He could have said "no" at any time. unless of course they held a gun to his head. He may have been duped, but he is guilty by association. michael

Unless they can clean vomit out of mine.

This piece could be titled "The evilness of innocent people". OK, so the evil he did was as an innocent (so the author says, though he obviously no longer knows this person). In my opinion that makes him worse than if he wasn't so innocent. He allowed his handlers to manipulate him as if he was a mindless automaton, the very thing that enables the most vile evil. And as for comparing this with the control one gives over to a guru, well gag me with a bar of soap. The alcolite remains conscious of and responsible for their actions and will still refuse to do evil, something scooper had no problem with.

And as for blah blah blah"but the nation that elected them that is symbolically on trial here this month."

This nation has already been found guilty and the punishment has been delivered: gutting of our finances, our good name, our chidren in the army, less security, less freedom, no action on critical problems like climate change and balance of payments. All because of enablers like scooper. And we have at least two more years, although mutted by the democratic control of congress.

One more point about 'being on trial'. This country has the most manipulated, propagandized, lied-to population on the planet, but I suppose the author considers that just 'part of the system'. And wonders why trash gets into office.

And a lawbreaking scumbag worthy of the death penalty for high treason against the United States of America. Your fucktarded friend willingly pareticipated in at least one of the many Constitution-gutting, treasonous actions of the many deliberate actions carried out by this administration. My only regret is that he'll probably be one of the very few to actually have to pay for his crimes against humanity.

Now, Nick, STFU before I rip you a new one, too.

There is practically nothing in this article that surprised me. If you wanted to find some people who are rabidly pro-life, hatefully homophobic and privately locked into the world of the "Christian right" (as opposed, I suppose, to the "New York left" or the "Hollywood left"), you won't find those people in the persons of Dick and Lynne Cheney, or George and Laura Bush, or Don and Joyce Rumsfeld, or even Karl Rove.

Of course, it runs counter to the unified wisdom of the Salon readership to imagine that the White House has been run by many thoughtful, wordly, cosmopolitan conservatives. It really spoils the Salon narrative if you can't ridicule the White House. Disagreement isn't enough; ideological villainy must be alleged.

These reminiscences about Scooter Libby don't surprise me any more than the notion of Don Rumsfeld taking a stunned Joint Chiefs Chairman out for sushi, which he'd never had. Was anybody else besides me laughing as this author implied that Dick and Lynne Cheney were essentially "homophobes" by virtue of offcial positions in this White House? Huh?

So, here's a newsflash, Salon. Scooter Libby thinks he's innocent because he is. There was no "illegal leak." Nobody -- NOBODY -- has been charged with a crime for "leaking" the name of Valerie Plame. Scooter Libby did not "leak" a name that was published in the Washington Post. This prosecution, which appears to allege the heinous crime of 'having a different recall from Tim Russert's recall,' is a bad joke.

Bromel quite clearly states that early on, during the Vietnam war, Libby realized that he valued power, and money, and therefore would submit to power and money. Submit is the keyword.

All these warmongers: not one served in the armed forces.

Early in their lives, they were the guys that hung back, got their degrees, went to work for a system we "rebels" knew had been betrayed at the highest levels beginning with the assassination of JFK.

Scooter Libby worked for the underbelly slime, making huge money all those years, cutting deals, working as a bagman, helping these worms continue to betray the republic on up to this point.

How can Bromel POSSIBLY say that Libby didn't share the values when he bent over and presented his ass for any taker with the moolah, happily, throughout his whole career?

The power-hungry and the money-grubbing, the liars, the sneaks, the brokers, the gay-bashing homosexual religious right, the gay-bashing homosexual leadership of the Republican Party, the deal-makers, the sniveling kiss-asses in the press, the wackos Coulter, Drudge, O'Reilly, Limbaugh ... where did these lower-life forms come from? How did they manage to coalesce into a force great enough to almost disrail our democracy? And I hope "almost" is correct.

Libby was one of them. Libby got rich off them. Libby enjoyed all the perks of that secular power while participating willingly in the spiritual betrayal of our democracy.

So Mr. Bromel, please STFU.

And why is Salon publishing this drivel?

I feel Nick Bromell's loss of innocence more than I feel for Libby's. Is it possible he romanticized his friend long after Libby had morphed into some morally pliable government functionary? I cannot make the sentimental leap of a sunny "go along to get along" kid to someone who would willfully subvert the laws he is is entrusted to uphold.

Isn't this piece more the contortions of memory and a kind of longing for a time of innocence that probably never existed as purely as Bromell portrays it? In his adult life, Scooter Libby chose to work for reprehensible people--not the least of whom is that other Andover alum, George W. Bush.

Someone at Andover probably recalls him as being a wide-eyed innocent too.

That is, when he can get a day off from being Karl Rove's gimp.

The rebels knew about the massive conspiracy to murder JFK through the signals sent to them via their tin foil hats.

Come on, level with us! You're an assistant U.S. Attorney working for Patrick Fitzgerald, aren't you? Which Count of the indictment did he ask you to write?

Did you know about George W. Bush's and Karl Rove's involvement in setting up Jack Ruby, too? I know they were barely teenagers at the time, but you can't be too careful... Wasn't there a Junior Trilateral Commission, where the kids got little black helicopters with training wheels?

This is too good. Normally you have to pay for entertainment like this. Thank you Salon readers.