Scooter Libby - speed bump?

[radfringe]

The more I read/hear about the Libby trial the more I become convinced that Libby is not a scapegoat or sacrificial lamb -- he's a speed bump

the trial is not about who leaked what when - it's about Libby lying to the grand jury. The longer the trial goes on, the longer it's going to take to find out who leaked what and when - thus it's become a speed bump and slows things down.

Is Fitzgerald still investigating the original "leak"?

the testimony so far is showing that libby lied. Whether or not the jury will buy the "I misremembered" defense is yet to be seen.

What is being hinted at by MSM reports is the extent of Cheney's involvement.

In almost all of the testimony heard so far - once you get past the Libby "misremembering" - it leads to Cheney.

On Hardball last night, Tweety was dancing around the Cheney connections, and how throughout the run-up and onset of the Iraq invasion - Cheney/Bush Inc. have blamed everyone else for "faulty intelligence" and other "mistakes".

(I checked the hardball website - no transcript is up as of this morning)

[Kagemusha]

1. My understanding is that new evidence is being awaited

in other words, if the trial brings about new evidence - or Scooter flips - an existing grand jury will be used to hear evidence and continue the investigation, just as before.

I think your speed bump analogy is very appropriate. The reason Libby's in the dock is because he's preventing solid proof for more serious charges from being obtained; weak proof with so much smoke kicked up is just not enough for a federal prosecutor to be going after the Vice-President of the United States. Libby's obstruction is provable, so that's what's being taken to court. It also conveniently pits Libby against the administration and encourages lots of backstabbing. We've seen some of that already. How far it will go, I have no idea, and perhaps Fitz doesn't either, but it seems a mix of rolling the dice and guaranteeing (to the extent he can possibly predict anything that relies heavily on his own competence) that Libby's head, at least, goes on a pike.

He's done mob cases so, he knows the best approach. We'll see if his best is enough.