Scooter Did What?

While the rest of America went to work, helped kids with homework and took dogs for walks, Washington D.C.-ers waited breathlessly for a political genius to fall. Alas, Karl Rove still lurks next to W and a guy named Scooter, who by all accounts is as harmless as his name suggests, sits somewhere indicted of the same kind of ticky-tack stuff that landed Martha in the clink for six months and tethered to her house for a few more.

The only thing that these cases illustrate to me is that even powerful people are subjected to the torture only a zealous prosecuter can conjure up. For all the doctors, business people and other average Joes who unknowingly run amok of some federal, state or local statute and pay a huge financial, time and reputational price for essentially nothing, perhaps Scooter will get good representation and shove back. We can hope.

I tried to explain to a dear relative of mine (she knows who she is) that every one of us is guilty of something--America has so many laws now that none of us is immune. She balked. Ha! Let's hope the IRS never combs through her records for a start.

The problem with all this "investigation"? An indictment is not conviction of a crime, but it might as well be. For all intents and purposes, Scooter's reputation is toast no matter the outcome of the hugely expensive trial that he will have to pay whether he is found innocent or not. Toast.

The weird thing? People actually salivate and feel good about this. What is wrong with them? Don't they realize that they could be next?