The Nixon defense

"When the president does it, that means it is not illegal," said Richard Nixon in the Frost interviews, with regard to the Watergate break-in and cover-up. "It would be an unrivaled precedent if one member of the cabinet or all of them were charged because of a political decision," said Karel Schwarzenberg in Právo, with regard to the CASA deal. "Look," said Nixon, "when you're in office you gotta do a lot of things sometimes that are not always in the strictest sense of the law legal, but you do them because they're in the greater interest of the nation." "She [Vlasta Parkanová] was essentially carrying out a previous cabinet resolution," said Miroslav Kalousek, "and I stand by the decision to this day. It was the right decision." "It is absolute nonsense to charge her," Schwarzenberg said, "because then all of us who were in the cabinet at the time, including the PM, should also go to the slammer." To paraphrase Nixon, it might not have been legal in the strictest sense of the law, but when the cabinet does it, that means it is not illegal.