Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Scooter Libby Is Collateral Damage

Sentient beings across the four corners of the world learned today that I. “Scooter” Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney, was found guilty of obstruction of justice, perjury and making a false statement. Libby faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. Much of the blogosphere is in a joyful tizzy about Libby’s fate.

However, I can’t muster much enthusiasm over it. As far as I’m concerned, one of the jurors named Dennis Collins had the best perspective about it. According to CNN, Collins said:

"It was just very hard to believe how he could remember it on a Tuesday and forget it on a Thursday and then remember it two days later," Collins told reporters outside U.S. District Court. "Having said that, I will say that there was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury."

"It was said a number of times, 'What are we doing with this guy here? Where's [Karl] Rove ... where are these other guys?'

"We're not saying we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of, but it seemed like ... he was the fall guy."
Mind you, I don’t have any sympathy for Mr. Libby. He willfully did the bidding for a warmongering cabal of corporatist gangsters. However, the man is nothing more than acceptable collateral damage for the neocons. They managed to prevent any exposure about the Plame affair from costing Bush re-election in 2004. Furthermore, the Bush Administration’s cover-up successfully prevented anyone from being prosecuted for outing Valerie Plame or lying about the Iraq War. Libby was the instrument used to perpetuate a cover-up about a cover-up and protect the President.

It’s doubtful Mr. Libby will spend even one hour in jail. He’ll play the system through the appeal process or President Bush will simply pardon him. Meanwhile, the war goes on. More blood is spilled. Sociopaths Bush and Cheney continue to avoid accountability. We’re losing Afghanistan too. Al Quaeda is winning. So, forgive me if I don’t feel like celebrating this verdict.

4 comments:

Shimmy said...

It's only a matter of time till Cheney's eating wet food from a bowl on the kitchen floor!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm....
Where was your self-righteous outrage and photo-shopped graphics when Sandy Burgler was stuffing his socks with classified documents?

I'm not a Republican (I think Iraq was a monumental mistake), but the Democrats (and their supporters) are nothing but a gaggle of hypocritical whiners.

Anonymous said...

Pardon me! It's impunity, US-style.

Anonymous said...

WHILE SUN TZU JUMPS

Gonzales said "I can´t recall"
Eleven hundred times,
Yet he was made to "take a fall,"
"Besmirched" by "made up crimes."

Eleven hundred times he said
"I lack all recollection,"
"But I am sure," he also pled,
"All wrong was past detection."

Thus is the driving force behind
Justice as it today
Within America we find:
"I can´t exactly say."

If one in charge, than cheese--that´s Swiss--
Has vastly many more
Gaps in his knowledge, then how is
It not for to deplore?

So many hmms, and I-don´t-knows,
This failure to come clean--
Playing buffoon, but goonery
Belied the civil sheen.

It is to be expected--O
Iniquitous the lot,
As Libby let the whole world know
(His buddies in the plot)

Secrets of covert US spies
At cost to life and limb
Of well-placed operatives: but why´s
"The Nation" mad at him?

Security to compromise
For short-term small advantage
In politics--contrariwise
Pays not well by percentage,

Because old Sun Tzu jumped for joy
When such an "information"
Fell in his lap: so these destroy
The fabric of a nation.