Hypocrisy, Republican style

What amazes me about Republican hacks is how completely blind they are to their own hypocrisy. For instance, last night Fred Barnes, co-founder of the Weekly Standard, said this on Faux News:

Politicians should be allowed to call federal prosecutors and question them about ongoing cases, says Weekly Standard co-founder Fred Barnes...

Fellow panelist Mara Liasson of NPR later concedes, "Ethics experts down the line say that elected officials are not supposed to inquire about ongoing cases."

"Why?" exclaims Barnes in reply. "That's nonsense! Total nonsense!"

Now, you know without a shadow of a doubt that if a similar call had occurred when the Democrats were in power, he would be screaming bloody murder. Similarly, you know without a shadow of a doubt that if the Democrats gain power in 2008 and something similar occurs where a Democrat in the Senate leans on a federal prosecutor to investigate a Republican, he will scream bloody murder and call for investigations.

It's simply laughable.

Then, there's our friend Newt Gingrich who admitted to having an affair at the same time that he was pursuing impeachment against Clinton for doing the same thing. That was different, however, because:

"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

"I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."

This, at the same time that Bush hack after Bush hack is spouting off about how there was no "underlying crime" in the Scooter Libby affair and that, therefore, he shouldn't have been prosecuted. I haven't heard Newt say that yet, but it sure wouldn't surprise me if he did.