Stupid saying alert

The saying "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up" has always gnawed at me. It's pretty inaccurate in a couple ways. First and most obviously, if there is no crime, there's no need for a cover-up. The crime is the basis, and the cover-up is a symptom. The other, and more sinister issue, is that the cover-up is what keeps the crime from being the "it" that caused the problems. If Nixon hadn't covered up Watergate, the crimes of Watergate most likely would have had the same effects as the cover-up.