? How would that have gone over?

Same here.

Enough of this shambling foolery. The controversy wasn't 'sparked' by the break down of the cover-up. The 'controversy' is about the underlying bad acts. To say that there's a scandal because the cover-up didn't work is no more than a dingbat truism -- something you really would expect from Miers.

This is about finding out what really happened. All the effort that has gone into preventing that tells you the tale.