Letters to the Editor
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Evil
These people. libby, cheney, bush and all you right wingers are just EVIL, for your sakes I hope there isn't a hell, cos that's where you will all go, to be burned, flayed and flagged on a daily basis.
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Where the prosecutor is going
"Is this as far as the Fitzgerald investigation goes; the prosecution for obstructing his investigation? Does the prosecutor submit a final report of his investigation after the trial and, if so, to whom? What are Fitzgerald's instructions? And, (last question I promise) could this whole trial simply be an attempt to get the specifics of his investigation into the public realm prior to him closing the investigation?"
Fitzgerald is a competent prosecutor. It took him years, but he finally got the former governor of Illinois into court and convicted. His modus operandi is to work up the food chain. He may be stopped here, but I think he had Cheney in his sights.
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Misstatement re: Tim Russert?
Didn't Tim Russert testify that his conversation with Libby contained no mention of Plame and/or Wilson?
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Another question
If there is evidence from Novak that Armitage leaked Plame's identity and that Armitage knew from the "S" beside her name that it was secret, why isn't he being prosecuted for the leak? Everyone else who passed her name around could at least deny they knew it was secret on the basis that they heard it second hand.
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Worked for OJ
Why wouldn't "jury nulification" work in the land of OJ?
And wouldn't it just be seen as a clever defense if it does work?
Tony Soprano (disguised as Dick Cheney) and his thugs are running our country.....and we are loving every minute of it.
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The I Stands for Iago
At the end of Othello when Iago is confronted with his crimes, he remains silent. For Shakespeare, this is the ultimate evil. Here it is important to consider the "evil" that Libby has done by not speaking. In protecting both the Vice President and the President, he is condoning their illegal actions and allowing them to continue commiting their crimes against the American people.
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Holy unobfuscated Details - Batman
Wow, I hope you called Fitzgerald to provide your outline to aid in his closing arguments....
Alot is still missing in this - obvious but unidentifiable voids in social patterns - These Republican operatives - were not so good - as to slide by Fitzgerald's investigation, Were they?
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Libby...
will get a slap on the wrist at best. Armitage was the leak that started it all.
In the face of that Libby's lie of being a few days off in his recolection isn't going to amount to much.
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Also,
Who cares whether he goes to jail - for this teenage quality lie - if he can't do any better than that - ? What is really happening...
Should any of us go to jail for this lie?
If this is all 'we' have, what the hell are we wasting this money for?
I await the payoff.
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Libby's Idealist Yet Ineffectual Defense
C'mon. It's a courtroom, he's charged with a crime. What did you expect him to do, go on a hunger strike? He's not incriminating anyone else, other than Rove and nobody minds that. If anything, he's taking it on the chin for his bosses's crimes.
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America's Attention is Focused Elsewhere
How many other readers have heard others say "what's the big deal about a politician lying?" before eschewing any interest in Scooter Libby and the lying band of ne'er-do-wells in the White House? We've got bigger fish to fry. Like who's the daddy of Anna Nicole Smith's baby? Who gets her body now that she's dead? Who else had her body while she was alive? The potential fathers number about 5 right now. This is way more interesting than some stuff perjury trial that goes to the heart of darkness that is the Bush Administration. It must be ... look how much time the media is spending on Smith v. Libby.
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Sidney Blumenthals excellent
book "the Clinton Wars" provides a detailed look at what happens if a Prosecutor is motivated by politics instead of policy. Clinton, unlike Cheney and his operatives, was persecuted for 6 years by an incompetent partisan Ken Starr. So intent was Starr to convict Clinton, evidence be dammed, that the presiding judge issued a finding of fact that Starr violated the rules of The Grand Jury (hardback edition, pg 786).
Because Starr’s prosecution was political, his attempts to indict Susan McDougal and Julie Hiatt Steele on perjury related charges collapsed. The jury split along partisan lines, with those in favor of President Clinton voting no and those who supported his Republican persecutors voting yes.
The defense of Scooter Libby will succeed only if lawyer Theodore Wells can convince at least one juror that Libby is somehow the victim of a political vendetta against the President and his Vice. A hung jury would serve the same purpose as an acquittal.
The difficulty is that unlike Kenneth Starr, Patrick Fitzgerald oozes integrity. Fitzgerald has avoided any hint of partisan politics, does not leak information from the Grand Jury, and is a conservative prosecutor with a reputation so unimpeachable that it has resisted character assassination even from the Right Wing Noise Machine.
In spit of overwhelming evidence that VP Dick Cheney and his operatives engaged in a conspiracy to discredit Joe Wilson by attacking his wife, Fitzgerald has deliberately withheld indictments because he does not have a solid case.
I also believe that if Scooter Libby is convicted (50/50 odds), Patrick Fitzgerald will not stop his investigations.
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better headlines
"We've got bigger fish to fry. Like who's the daddy of Anna Nicole Smith's baby?"
I agree. Most Americans don't seem to have the patience for legal nuance. Perhaps, an interpid reporter could bring America's attention to Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame and the whole Iraq war with some sexier headlines:
"Cheney f**ked Wilson's wife" for starters.
Then: "W and Rove's love child (Iraq)"
And perhaps: "Aliens abduct constitution: conduct probes on all Americans"
Would that help?
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Just how cynical was it, Johnny??
It was SO cynical you could fry an egg on it.
During the voir dire portion of the trial, potential jurors were asked about their feelings toward Dick "Go Fuck Yourself" Cheney, who the defense maintained would be a witness.
Any juror who expressed reservations about Cheney was bumped from the jury pool. Since Cheney's unfavorables are running at about 80% - that means that 8 out of every 10 potential jurors would automatically be excluded - including, let's face it - virtually ALL Democrats and minorities - unless they were willing to lie about it - which I would have done in a heartbeat had I been lucky enough to have been called for jury duty.
In any case, once the prosecution's case was over, Ted Wells had a miraculous insight that putting the fat asshole on the stand would not do Scooter much good - and Cheney wound up not being called.
So we're left with a jury consisting solely of people who have no unfavorable opinion about Dick Cheney.
One can only imagine that if a mistrial ensues and Fitzgerald re-tries the case - there will be some serious discussion concerning Voir Dire II - The Sequel .