When the courts are asked to mete out justice in cases that are invaded by politics, the justice always comes in the most cruelly ironic forms. A federal appeals court overturned the conviction of Oliver North for arming Iran and Nicaraguan rebels in violation of U.S. law because he had admitted the crimes in immunized testimony before Congress in advance of his trial, and he became a national hero. But former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who had wisely opposed North's plans, had to be spared prison in a particularly infamous way, by a presidential pardon days before George Bush left office in 1993.
Whitewater promises more and greater perversities.
Consider the ironies in the convictions last week of Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Jim and Susan McDougal for their ancient dealings with David Hale. Gov. Tucker, who was convicted of two counts of fraud for his dealings with Hale and McDougal in the 1980s, took a bullet that was intended for Clinton, his chief adversary for much of his political career. Clinton thwarted his political career repeatedly, first by throwing his support to Tucker's foe in the 1978 Senate runoff primary, then by destroying Tucker in the governor's race in 1982, by knocking him out of the governor's race in 1990 and finally by installing Clinton's powerful banking friend, William H. Bowen, in the governor's office in 1992 to keep Tucker away from the reins of government. A Republican investigation that seeks to end the political career of Bill Clinton takes out his old foe instead. The national media treats them as close friends.