The resignation of Richard Perle from the chairmanship of the Defense Policy Board is an example of how Washington’s obsession with “ethics” has gone awry. It’s gotten to the point where a brilliant, honest, visionary public servant is hounded into resignation. Not over an actual conflict of interest. Not even over an apparent conflict of interest. But over an apparent conflict of interest that does not actually exist but that rather was a calculated smear pushed along by such figures as an ambassador of Saudi Arabia and a congressman who operates on the left-most fringe of American politics.

The Saudi envoy is the kingdom’s ambassador to America, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Our friends at The New Yorker magazine quoted Mr. Bandar as saying “there were elements of the appearance of blackmail” at a meeting Mr. Perle attended with two Saudi businessmen. Prince Bandar was not at the meeting, so why his hearsay accusation of “elements of the appearance of blackmail” should be taken seriously is beyond us. But the spectacle of the Saudi Arabian kingdom — home to 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers, kidnapper of American children, persecutor of Christians, publisher of anti-Semitic school textbooks, spawner of debauched corrupt princes frittering away oil riches, oppressor of women — lecturing America on “ethics” is astounding.

Hard on the heels of Prince Bandar came Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, supposedly upset about Mr. Perle’s consulting arrangement with Global Crossing. In February of 2001, Mr. Conyers, joined by such luminaries as the now-defeated Rep. Cynthia McKinney, introduced legislation to lift American economic sanctions on Iraq. In June of 2001, Mr. Conyers wrote a letter to President Bush asking him to “begin an investigation” of Israel’s use of American military equipment against Palestinian Authority targets — this in a war that would soon see Palestinian Arabs send bombers specifically to target Jewish civilian men, women, and children, some at a Passover Seder, others at a wedding. On May 2, 2002, a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism passed the House by a vote of 352 to 21; Mr. Conyers was among those who, like the now-defeated Ms. McKinney, voted no. Only last week, one resolution expressing support for the troops and the commander in chief with the war in Iraq was supported by 392 members of the House; Mr. Conyers was one of only 11 to oppose it. This is the man leading the call for an “investigation” of Mr. Perle. Now he wants a congressional investigation into Mr. Perle’s ethics.

Also quoted by some publications with regard to the Perle case was an organization pretentiously named the Center for Public Integrity, though one had to look elsewhere than the papers that quoted it to learn that it is funded by a constellation of hard-left groups, including the Scherman Foundation, Working Assets Long Distance, the Arca Foundation, and Barbra Streisand’s Streisand Foundation.

The Saudis and the John Conyerses of the world succeeded yesterday in hounding Mr. Perle from his post as chairman of the defense policy board, though he will remain a member of the board itself. It was a measure of Mr. Perle’s class that he resigned rather than distracting the defense secretary by involving him, however peripherally, in the task of tamping down the cloud of dust kicked up by these “ethics” issues.

We don’t know whether Mr. Conyers will get his investigation into Mr. Perle, a director of Hollinger International, which is an investor in this newspaper. But we don’t mind saying that the liberal camp is sounding hollow absent the kind of liberal that was epitomized by the man who was Mr. Perle’s great mentor. We speak of Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson. Were he alive today, no doubt the senator would have brought to the current world war the same moral clarity and practical politics he brought to the Cold War. He would have kept his eye on the big issue. He would have taught the liberal camp how to avoid the panic that has so clearly gripped it in the early stages of what may yet be a long war.