Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Bullshit or Not: Mukasey Edition

There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that I've stolen it for an irregular series of posts.

This week's comes from Attorney General Michael Mukasey's appearance before the annual meeting of the American Bar Association. In explaining why those who "who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales" would not face any legal ramifications, he said,

"not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."
O.k., so is there a difference between committing a crime and breaking a law? Surely, there's a difference between a law, a rule, and a policy, but is something like that operative in this case that makes these transgressions non-criminal?

So, bullshit or not? As usual, feel free to leave responses from a single word to a dissertation.