Poetic justice versus rat-fucking inevitability

Howard Fineman goes all literary in his web column, talking about gods and the law and -- yes, fluff your puffy shirt, poetic justice.

Poetic Justice
George W. Bush rose to power on the strength of a disciplined, aggressive, leakproof spin machine. Now that machine may have run amok.

That will be the lesson if special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicts anyone in the Valerie Plame leak case. Poetic justice is a concept as old as drama, but it applies time and again in the theater of presidential politics. Traits and tactics that lead to power lead to overreach, and ruin. In our day, justice is administered (and balance restored) by law, not by gods. Still, the idea is the same.

Come on. At least Nixon's CREEP facilitators called it for what it was: rat-fucking. And it's not poetic justice when the rat-fuckers get caught and prosecuted -- but it is wonderful. And "the lesson," as always, is not to get caught and prosecuted.

Now here's my idea of poetic justice.

Bush's long-missing Texas Air National Guard records resurface, complete with detailed notations about, shall we say, asking and telling and snorting and drinking.

And Max Cleland, John McCain, and John Kerry get the honors of reading the records aloud to the world. And the international broadcast is paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

See, now that's poetic justice.