“At the foundation of those authentic forms of justice is fundamental fairness. It's playing by the rules.”
So said Ken Starr, a member of POTUS Trump's defense team, while delivering his closing statement on Monday during the Senate Impeachment trial. In and of itself there was nothing particularly unusual in Starr's statement; hundreds of lawyers every day say some version of that in trying to prove that their client has been wronged. What made Starr's declaration extraordinary however, was what he said next. He decided to give an example of what he was talking about so as to drive the point home. Think about this for a second. Ken Starr was trying to convince U. S. Senators that the President of the United States should not be permanently removed from office. One would think then that the example he would use to make the point about rules and fairness would be something befitting the magnitude of the occasion. He could have spoken about why there's a drinking age, or why we have speed limits, or why perjury's a thing. But no, Ken Starr didn't use any of those examples. Instead, this is what the man chosen to defend the President said, "It's why we don't allow deflated footballs." Yup, the day after a Super Bowl was played that did not include the Patriots, Ken Starr made up for it by referencing Deflategate in only the third impeachment trial in our nation's history. Daniel Webster would have been so proud. On the other hand, it could have been worse. At least he didn't go with with an Orchids of Asia Day Spa example. That would have surely caused Senator Mitt Romney to spit out his chocolate milk. Anyways, the Orchids of Asia analogy would have been much more befitting the Clinton impeachment.
-VB