THERE are only a few clichés in
politics. There are even fewer
universal statements. I believe
that there is only one commonly accepted absolute, and it is absolutely
wrong.
This one goes back, at least, to Nixon. The downfall of Nixon was, by general consent, due to the Watergate cover-up and not the offense itself. I hear it, again, every time a politician gets caught doing something he should not do. The pundits say, “The cover-up is always worse than the crime.” They then usually “Will they ever learn this?”
The conclusion is that, when something bad happens, the best thing to do is to admit, to confess and to move on, perhaps after asking for forgiveness. So far this sounds reasonable, does it not? But it is not. How many of these cover-ups have worked? By definition, there is no way to determine this. A successful cover-up is never exposed. If we use crime as a relevant comparison, crime certainly does pay. Most criminals are not caught and punished for their crimes. Even when Mafia chiefs are imprisoned, usually they have already committed hundreds of crimes which they successfully covered up.
In other words, although a number of politicians do get caught, why is it assumed, by others that these are the only ones committing offenses? For all we know, the “failure” rate of cover-ups is less than 1%. In this case the politicians are quite prudent when they attempt cover-ups. And no political expert ever even mentions the possibility.
Regardless of what Lincoln said, apparently, all of the political pundits can be fools all of the time. I except myself, of course.
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