Just politics?

When does the “just political” become criminal? We know there are so-called “dirty tricks” in politics but when, if ever, do dirty tricks become more than “just politica?” I guess Watergate would be an example of a “just political” stunt gone wrong and therefore passing over into criminal. After all, it was a burglary as well as a political dirty trick. And it did bring down the Nixon Presidency.

But what about something like Republicans planting a rumor that John McCain had fathered a black baby? Or that Dukakis was mentally ill? Or that Bill Clinton had Vince Foster murdered? No one seems to have ever been punished for any of these claims. How about the Swift Boat Veterans for (un)Truth. They clearly acted with malice and also clearly lied. John Dean has suggested that John Kerry should sue, so perhaps what they have done might be considered criminal. What about Bob Dole’s slanderous remarks about Kerry’s medals? When questioned about it he replied that it was “just politics.”

More importantly, perhaps, how did Tripp and Goldberg and others get away with conspiring to bring down a legally elected and popular president? Shouldn’t a conspiracy to bring down a president be illegal? After millions were spent chasing nonsensical charges and Clinton was unable to tend to more important matters for eight years, shouldn’t someone have been held responsible? Or was it all “just politics?”

What if it should turn out that the recently published letters respecting Bush’s service in the Guard were, indeed, fraudulent (not that I believe they were, but suppose)? Would that be considered “just political?”

And how about the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters in Florida?” Just another political dirty trick? How about the Republicans stealing Democratic memos from the computers? Or telling black voters the wrong day for the election? Tying up the Democratic phone line on election day?

It would seem that Republicans would have lost a great many elections had they not stooped to these kinds of dirty tricks. They are certainly engaged in more of the same at the moment. And they always seem to go unpunished, So, are we to just accept that these kinds of things are just routine in American politics? That there are no limits to the kind of dirty tricks and dishonesty the public has to accept as “just political?”