Opinion Journal Distorts, You Decide

[Caro]

Obstruction for What?
Libby is charged with lying about a crime that wasn't committed.

Saturday, October 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation took nearly two years, sent a reporter to jail, cost millions of dollars, and preoccupied some of the White House's senior officials. The fruit it has now borne is the five-count indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the Vice President's Chief of Staff--not for leaking the name of Valerie Plame to Robert Novak, which started this entire "scandal," but for contradictions between his testimony and the testimony of two or three reporters about what he told them, when he told them, and what words he used…

The indictment amounts to an allegation that one official lied about what he knew about an underlying "crime" that wasn't committed… (Emphasis added.)

As Fitzgerald told us, we DON’T KNOW whether an underlying crime was committed, BECAUSE of Libby’s lying, which is in itself a very serious crime. Please remember that Martha Stewart was imprisoned for obstruction and for lying to federal investigators, not even lying under oath, and in a situation where there REALLY WAS NO UNDERLYING CRIME. The judge had thrown out the charge on the underlying crime.

Mr. Kristof wrote a column, and Mr. Libby began to ask around, to determine why a Democratic partisan had been sent on such a sensitive mission in the run-up to the Iraq war… (Emphasis added.)

From Wikipedia:

Wilson was a supporter and donor to the Kerry/Edwards campaign for the presidency. In 2000, he donated to Vice President Gore’s campaign. In the mid-eighties, Wilson worked for Gore as a congressional staffer. He has made contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy. He has in the recent past spoken to activist groups like Win Without War, which is a part of MoveOn.org.

However, he also donated $1,000 to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and $1,500 to Rep. Ed Royce's (R-CA) 2000 reelection campaign.

Back to Opinion Journal:

On the answers to these questions hang a possible 30-year jail term and $1.25 million in fines for a Bush Administration official who was merely attempting to expose the truth about Mr. Wilson, a critic of the Administration who was lying to the press about the nature of his involvement in the Niger mission and about the nature of the intelligence that it produced. In other words, Mr. Libby was defending Administration policy against political attack, not committing a crime… (Emphasis added.)

The truth about Wilson is that he was correct in saying the Niger documents were fakes.

Unless Mr. Fitzgerald can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Libby was lying, and doing so for some nefarious purpose, this indictment looks like a case of criminalizing politics. (Emphasis added.)

If you didn’t know that the Wall Street Journal is one of the organs of the Republican Party, now you do. Watch the Center for American Progress’s compilation of right-wing pundits who have repeated the criminalization mantra, played on the Bill Maher show, archived at Crooks and Liars.

James Ridgeway, of the Village Voice, has an interesting speculation:

he indicted Scooter Libby will be looking for a way out of a jail term. Fitzgerald has a hammerlock around his neck. The more he squeezes, the more likely it becomes that Libby will sing on his superiors in the White House, allowing Fitzgerald to flip him—to bring him as a witness before another grand jury to rat out others in the plot.

There will be lots more fun on this deal.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

[DistressedAmerican]

1. Carolyn! Great Write-Up. The Problem With The "Criminalization

of Politics" spin is that the vast majority of politicians are themselves unindicted criminals!

Still love your site. Check it all the time!

Welcome To DU!:toast:

[Caro]

8. Thanks, Brad

Caro ;-)

[carolinalady]

9. "The criminalization of politics"

any interesting phrase to be sure--very catchy and intended to lessen the moral impact of truth about what Libby did.
When you first hear it, it is hard to come up with an equally scathing rebuttal. Upon thinking about it for a minute or two, I guess I have to ask the RWers the following:

"Libby lied under oath to the gj therefore he was punished for a criminal act. I guess you are saying that lying is politics; that is acceptable to do even when sworn to tell the truth by law; and people should not be criminally punished for lying.

So NOW I understand why you are upset about the criminalization of politics!"

[H2O Man]

2. Nominated.

Great post. Very interesting, and very well done!

[DistressedAmerican]

4. Me Too! Any Other Nominations Out There?

[DistressedAmerican]

6. Kicker!

[DistressedAmerican]

7. Another!

[fasttense]

3. Never seemed to bother them when they went after Clinton.

They are just so transparent.

[benfranklin1776]

5. "Merely attempting to expose the truth" and "Criminalizing politics" ?????

What utter and complete hogwash. This was not an attempt to factually refute the underlying facts of what Mr. Wilson stated in his piece in the New York Times, for they simply could not refute the fact that he had exposed their uranium claims as the base gutter lies that they were, engineered to sell an illegal war to a frightened public. This was a gutter, craven, and crass vicious payback maneuver designed to hurt Wilson at a personal level. A pure mob style power play. There was no earthly logical reason whatsoever to reveal his wife's identity and status as an undercover agent. That is no way furthered the debate over the underlying issue as it contributed no relevant facts. Nor is the matter of blowing the cover of a CIA agent just a routine part of "politics as usual." Maybe in their perverted and twisted, immoral world but not in the rest of the world where laws and standards of ethics still apply.

I don't ever want to hear another Rethug make the absurd claim that they are the best party to keep America safe. The actions of their heroes, the Bush gang, in this matter destroyed an ongoing operation which was actually devoted to finding REAL weapons of mass destruction, not the phantom kind cooked up by Scooter and Dick. Now that operation is history and the very useful information it could have revealed which would have contributed greatly to keeping this nation safe will never be gathered thanks to this underhanded, slimeball, treasonous act performed solely for retribution.