Andy makes a host of excellent points and I think I agree with pretty much all of them (though I probably need to noodle a couple). I particularly regret that I used his column to illustrate my central point (which I still stand by) for all the reasons that Andy lays out. I wasn’t trying to imply that Andy doesn’t care about morality and I know that is not the case. If I sounded like I was, or even if I made it open to interpretation that I was, I sincerely apologize.
My objection is to the way legalities have eclipsed all other considerations in the national debate. Andy’s column was in my head because so many people cited it as a way to make an argument about moral equivalence between Obama’s campaign-finance misdeeds and Trump’s alleged campaign-finance misdeeds. But Andy himself was not doing that. So again, my apologies.