Martha, Martha, Martha!

We've had a few days now to absorb Martha Stewart's sentencing. What do you think about it? What should you think about it?

Here's an interesting consistency test: How did you feel about Clinton's impeachment? It's not a perfect analogy, but there are interesting parallels, particularly the aspect that each defendant's predicament was so very self-inflicted. In Clinton's case, he could have allowed certain sexual harassment statutes to expire. He did not. He could have refused to renew the independent counsel laws and let them expire. He did not. And while Clinton was getting tied in knots by the independent counsel investigating his harassment of Paula Jones, he figured he could get away with lying in his testimony.

On to Martha. Some people still think Martha got busted for insider trading. Not so! Fact is, when the CEO of ImClone started dumping his shares through his broker, that brokerage passed the information (of the sale) on to Martha, who then sold her shares. What the CEO of ImClone did was criminal, as he was in posession of bona fide insider information. Martha did not have this information. Her sale was unethical, and probably a technical violation of SEC rules, but the Feds didn't have a prayer of getting an insider trading conviction.

But Martha had a guilty conscience and gambled that she could lie and obfuscate her way out of it all. She would have faced a minor penalty had she fessed up immediately. Instead, she lied to investigators in such as way as to be criminal. There was no need for that, and if she had better representation (or lawyers who could control her) then she wouldn't have this jail sentence hanging over her head.

In my opinion, as Clinton deserved his impeachment for his subversion of justice, so too does Martha deserve her sentence. And as such I disagree with people who think that Martha was railroaded by prosecutors seeking advancement. I also can't abide those who delight in "the mighty brought low" aspect of it, or hope for an Abu Ghraib type environment during her incarceration. I really try to avoid the latter-type people, so consumed by envy, and I hope to never see them in any courtroom I am in.

I'd be fascinated to talk with someone who thought Clinton's lies were okay, yet is happy with the Stewart outcome, or vice-versa. I'd want to hear if there is any compelling argument at all for excusing the one set of lies but not the other.  For example, we heard the excuse proffered many times in the Clinton case, "Everyone lies about sex."  Well if there's one thing people lie about more than sex, it's money, and that's what Martha was doing...