The Ugly Un-American: Scooter Revisited
Posted by Ray Church on 07.06.2007
It's been a long time / I shouldn't have left ya / Without a something something to... Oh to hell with it. The Ugly Unamerican is back.
You may have noticed that I have been out of action for the past month and a half. The reasons behind that are complicated and personal, but it basically started with an overload of marking and ended with a sneeze that threw my back out. I consider it karma for my last column about Jerry Falwell.
Now that my life has calmed down, I've been looking for a moment to put my regular column back in play, and this week I was building up to it. The Libby sentence was commuted and boy was I pissed.
Now, I don't know Enriquez very well, as he came on board about the same time as my troubles started, and I certainly don't mean any disrespect when I tell you that this column is a piece of luke-warm tripe… the type of meat that only a seasoned conservative stomach could take. I was in the bathroom for some hours reliving my last meal after reading it.
Like I said, no offence to Mr. E personally, but this was really a weak read on the event. As Mr. E. has limited himself to five points, let me make a five point retort to his piece.
1) Libby's crime was not leaking Plame's name
It's probably not your fault if you, the reader, missed this little piece of information as many in the media failed to make that point clear. He was the scapegoat for the whole Plame affair, it's true.
But Fitzgerald didn't make him that scapegoat.
Libby's crime was that he lied about events, which made it impossible to get to the bottom of the story. Fitzgerald likened it to being a referee and having sand thrown in his eye. Libby was the guy throwing sand in the referee's eye.
What did Libby do? Yes, as E. describes it, Libby was basically convicted of having a different recollection of his conversation with Tim Russert… a different recollection in the same way that a cannibal cult is a "different faith". He lied to the grand jury. His statements contradicted the established facts.
Yes, Fitzgerald knew he wasn't the person who released Plame's name to Bob Novak, but Robert Novak later admitted there was a second source for the article, Karl Rove. Ari Fleischer also admitted discussing Plame's identity with reporters, notable David Gregory, and said that he got his information from… sing along with me… Scooter Libby.
Fitzgerald, however, was unable to unravel most of this at the time because Libby's story contradicted reality. He couldn't establish the facts because Libby was lying to him.
So Libby got sent to jail for lying.
2) What do you mean there was no crime here?
People have got to stop watching Fox News.
No seriously. Stop it. It's bad for your eyes.
OK, first up lying to a grand jury is a crime, whether it's about having sex with a white house intern or unmasking an undercover operative. The difference is that the Bill Clinton lied to cover his infidelity, which is an asshole thing to do to his family, but not particularly illegal.
Now it makes no difference if it was Bill Clinton or one of his aides who lied, the crime would be the same. It is preventing the legal system from having the facts required establish the truth. The difference is that it was covering up something that wasn't particularly important to the majority of people.
The crime committed by Richard Armitage, and Karl Rove, and Ari Fleischer, and perhaps even by Scooter Libby was far more serious than infidelity. Not meaning to trivialize infidelity, I was one of numerous young people whose family life was destroyed by it, but it's not in the same league as outing an undercover CIA operative.
Number of people directly affected by Bill Clinton's infidelity? 4. Bill, Hillary, Chelsea and Monica Lewinsky.
Number of people directly affected by the outing of a CIA operative? You decide, but I don't think any of us a qualified to count it. At a time when "National Security" was the buzzword, this crime directly impacted the biggest issue of the 2004 election.
3) Fitzgerald did what he could
One of the claims made by E. is that Patrick Fitzgerald knew that Libby wasn't involved and that he went after him anyway.
What E. forgets to mention is that for a lawyer there is a difference between what you know and what you can prove.
Libby had all the information for Libby to put the correct people in jail. What did he do instead? He lied his ass off. What would you do if you had all the facts but none of the evidence? Would you put legal pressure on the person who stopped you from making the case? Damn straight you would, Skippy.
4) Joe Wilson doesn't enter into this
One of the dumbest things apologists for the Bush administration have been doing is going after the reputation of Joe Wilson. Quick fact check people: Wilson was right.
It doesn't matter whether you like him, hate him or you're just insanely jealous over his gorgeous wife; he was right.
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Period. This week the Bush Administration officially stopped its investigation. You probably didn't hear about it because people were too busy discussing Libby's sentence.
As for it being "thoroughly discredited", then tell me… where is the yellow cake?
5) No, it's not a pardon…
But ask yourself, what punishment is there for someone like Libby.
Money? Loss of his legal credentials? Loss of reputation?
Just do a background check at the moment for the number of former Reagan and Nixon officials who were convicted and look where they are now. Count the number who turn up on television representing right wing think tanks.
There is a massive network for former presidential operatives. Ken Mehlman has recently been nominated to serve in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial committee, even though he left the RNC chair in scandal. Elliot Abrams was involved with the Iran Contra Affair but ended up back in service as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations to George W. Bush. Richard Secord was also involved with Iran Contra, but rode out his days as the CEO of Computerized Thermal Imaging.
And Paul Wolfowitz is now working for the American Enterprise Institute.
I could go on, but my point is this: Anything short of jail means nothing to the loyal Bushie. You just have to look at Bush's illustrious career himself, failing at every company he had a hand in, to realise that name and network count far more than reputation to these people.
There must be a consequence for immoral actions
And make no mistake about it, these were immoral actions.
One need only look at the extraordinary bullshit that Cheney has pulled, declaring himself not part of the Executive Branch of government so that he can basically do anything he damn well pleases.
The more you fail to bring these criminals to justice, the less esteem you have in the eyes of the rest of the world. We sit out here shaking our heads, listening to you describe how your founding fathers came up with this radical new idea called democracy when you can't do anything about the people who put themselves above the law.
And I'm not just talking Paris Hilton here.
What makes it even more laughable is that this blatant disregard for law comes from the same group of people who wave their records on crime as a reason to vote for them. George Bush was incredibly proud of his record in Texas, sentencing hundreds of criminals to death, but the moment you suggest that Scooter Libby spend a couple of years behind bars for raping the legal system he becomes all compassionate.
Pick up you mess, America. Those with power should be held more accountable than the weak.
An Apology
My last column garnered all sorts of feedback, most of it deserved. If you didn't read it, you probably wouldn't understand the controversy now. Nobody would be too shocked to hear me eviscerate Jerry Falwell, but to do it a day after he died got a lot of people's backs up.
I apologise, but not so much for when I wrote the column but for how I went about it. It has always been my contention that in an enlightened world we should be able to put forward any point that we believe is true, so long as we present it in a respectful manner.
Needless to say that while I certain don't back down from any statement I made about Jerry Falwell, I certainly did not do it in a respectful manner.
I was angry. I was angry that a politician, because that is what he was, was being held up as a great man of faith. This was not a man whose faith dictated his politics, this was a man whose politics dictated his faith, and while he may have been a wonderful and generous man in person, he was an abomination as a political figure.
One of these days I'm going to put together a column on the growth of the Religious Right. No doubt I will have to pick my words very carefully.
Shut the Hell Up Award
I missed so many good opportunities while I've been away, and if you've read my involvement in the round table discussions you'll know that my disgust at many of the leading presidential candidates is growing. It's probably no surprise that Giuliani, McClane and Romney are not exactly on my wish list, but increasingly I have been irritated by Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and, to a lesser degree John Edwards as well. Obama lost me with the Punjab memo, Clinton lost me a long while ago, and while Edwards has some good things to say I can't help looking at the likes of Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel and asking "why can't any of the big three speak as straight as these guys do".
OK, that's a long route to explain a retrospective Shut the Hell Up Award for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Debate in early June where she came out with this defense criticism from Obama and Edwards about her role in votes over funding the Iraq war:
I think it's important… particularly to point out this is George Bush's war. He is responsible for this war. He started the war, he mismanaged the war, he escalated the war and he refuses to end the war
Or, to translate, don't hold me responsible. I can't do anything to hold George Bush responsible for his actions.
I have a three step plan to bring the troops home starting now. Put pressure on the Iraqi government to take responsibility and cut off aid when they won't…
AKA: Operation Blame the Victim
and engage in intensive diplomacy, regionally and internationally.
There are two things that piss me off with the way Mainstream Democrats talk about the war. The first is the "he mismanaged the war" thing, which basically says that if he had managed the war properly, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Bullshit.
It presupposes that this war could have been handled properly, but the reality is there was no way this war would have worked under the circumstances that the Democrats voted for it. You cannot just occupy a country anymore: the age of empires is over and if you haven't worked that out you didn't pay much attention to Vietnam.
The second thing that pisses me off is the "put pressure on the Iraqi government" bit, which is akin to going to your neighbours house, smacking his child around and then berating him for not taking him to the Emergency Room in time.
America made this shit. Don't blame the Iraqi government, blame yourselves.
I wanted something more contemporary, and I was tempted to name Anne Coulter after her stupidity on MSNBC the other day, but I'm sick of giving her any ratings.
Instead I give you Kate O'Beirn's defense of Scooter Libby while defending her attack on Bill Clinton.
He admitted to committing perjury
OK, as a teacher I always think about it in classroom terms. I have two students lie to me, and I've caught both of them in a lie. One admits he was lying, the other one tries to lie his way out of it.
Kate O'Beirn likes the second boy. At least he's consistent.
Sorry, No Shout-outs
Sorry guys, I'm out of time. Check out Justin, Jason, Greg, Brandon and Dan, but I'll do a better job of linking next week.
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