When the reaction is worse than the crime, who do you think gets burned?
We’ve been through this sort of thing so many times in recent years. Remember 2 Live Crew a decade or so ago? They released an extremely vulgar and misogynistic album that had everyone from women’s groups to the Falwell/Robertson crowd up in arms. Practically the whole country was united in telling those sleazebuckets that they’d gone way too far.
Then the usual fundie suspects decided that protests and boycotts weren’t enough: their album had to be banned as obscene. And that (quite appropriately) made freedom of speech the issue, and the sleaziness of 2 Live Crew became completely secondary.
Same idea with the attempts of the right to hang Clinton over a blowjob a few years back: Clinton was a sleaze, alright, but few non-fundies thought he deserved to be hounded over it the way he was. The 1998 midterm elections showed who came out smelling better over that one. (You’d think Specter’s memory would go back that far.)
Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich was sleazy enough to embarrass his most conscientious defenders. And hauling furniture from the White House that had been given to the government, not the Clintons, was shabby as hell, especially in the wake of Hillary’s $8M book advance.
But an impeachment inquiry right now would be absolutely wonderful; it would be the overreaction that eclipsed the sin. Unfortunately, it won’t happen; however low my opinion of Dubya’s policies, his political instincts are unfortunately excellent. He will put the word out that this should go nowhere, and it will die.