Republicans, of all people, are being called soft on crime.  Here is what Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell wrote recently:

For a party that claims to be "tough on crime," Republicans seem pretty confused by what it means to hold criminals to account.

Particularly when it comes to white-collar crimes, or really any crimes committed by rich people.

In reality, the reason Manafort wasn't prosecuted ages ago – despite the many red flags over the years – has little to do with politics and more to do with the fact that the United States has basically  stopped prosecuting white-collar crimes.

Consider the sweetheart plea deal given to Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, which the Miami Herald recently reported on in damning detail. 

Ummm, well, ahem.  While I agree with Rampell about crime not being enforced, blaming of Republicans for this is a little hard to swallow.  In fact, she is tremendously confused when she pretends journalists such as herself and other Democrats have ever cared about pardons by Democratic presidents or criminal activity by powerful Democrats.  She and other Democrats absolutely can't stand it if Trump pardons Paul Manafort after he was found guilty of campaign finance law violations.

Let's start with Bill Clinton.

The story of Jeffrey Epstein, who was running a pedophile transport service, was out there when Hillary Clinton was running for president, and Democrats didn't care about putting Bill and Hillary back in the White House with that going on.  Now journalists all of a sudden care about the case.

Here is a May 2016 Fox News report showing just that, and here is another Fox report from July 2016.

Here is one from a July 2015 story on Politico.

And don't forget the final signature move of Bill Clinton's presidency: his pardon of white-collar commodity crook Marc Rich in exchange for campaign donations.

President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich is a saga of secrecy, tenacity, sleight of hand and pressure from Rich's ex-wife and one of her friends, who together have steered millions of dollars to Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's causes and those of fellow Democrats.

Whether it is a story of bribery as well or illegal gifts from abroad is the subject of congressional inquiries and a criminal investigation by the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in New York.

Bill Clinton actually sold a pardon to the wealthy Marc Rich in exchange for political donations.  The Clintons continued to sell access throughout their political careers, and journalists and Democrats knowingly supported putting them back in the White House, showing that laws don't matter – only the agenda.

Clinton's lawlessness didn't stop there.  He also pardoned terrorists for political purposes.  Remember these headlines?

11 Puerto Rican nationalists freed from prison

President Obama's Pardon for Oscar Lopez Rivera Trades a Terrorist for Votes

Now let's move on to Hillary Clinton.

Hillary, her aides, and President Obama repeatedly violated the nation's security laws, and Democrats, including the media, didn't care.  I don't even have to link it, it's so well known.

Now let's move to President Obama:

Here's a choice headline from his presidency:

Obama Granted Clemency Unlike Any Other President In History

On Obama's watch, white-collar scientists repeatedly committed fraud on the public by manipulating climate data, and not only don't Democrats care, but they just repeat the fraudulent numbers as if they were true.

Democrat fundraising powerhouse Planned Parenthood crushed and crunched babies while preserving body parts to sell illegally, and not only didn't Democrats care, but they threatened to shut down government if they didn't continue to get a $500-million taxpayer allowance.

Then there are the Democrats in Congress.  Anybody remember this one?

When sexual harassers agree on confidential settlements with victims, at least the payments come out of the harassers' own pockets or from companies that choose to employ them.

But not, as the nation has learned this month, when the harasser serves in Congress.  Then, taxpayers foot the bill.  And the entire episode remains hidden.

Members of Congress from both parties used taxpayer funds to keep the public from knowing about sexual harassment claims, but now Democrats, including journalists, say Trump should be charged with a crime for using personal funds to pay off blackmailers.  Shouldn't all members of Congress be charged with campaign finance law violations since these hidden settlements were kept from the public so politicians could be re-elected?

Meanwhile, downstream in Democratville, powerful Democratic political operatives, such as Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, and James Johnson committed massive fraud at Fannie Mae, yet Democrats didn't care.  Remember this?

Senior executives at Fannie Mae manipulated accounting to collect millions of dollars in undeserved bonuses and to deceive investors, a federal report charged Tuesday.  The government-sponsored mortgage company was fined $400 million.

Would pardoning Paul Manafort be worse than any of this?  The Justice Department that did everything to let people off throughout Obama's eight years clearly targeted people around Trump for special prosecution.  That certainly doesn't pass the smell test for equal justice.

It is a joke that Democrats are the party of law and order.  They are the party that wants the government to have power.  They gladly supported the corrupt Senator Bob Menendez for re-election.

People who supported putting the Clintons back in the White House, who support sanctuary cities and states that refuse to abide by laws Congress passed, and who had no problem with the Justice Department protecting Hillary and others who worked for Obama no matter which laws they broke while targeting Trump and those surrounding him have zero credibility talking about law and order and equal treatment under the law.

Image credit Nick Youngson, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Alpha Stock Images.