Commenting on rumors that U.S. prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald might bring charges against high officials of the Bush administration in connection with his investigation into the exposure of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, retired political science professor George Harleigh, who served in the Nixon administration, commented: “As usual, it’s not the act itself but the cover up that brings someone down. . . . It’s a sad lesson that those in power never learn.”

In a similar vein, when asked about the Fitzgerald investigation on Sunday's episode of Meet the Press, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R–TX), by way of defending the administration and criticizing Fitzgerald, replied: "I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars."

Journalists subsequently pointed out that this wasn’t her view when she spoke in February 1999 in favor of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton because he had betrayed his oath to tell the truth about his private sex acts.

But getting back to the CIA leak case. The real point to make in response to Professor Harleigh, Senator Hutchison, and others who say that those in power never learn that it’s the cover up and not the crime that brings them down is that Rove, Libby, and other administration officials are covering up because—like many other guilty people—if they told the truth they would be confessing to a crime. Hello! That’s why it’s a crime to lie about these matters. It’s not just a “technicality.” It’s just easier to get them on this charge—unless, of course, they had told the truth in the beginning. In any case, most powerful people most of the time get away with the cover up.