Blagojevich case reveals Republican hypocrisy - authoritarian loyalty and politics more important than the rule of law

Patrick Fitzgerald is now the hero of conservatives. The conservative Hot Air blog says the arrest is "staggering" and "Fitzmas arrives early this year." The conservative American Thinker had several articles of this triumph of justice on their website - the arrest of Blagojevich. The Democrats applaud the arrest and are united against Blagojevich. Liberal host Rachel Maddow suggests Blagojevich is mentally ill, a sociopath.

What?

Wait a second. Isn't that the same prosecutor that when indicting Republican Scooter Libby, the conservatives called Fitzgerald "beneath contempt"?

From the American Thinker - 3/08/07:

Patrick Fitzgerald is a disgrace both to the legal profession and to the human race. His partisan allies, such as Senator Chuck Schumer and certain nameless bureaucrats at the CIA, are beneath contempt.... Patrick Fitzgerald fulminated in court about a cloud over the Vice President in an effort to suggest that there was something dark and sinister about administration officials discussing Valerie Plame with reporters after her husband injected her into a national controversy. That suggestion is pure left-wing fantasy.

Conservatives went after Patrick Fitzgerald as the noose tightened around the office of the VP in Plame case. Conservative Tucker Carlson, who once had glowingly approved Ken Starr's inquisition of Bill Clinton, said of Libby's prosecutor:

"You shouldn't have these freelancers, like the lunatic Fitzgerald, running around destroying people's lives for no good reason. I hate this trial."

Weekly Standard editor and New York Times conservative columnist Bill Kristol went after Fitzgerald over his inquiry into the Plame affair:

"You know, the leak story is absurd, but I now think the whole prosecution is absurd. ... I now think it's a politically motivated attempt to wound the Bush administration."

What is truly beneath contempt are the wingnut Republican bloggers, like the pathetic Bill Hobbs, who breathlessly try to tie Obama to this corrupt governor.

Obama has called for Blagojevich to resign. It has been reported that the Obama camp tipped off authorities to the corruption. What does Bush do about Scooter Libby? He commutes his sentence.

What this shows is that conservatives are very happy to overlook corruption, abuse of power, ignoring subpoenas, etc... when it involves Republicans. This clearly shows that for conservatives, authoritarian loyalty trumps the rule of law nearly every time.

The difference here is when a Bushie get called on corruption, conservatives circle the wagons because of their authoritarian loyalty. We've seen it time after time. When a Democrat gets charged, Democrats unite against the criminal. We can see which party values the rule of law over politics and ass-kissing authoritarianism.

The Republican Culture of Corruption under Bush remains unprecedented.

H/T: C&L