Leadership Quote by Howard Coble

"An indictment is not a conviction" is the kind of civics-grade sentence that sounds bland until you notice how perfectly it works as political armor. Howard Coble, a longtime Republican congressman with a prosecutor-adjacent instinct for procedure, is leaning on a bedrock principle of American justice: charges are allegations, not proof. The line’s power is its taut repetition and legal clarity. It’s almost impossible to argue with without sounding anti-due-process.

That’s the intent on the surface. The subtext is where it gets interesting. In a political environment where an indictment functions like a scarlet letter - instantaneous reputational damage, nonstop chyron fuel, donor panic - the phrase tries to slow the mob’s metabolism. It asks the public to remember that the courtroom is supposed to move at a different speed than cable news. It’s a bid to separate law from spectacle.

But it’s also a strategic dodge, because it can be deployed by anyone, guilty or innocent, as a way to launder uncertainty into exoneration-by-vibes. The sentence doesn’t claim innocence; it merely insists on process. That modesty is precisely what makes it useful in Washington: you can defend an ally without defending their behavior. You can sound principled while buying time.

Coble’s career context matters. As an institutionalist type in an era increasingly allergic to institutions, he’s invoking the system’s legitimacy even as politics turns legal peril into a team sport. The line is less a defense of a person than a defense of the rules - and, quietly, a warning about what happens when we treat accusation as verdict.