Benlog

So Libby is indicted, and the politicians and pundits are already saying “it’s never the original scandal, it’s the coverup” that gets politicians in trouble. That may well be true, but it misses something truly fundamental about the flow of information from politicians to the public. It assumes that the public learns fairly rapidly about every scandal, either through admission or investigation. I just don’t think that’s the case.

In other words, I suspect most politicians have a number of skeletons in their closet, a number of potential scandals. Do you expect them to admit to all of them? No, of course not. Politicians all have scandals (of varying degrees, of course, some much worse than others), and they all cover them up. Except every now and then, some coverup gets investigated, and the shit hits the fan.

So it’s not surprising that politicians get in trouble for the coverup. Every scandal they have, they’re covering up. A politician that doesn’t cover up a scandal? Now that would be surprising.