Getting It Wrong: Hal Lindsey
Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his May 26 WorldNetDaily column, Hal Lindsey makes several misleading claims. Up first:

The fact that Bill Clinton was the president did not exempt him from his obligation to tell the truth under oath. And the fact that he was the president didn't stop the Arkansas Bar Association from disbarring him after the presiding judge ruled he had perjured himself in her court.

Clinton was not "disbarred"; while a disbarment proceeding had been initiated, he in fact agreed under a voluntary settlement to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license and his paying of a $25,000 fine to the Arkansas Bar Association. That is arguably not the same thing as disbarment. Additionally, the "presiding judge" did not rule that Clinton "had perjured himself in her court"; in fact, Judge Susan Webber Wright found President Bill Clinton in civil contempt of court for his "willful failure" to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. That is not the same thing as perjury, which has a specific legal definition.

Lindsey also falsely conflates the opposition raised by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to an FBI search of the offices of Rep. William Jefferson with opposition to any investigation or prosecution of Jefferson:

But none of that outrage, anger and angst was reserved for the congressman who sold out his Louisiana constituency for a hundred grand. The lawmakers reserved their fury for the law-enforcement officers that made the case.

While we could find no explicit reference by Hastert to the corruption case against Jefferson, Pelosi has asked Jefferson to step down from the House Ways and Means Committee "in the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus."

Further, while Lindsey claims that "The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure," he makes no mention of the fact that President Bush has claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, which presumbably is a violation of Lindsey's definition of the rule of law.