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March 7, 2007
The Libby Conviction: An Exercise In Absurdity By Both The Prosecutor And The Media
Topics: Political News and commentaries
So Scooter Libby has been convicted of not telling the truth (for no real purpose or benefit to himself or Cheney since neither of them leaked the non-covert agent's name)), in what amounts to having a bad memory, in a criminal case in which no crime was committed. The Democratic left wing media is going wild, the left side of the blogosphere is off the chart ecstatic, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald can claim victory in the highest-profile victory of his career. And it turns out that the prosecutor didn't see fit to charge Richard Armitage - the actual leaker, or anyone else with leaking Plame's status as a CIA agent. As the Washington Post editorialized, it turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband. The entire affair, from Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame's part in what amounts to a cabal inside the CIA that worked against the president's policy - one that they used to hide behind their secret status while they did what was essentially an anti-war political hitjob, the entire matter is a total exercise in the facilitation of an absurd tragedy. For a better understanding of the extent of the absurdity and the subsequent tragedy, we need look no further thant Dan Spencer's piece at California Yankee. In my mind, the media and the Democrats should be more ashamed of the injustice than Libby should be for any ommissions or distortions of the truth he may have committed. Lying is wrong, but so is a making a mountain of a criminal case out of what amounts to less than a mole hill's worth of reason - in this case none whatsoever since there was no crime in the first instance behind hours upon hours of depositions imposed on Libby.
Let's keep in mind that there is considerable evidence that Fitzgerald stepped out of bounds, primarily by insisting both to the public and to the jury that the disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity-the underlying action that he was appointed to investigate-was in fact a crime. This is a point that has never been established, but Fitzgerald's overreaching on it colored the jury's thinking about the gravity of the issues at stake, suggested a motive for lying that did not reside in proven facts, and conflicted with the judge's ruling that the case would not hinge on Plame's status. All this will undoubtedly form the essence of any appeal.
BTW, what's the take-home message from the Scooter Libby conviction? Always invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and to hell with attempting to do your best to respond to prosecutor's questions to the best of your ability to recall.
As for the wild, over-the-top, wall-to-wall media's coverage of the Libby conviction, we learn much about the way the MSM treats Republican issues compared to those of the Democrats.
Take for example the case of Maria Hsia (pronounced like Shaw) back in March 2, 2000, an aide to the Vice President was convicted of illegal funneling foreign money to Democrats, crimes that benefited the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. Vice President Gore at that time was the all-but-certain Democratic nominee for president. Coverage was minimal. ABC gave it 19 seconds and CBS gave it 23 seconds. On NBC, Tom Brokaw skipped it. A few days later on the "Imus in the Morning" show, Brokaw had this telling exchange on Gore:
Imus jumped in: "He acted like he barely knew that this Maria Hsia, didn't he? Like he was ready to drag her up out of a park someplace." Brokaw agreed: "Oh, I know, yeah, it was: 'Did I miss that?' It was as if he were saying, 'Did she get convicted?' He said, 'It's still in the courts.' It's no longer in the courts! The jury has ruled! Guilty! Five counts! Imus shot back: "Well, if he's watching NBC News he missed it." Brokaw conceded: "Yeah, well that's true." Imus: "And he only saw 19 seconds of it with Dan [Rather]." Brokaw: "Yeah, I know."Looking for a bright side of the Libby conviction, we see that the New York Sun writes a Libby appeal might produce a Supreme Court ruling striking down the very institution of a special counsel that, in this case, managed not to charge anyone for the underlying "crime" of leaking Valerie Plame Wilson's name to the press, but brought in an indictment that targeted someone more closely aligned with the president's policy than was the leaker, Richard Armitage. It is an institution that, because it is staffed by executive branch personnel but is not subject to executive oversight, stands apart from the normal constitutional framework.Brokaw did eventually raise it briefly with Gore in a Dateline NBC special on March 7, but only in terms that Gore was "vulnerable" to criticism since he and Clinton were "every bit as guilty in the soft money area" as Republicans.
Posted by Richard at March 7, 2007 11:59 AM
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