On the eve of President Clinton’s lawyers’ presentation of his
defense before the House Judiciary Committee, the indefatigable
White House media operation circulated to other media outlets a
discovery by The Los Angeles Times that the committee’s chairman,
Henry Hyde, seemed to have a double standard about lying by public
men. In a piece titled “Hyde’s View On Lying Is Back Haunting Him,”
the paper noted that, during the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987, Hyde
had excused the false testimony of Oliver North by quoting
Jefferson: “A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one
of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The
laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when
in danger are of higher obligation… . On great occasions, every
good officer must be ready to risk himself in going beyond the
strict line of law when the public preservation requires it.”

Joe Lockhart, Clinton’s press secretary, commented: “I think the
Chairman shows remarkable dexterity in applying standards when it
comes to the subject at hand,” and the media took up the cry.
“Oliver North and Bill Clinton: are the cases that different?” asked
Frank Sesno on CNN. “Have the rules changed? Or is Henry Hyde a
hypocrite?” Rather remarkably for CNN, Sesno gave Oliver North
himself a chance to answer these questions: “Henry Hyde is
commenting on the fact that the Reagan administration was accused of
the following things: of not revealing everything that