Scooter: Not enough too much
Just as I was thinking how lucky Scooter got off for being the only zit Patrick Fitzgerald could actually pop in the whole ugly CIA scandal (30 months for obstruction of justice and perjury) I saw a different perspective on Time's Web site: The sentencing judge was really harsh on poor Scooter.
First of all, the reporter is conflating two issues—obstruction of justice and actually outing Valerie Plame. The latter hasn't actually been proven yet. Thanks to Scooter. This is why he's now about to serve 30 months in a prison—he prevented people who were trying to get at the truth from doing their jobs. Federal prosecutors tend to frown on that sort of thing.
What got to me was the insistence that the sentence was unusually long, given the crime he committed. And like it or not, he committed a crime. At least one.
Here's what I. Lewis Libby did: He lied to a Federal Grand Jury. Repeatedly. What he lied about was what he knew concerning the identity of a covert CIA agent. Yes, corporate reporter, she was covert, no matter how hard your friends at CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC or anybody else may still squeal that she was not.
And while Libby was lying, Plame's career was already done. She was probably lucky to escape with her life; who knows how many people didn't? The writer glibly states that Plame was undercover for “at least 18 months” with the tone that indicates it barely counts, like one of those degrees you get online in three weeks for fifty bucks. In fact, Plame herself had testified before a subcommittee in March of this year that, before she was outed, she had been undercover for about five years.
So why is poor Scooter's sentence so harsh? Because they can't really do much more, given the law. But don't panic, corporate writer, he'll probably be pardoned (enjoy your 13 hunks of silver, James Carville), so after the delays and appeals, he'll probably end up doing Paris Hilton time, if that. Such brutal treatment.
But we hope for that mistake, that nugget of evidence, that door to open, that act of courage for someone within this administration to say "Yes, Cheney did this as political retribution, with Rove's help." Maybe it tumbles down to Gonzales. Maybe the house of cards finally falls flat.
First of all, the reporter is conflating two issues—obstruction of justice and actually outing Valerie Plame. The latter hasn't actually been proven yet. Thanks to Scooter. This is why he's now about to serve 30 months in a prison—he prevented people who were trying to get at the truth from doing their jobs. Federal prosecutors tend to frown on that sort of thing.
What got to me was the insistence that the sentence was unusually long, given the crime he committed. And like it or not, he committed a crime. At least one.
Here's what I. Lewis Libby did: He lied to a Federal Grand Jury. Repeatedly. What he lied about was what he knew concerning the identity of a covert CIA agent. Yes, corporate reporter, she was covert, no matter how hard your friends at CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC or anybody else may still squeal that she was not.
And while Libby was lying, Plame's career was already done. She was probably lucky to escape with her life; who knows how many people didn't? The writer glibly states that Plame was undercover for “at least 18 months” with the tone that indicates it barely counts, like one of those degrees you get online in three weeks for fifty bucks. In fact, Plame herself had testified before a subcommittee in March of this year that, before she was outed, she had been undercover for about five years.
So why is poor Scooter's sentence so harsh? Because they can't really do much more, given the law. But don't panic, corporate writer, he'll probably be pardoned (enjoy your 13 hunks of silver, James Carville), so after the delays and appeals, he'll probably end up doing Paris Hilton time, if that. Such brutal treatment.
But we hope for that mistake, that nugget of evidence, that door to open, that act of courage for someone within this administration to say "Yes, Cheney did this as political retribution, with Rove's help." Maybe it tumbles down to Gonzales. Maybe the house of cards finally falls flat.
