Playing For Keeps

TIME has a terrific wrap-up piece on the CIA leak investigation and the indictment against Scooter Libby that I strongly recommend reading.

While Governor Fletcher may believe that the 22 felony counts against Dan Druen for tampering with evidence and witness tampering in the Merit System criminal investigation were no big deal, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is not of the same opinion concerning Libby's actions which impeded his investigation.

Fitzgerald's indictment sets the stage for either a trial next spring or a plea bargain that almost certainly would mean jail time for Libby. That possibility has already been discussed: a source close to the investigation told TIME that Fitzgerald and Libby's attorney Joseph Tate discussed possible plea options before the indictment was issued last week. But the deal was scotched because the prosecutor insisted that Libby do some "serious" jail time.

Hopefully, the Merit System grand jury in Frankfort will take some comfort and strength from the action of their counterparts in Washington, D.C. last Friday and always remember what our own Senator Mitch McConnell said in 1999:

I am completely and utterly perplexed by those who argue that perjury and obstruction of justice are not high crimes and misdemeanors...

Perjury and obstruction hammer away at the twin pillars of our legal system: truth and justice. Every witness in every deposition is required to raise his or her right hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God. Every witness in every grand jury proceeding and in every trial is required to raise his or her right hand and swear to tell the truth. Every official declaration filed with the court is stamped with the express affirmation that the declaration is true. In the words of our nation's first Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay: 'if oaths should cease to be held sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights would become insecure.'

The facts clearly show that the President did not value the sacred oath. He was interested in saving his hide, not truth and justice. I submit to my colleagues that if we have no truth and we have no justice, then we have no nation of laws. No public official, no president, no man or no woman is important enough to sacrifice the founding principles of our legal system.

On this point, I am proud to quote Justice Louis Brandeis--a native of my hometown of Louisville and the man for whom the University of Louisville Law school is named:

'In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the laws scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker; it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.'

[Congressional Record, 2/12/99]

Comments

[Sam Wise]

I smell a pardon coming for Scooter Libby. It's what his Daddy did, it's what Fletcher did, and it's what Nixon did.

That is classic Republican avoiding responsibility methods, to be applied liberally for those in the inner circle.

That and some sort of outrageously needless fight with Democrats to energize the neocon base again are in the cards. Resurrect gay marriage again? Is their base that stupid? Not sure. After the election, within 6 weeks, Bush said he wouldn't push for an amendment. Posting the Ten Commandments? Who knows...but Rove will run something up the flagpole, and the base will salute it.

Maybe he'll rally the base against gay marriages performed in a place where the Ten Commandments are posted!

[bathtubs r us]

Okay....I'm a little off-topic here, but I have to say I've become fascinated with this Sam Wise guy.

Who is he???

Could he be a viable candidate for office?

I have been watching posts here since almost the beginning and this Sam Wise person has contributed so much.

Mark, maybe it would be neat to do a few profiles of faithful posters, beginning with this Sam Wise character!

[Frankfort political news junkie]

Thanks for passing on the Time link. Sam Wise is probably right about a pardon coming, especially if the White House thinks Libby will make a deal with the prosecutor and testify truthfully about Karl Rove and others. Undoubtedly, that is what motivated Ernie to have his little pardon pep rally in Frankfort. The Republicans can hardly attack the grand jury or prosecutor, as they have in Texas and Kentucky, when the special prosecutor behind Libby's indictment is a Republican appointed by the Administration.

I don't know who was behind leaking the CIA agent's cover to punish her husband for his criticism of one of the justifications the White House put out to justify invading Iraq, but it is classic Karl Rove strategy to attack with dirty tricks all the while manipulate the religous right and conservative vote while engaging in every dirty trick that would shock those who believe real personal morality matters. For more about this, read Jushua Green's excellent November 2004 article in The Atlantic, "Karl Rove in a Corner," describing the dirty tricks Rove pulled in 1994 and 1996 when Republicans wanted to defeat judges on the Alabama Supreme Court with business friendly conservatives. Attacking "liberal activist judges" is a classic Rove line because it plays well with so many groups from businessmen woried about runaway juries to religious conservatives. This article is still available online at The Atlantic online and well worth reading. Today's Supreme Court nomination will probably take the heat off the administration from the Federalist Society and the Republican base, but I wonder how long the religious right will judge Bush, Rove, and company in this administration by what it says rather than what it actually does.

The pnjunkie poster adds content. Nice site here.