Z Magazine Reviews 'Henry Hyde's Moral Universe' 
November 1999 
Reviewed by Larry Everest and the staff of Revolution Books-Berkeley. 

The New York Times (8/31) reports that "in the early campaign for the 2000  
elections, the rite of political piety has moved far beyond the sacramental  
photo opportunity.  The candidates are engaging in 'God talk' that is more  
explicit, more intimate and more pervasive than at any time in recent  
decades." 

When impeachment was in full swing, and one dinosaur politician after  
another trooped before the cameras to trumpet righteous indignation, no one  
threw more elbows to push to the front of this "moral values" ratpack than  
the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Henry Hyde.  With the "rule  
of law" as his mantra and the sanctity of the Constitution his refrain, Hyde  
helped turn a sex scandal into the second impeachment in U.S. history. 

The media briefly noted a few egregious instances of Hyde's hypocrisy -- his  
extra-marital affair and support for official lying during Iran-Contra --  
but generally gave him a free ride.  He was portrayed, as Dennis Bernstein  
and Leslie Kean put it, as a cross between "Socrates, Clarence Darrow and  
Mother Teresa." 

Their book, "Henry Hyde's Moral Universe" is a welcome relief from this  
suffocating fog of adulation, distortion and amnesia. 

Many are familiar with the infamous Hyde Amendment of 1976, which cut off  
all federal funding for abortions and meant injury and even death from  
botched abortions for many poor women, and drastically altered lives for  
many more.  What many don't know, is that while championing the "right to  
life" and the rule of law, Hyde has publicly defended the lawbreaking of  
anti-abortion terrorists such as Joseph Scheidler.  At Scheidler's 1998  
trial, Hyde was asked if he would vouch for someone who proclaimed they  
wouldn't "obey the law."  Hyde responded, "If the law of the land is immoral  
and condones the killing of unborn children, I think that's heroic." 

Another chapter in Hyde's record of "upholding the rule of law" that never  
made the front pages was his role in the Savings & Loan scandal of the  
1980s.  Hyde was on the Board of Clyde Federal Savings and Loan in the early  
1980's, while a member of Congress.  Along with many other S&Ls, Clyde's  
sleazy dealing led it to bankruptcy.  The Resolution Trust Corporation of  
America, the federal agency created by Congress to manage the S&L bailout,  
filed suit against Clyde's Board, including Henry Hyde, for "gross  
negligence, mismanagement, breach of fiduciary and other duties, breach of  
contract and other wrongful and improper conduct."  When an $850,000  
settlement was finally reached, Hyde refused to pay his share.  Later, the  
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation admitted giving the Congressman a  
special deal. 

Hyde was also a key player in suppressing exposure of Contra drug-running in  
the 1980s (which helped him win the CIA Seal Medallion for his "tremendous  
service" and "sustained outstanding support").  Bernstein and Kean expose  
how, in the midst of the Iran-Contra scandal, Hyde issued a fraudulent memo  
claiming that an exhaustive investigation turned up no evidence that the  
Contra leadership was involved with drug trafficking and no link was found  
between any government agency and drug trafficking by the Contras or anyone  
else. 

Hyde's love for the rule of law came into a little more focus when a secret  
plan developed by North, FEMA, and others, to suspend the Constitution  
(i.e., declare martial law) in the event of a "national crisis" (such as  
"violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition to a U.S.  
military invasion abroad") was revealed during the Iran-Contra hearings.   
While testimony on the subject was squelched, and North flatly denied any  
involvement, Henry Hyde's defended the plans:  "There is nothing in them  
bizarre and strange – it is prudent planning for any eventuality." 

Hyde recently helped sponsor the so-called Anti-Terrorism and Effective  
Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).  The AEDPA severely limits federal court reviews  
of state convictions and speeds up executions.  It has already resulted in  
the execution of Tom Thompson in 1998, the first person executed in the U.S.  
on the basis of a trial deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of  
Appeals.  Along with unknown numbers on death row facing execution due to  
the AEDPA, the AEDPA is one of the legal roadblocks in the battle to win a  
new trial for Mumia Abu Jamal. 

It says much about the political climate in the U.S. that near-fascist  
politicians such as Hyde are promoted as "moral" leaders.  As Bernstein and  
Kean warn, it would be "wrong and dangerous to conclude that Hyde's moral  
agenda has failed just because impeachment was defeated." 

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Larry Everest is a correspondent for the Revolutionary Worker and author of  
Behind the Poison Cloud: Union Carbide's Bhopal Massacre.