Fans of Perry Mason will recall his favorite objection to DA Hamilton Burger: “That question is incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial,” with which he fended off the DA’s attempt to link past behavior or associations with a present crime.

incompetent:  inadequate to or unsuitable for a particular purpose

irrelevant:  INAPPLICABLE

immaterial: of no substantial consequence : UNIMPORTANT

It sounded like three jabs to the body of Burger’s argument, and yet it seemed to say the same thing three times: “You’re off the point, old boy!”

I wish Perry was here to object to all those complaints against Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Mike Pence, which are no answer to former President Trump’s indictments. They are a distraction from the point.

Only in a court of law can you be silenced for your irrelevance (and incompetence and immateriality).  Everywhere else we get distracted talking about whether the offenses are equivalent, whether one was intentional and the other unintentional or whether one defendant  complied and the other resisted enforcement.

None of it matters in court. You can’t say “What about (your favorite target here)?” Because that is “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial” and the judge says “Sustained.” Ok, back to the case at hand.

That is why we love justice, especially if it doesn’t mess with our favorite politicians. It does not judge you by comparison to anyone else; it judges you by the letter of the law. And that is what seems most fair. Not whether some other offender deserves scolding and punishment. Just the case that applies to you.

But if justice does mess with your favorite politician, you need to judge that politician for what he or she did.  Not whether the politician is a minor offender and some other politician has dirty or dirtier hands.  We need to stop the slippery offender from getting off with “What about . . .?” excuses.  We need to be our own Perry Mason to decide if the attorney or offender is “incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.”

And then we need to step back when the judge says, “Sustained.” That’s what Hamilton Burger had to do, even with all his piles of irrelevant evidence.  Because it was incompetent and immaterial.  And that was the end of his misdirection and distraction.

Let justice do its work,  and we’ll check on the “What about …?” case later.