“ ‘[A]ttempted bribery isn’t in the Constitution.’ ”

That’s Laura Ingraham, possessed of a J.D. from the University of Virginia (undergrad: Dartmouth), putting disproportionate weight, in this case, on an adjective. For the word bribery is, itself, surely in the founding document. In the clause describing impeachment, no less.

Federal prosecutors and legal educators were quick to weigh in after the Fox News host advanced the argument on her program Thursday. They stressed that, typically, the outcome of a bribery scheme is not a pivotal criterion in its classification as a crime (the U.S. legal code’s bribery statute is explicit that success is not a determinant of criminality) and that, metaphorically, would-be bank robbers are not sent merrily on their way when caught in the act rather than in its aftermath: