When a thief, mugger, rapist, or murderer gets off on a technicality, right-wingers rail against the weak-kneed, pansy-ass liberal justice system that lets criminals back on the street just because police or prosecutors made mistakes. They loathe that particular adherence to principle, and cannot understand why it has to lead to the release of the criminal instead of just a slap on the wrist of the police or prosecutors, and they blame bleeding-heart liberals for allowing dangerous, hard-core criminals to roam free.

Except when the criminal is a Republican. In which case, the technicality, no matter how unrelated to the actual crime committed, completely and utterly clears them of even the barest hint of wrongdoing, and makes them into victims of what surely must have been a politically-motivated left-wing witch hunt. Just like Oliver North, or now Ted Stevens, who Republicans now claim is a victim. They even want Mark Begich, who beat Stevens in the election, to step down so Stevens can return.

I wonder, if prosecutors in the Blagojevich case turn out to have withheld any evidence, no matter how incriminating the whole case against him may be, will the GOP suddenly hail Blago as a patriotic victim and demand his return to office? Somehow I don’t think so.