"From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved." — Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince.
Compared to other sports, baseball sometimes seems bucolic. Eighteen people in off-white uniforms taking turns at bat and advancing their way around the bases so they can return safely home again. In reality, baseball can be a hot dirty game with harsh physical contact. Players slide into second base with the deliberate intention of interfering with the second baseman and breaking up a double play. At a close play at home plate, a runner will charge shoulder-first into the catcher hoping to knock the ball from the catcher's grasp.
National politics is not for the faint-hearted. Politics is hardball. Politicians ruthlessly punish their enemies and reward their friends. This is not necessarily a sign of malevolence. Effective governance requires that political opponents realize that there is a price to be paid for opposition and friends should believe support will be rewarded. If a member of Congress opposes a policy initiative from the President, that member ought not expect the President to campaign on his or her behalf. Trading favors is part of doing business in a democracy.
Even in hardball politics, however, there are some rules that ought not be violated. One important boundary in political hardball is the use of law enforcement and prosecutorial discretion to attack political opponents.
In the early months of the Clinton Administration, Billie Dale, who ran the White House Travel Office, was brought under FBI investigation for embezzlement. Although it was within the discretion of the White House to reward political cronies with White House travel business, the Clinton administration felt it necessary to gratuitously intimidate people with the FBI. After many months of investigation and a trial, a jury needed only a short time to find Dale not guilty. Perhaps that incident was an aberration of a new administration just learning the ropes. If nothing more had happened, we could perhaps have dismissed the incident as an uncharatistic error.
Three years later a Congressional investigation subpoenaed certain papers from the White House. The White House at first refused to yield the documents, claiming executive privilege. Facing a contempt of Congress citation, the White House finally relented. Those papers revealed that
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