The argument from the Democrats should be quite familiar by now. It plays upon a vague sense in America that even in areas outside the law, the rules of due process should apply. So, during the Clinton Administration we were constantly told that the scandal wasn’t the news that came with “the leaks” — even, perhaps especially, when the leaks were from the White House — but the leaks themselves. The news that the President of the United States was getting jiggy with an intern whose name he probably didn’t even know wasn’t the scandal. No, the “unfair” taping of Monica by another woman was the scandal. The complaints of the Clintonites — like the complaints of Senate Democrats — are similar to the whines from teenagers who think it’s out of bounds for their parents to search their rooms for drugs without permission. “You invaded my privacy!” they shriek as if that might obscure the ounce of dope in the back of the sock drawer.
Anyway, it always seemed to me that an intellectually honest liberal could be outraged at both the leak and the content of the leak. But to be outraged solely at the former and not at all at the latter is a classic sign of rank partisanship.