| In a must-read post, Glenn Greenwald -- rightfully -- blames Libby's freedom on "our corrupt political elite."
The disasters and rampant lawlessness and fundamental erosion of our country's political values and institutions are exactly what Fred Hiatt and David Broder and Time Magazine and Tim Russert and Tom Friedman and the New Republic geniuses have spent the last six years protecting, enabling and defending. We have the country we have -- one in which our most powerful political leaders are literally beyond the reach of the law in every sense, where we casually invade and bomb and occupy countries that have not attacked us, where our moral standing in the world has collapsed with good reason, where we are viewed on every continent in the world as a rogue, dangerous and lawless nation -- because we are ruled by a Beltway elite and political press that is sickly and cowardly and slavish at its core.
Greenwald skewers the unhinged right's blind support of Libby, earned because he's a "True Believer, a loyal member of their cult. Seeing him in prison would be humiliating, would make them feel weak and defeated at the hands of the Enemy (defined as "anyone who opposes them"), which is the worst outcome there is." But worse still are the assorted DC pundits, politicos, lobbyists, and media members who apologized, backed down, cowered, and appeased the Bush administration as it deliberately and overtly violated the rule of law.
The political press -- the function of which was envisioned by the Founders to investigate and hold accountable the most politically powerful -- now fulfill the exact oppose purpose in our country. They are slavishly protective of our highest political officials, and adversarial only to those who investigate, oppose and seek to hold those officials accountable. Hence, in official Washington, the Real Villains are Patrick Fitzgerald, Ken Silverstein, Russ Feingold and his Censure resolution, Pat Leahy and his disruptive subpoenas -- our Beltway elite reserves their venom for those who want to turn the lights on what our most powerful political officials are doing.
Bush's contempt for the rule of law and popular opinion was seen clearly in the incoherent press conference that accompanied the commuting of Libby's sentence. Tony Snow gave some weak answers, duly expecting the court stenographers to weave a rational narrative from it, as they always do.
Scott Hamilton examines the "rationale" behind the glee at Libby's release by Bush's neocon supporters -- the ends justify the means -- and notes that their rhetoric mirrors that used in totalitarian regimes:
I remember one afternoon sitting with Elena Bonner, the doyenne of the movement, in her apartment on Moscow's Chkalova Street, turning over the case of a poor refusenik who was being persecuted by the KGB. And Bonner lectured me: "You need to remember one tactic of the totalitarian mindset, a tactic that belongs to the basic training of KGB cadres. They frequently accuse their victim of doing exactly what they, in fact, are doing. Why? It has a double utility. It forces the victim to use his meager resources defending himself from false challenges. But more importantly, it deflects attention from their own scheming and plotting." Well, that turned out to be exactly the case in the matter we were discussing.
And the more I think of the charge of "politics" and the case of Scooter Libby, the more it strikes me that the charge is absolutely true. There is no question whatsoever that the prosecutorial function in the United States has been radically politicized.
For an example of this tactic, see Alan Dershowtiz' latest screed in the HuffPo.
Digby says of impeachment and President Bush, "has there ever been a president who deserved it more?" but then gave three reasons why impeachment proceedings shouldn't begin: there's no specific high crimes that could "get out of the House," no one thing to get behind; there's no time and too much investigation needed to be done; and, most importantly, there's the "indisputable fact that Bush and Cheney will never be convicted in the Senate. This isn't the GOP of 1974 and they will never cross over in enough numbers. They won't do it even if video tapes of Bush personally giving hush money to Scooter Libby turn up. Let's not kid ourselves about that reality. The fact is that impeachment will probably bring their caucus together."
The Constitution's framers certainly thought Bush's action was an impeachable offense. From Dan Froomkin's post today:
The Framers, ever sensitive to the need for checks and balances, recognized the potential for abuse of the pardon power. According to a Judiciary Committee report drafted in the aftermath of the Watergate crisis: "In the [Constitutional] convention George Mason argued that the President might use his pardoning power to 'pardon crimes which were advised by himself' or, before indictment or conviction, 'to stop inquiry and prevent detection.' James Madison responded:
"[I]f the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds [to] believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty. . . .
"Madison went on to [say] contrary to his position in the Philadelphia convention, that the President could be suspended when suspected, and his powers would devolve on the Vice President, who could likewise be suspended until impeached and convicted, if he were also suspected."
Other links of note:
-- Joe Wilson has a pretty good take of the issues surrounding Scooter Libby.
-- Editor & Publisher has the reaction of major newspapers across the country.
-- Digby explains the difference between Libby's perjury and Clinton's for the nth and -- a guy can dream -- last time.
-- Recently released documents show that Karl Rove narrowly missed getting indicted as well. It's probably not far-fetched to say that Libby's lies saved Rove... |
