Without the Get Out of Jail Free card, it wouldn't be Monopoly.

[shereads]

And Justice For All

The usual crybaby anti-Americans are complaining about Scooter Libby’s well-deserved escape from an impending prison sentence. As fine people such as Christopher Hitchens and Henry Kissinger have noted, L. Irve “Scooter” Libby didn’t do anything but launch a coordinated White House media attack on an American CIA agent as revenge on her diplomat husband who was sent by the CIA to Africa in 2002 to confirm that Iraq had bought weapons-grade uranium from Nigeria so that the White House could start its Iraq War. But he didn’t find any such thing.

People, he was interfering with the Iraq War!

Think about the kind of world we’d live in today had the Iraq War not happened. That’s exactly the kind of world that madman Joe Wilson envisioned for America. Scooter Libby just wanted to ruin Wilson’s wife’s life as a very small payback. Is that so wrong?

~ WONKETTE

:surprised smiley:

:disgusted smiley:

:smiley smiley:

Discuss.

 

[Guest]

I like Monopoly.

But I get to be the race car.

Edited to add:

The Scooter situation is so ludicrous I have no further comment.

 

[LadynStFreknBed]

After reading the title of your post, all I can think about is how my 14 yo daughter was banned from playing LIFE with her girl scout troop. So, she creates backstories for her peg-people.. and well, her pirate peg-people steal the other players' children.. and sometimes she claims to be in VT and chooses a same sex spouse for her peg-person.. it's all good. LOL

So, no, I got nothing... just a random tangent..

 

[Stella_Omega]

Edited to add:

The Scooter situation is so ludicrous I have no further comment.

Yeah, it's really, truly, uncommentable.

 

[R. Richard]

It is quite well known that 'Scooter' Libby was not the one who leaked information about Joe Wilson's wife. Richard Armitage was the one who 'leaked' the information. Richard Armitage is not one of the White House guys who wanted the war with Iraq. Richard Armitage was not charged with leaking infomation about Joe Wilson's wife. The reason that Richard Armitage was not charged is that Joe Wilson's wife was not, at the time of the leak a covert agent and had not been a covert agent for quite some time. The law supposedly broken was the leaking of the identity of a covert agent. The fact that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA was quite well known around Washington at the time of the leak. Richard Armitage was not charged with anything, because there was nothing involved with Joe Wilson's wife to charge him with.

Richard Armitage did leak information contained in a classified document, but that is so common in Washington insider circles that is not considered a crime for a Washington insider. If an engineer did the same thing, goodbye security clearance and job.

By the way, Joe Wilson's claims about what he supposedly said in his report to the White House contain at least some lies. Joe Wilson cited a document that he claimed to have referenced in his repiort. Unfortunately the document was not published until after Joe Wilson wrote his report. Joe Wilson also claimed that Iraq made no attempt to buy African uranium. Iraq did make such an attempt, but was rebuffed.

MSNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Armitage's Role in Plame Case
A book coauthored by NEWSWEEK's Michael Isikoff details Richard Armitage's central role in the Valerie Plame leak.
By Michael Isikoff

Newsweek
Sept. 4, 2006 issue - In the early morning of Oct. 1, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell received an urgent phone call from his No. 2 at the State Department. Richard Armitage was clearly agitated. As recounted in a new book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Armitage had been at home reading the newspaper and had come across a column by journalist Robert Novak. Months earlier, Novak had caused a huge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Ever since, Washington had been trying to find out who leaked the information to Novak. The columnist himself had kept quiet. But now, in a second column, Novak provided a tantalizing clue: his primary source, he wrote, was a "senior administration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger." Armitage was shaken. After reading the column, he knew immediately who the leaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me."

Armitage's admission led to a flurry of anxious phone calls and meetings that day at the State Department. (Days earlier, the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into the Plame leak after the CIA informed officials there that she was an undercover officer.) Within hours, William Howard Taft IV, the State Department's legal adviser, notified a senior Justice official that Armitage had information relevant to the case. The next day, a team of FBI agents and Justice prosecutors investigating the leak questioned the deputy secretary. Armitage acknowledged that he had passed along to Novak information contained in a classified State Department memo: that Wilson's wife worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues at the CIA. (The memo made no reference to her undercover status.) Armitage had met with Novak in his State Department office on July 8, 2003—just days before Novak published his first piece identifying Plame. Powell, Armitage and Taft, the only three officials at the State Department who knew the story, never breathed a word of it publicly and Armitage's role remained secret.

Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity. "I'm afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing," he later told Carl Ford Jr., State's intelligence chief. Ford says Armitage admitted to him that he had "slipped up" and told Novak more than he should have. "He was basically beside himself that he was the guy that f---ed up. My sense from Rich is that it was just chitchat," Ford recalls in "Hubris," to be published next week by Crown and co-written by the author of this article and David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation magazine.

As it turned out, Novak wasn't the only person Armitage talked to about Plame. Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has also said he was told of Plame's identity in June 2003. Woodward did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but, as late as last week, he referred reporters to his comments in November 2005 that he learned of her identity in a "casual and offhand" conversation with an administration official he declined to identify. According to three government officials, a lawyer familiar with the case and an Armitage confidant, all of whom would not be named discussing these details, Armitage told Woodward about Plame three weeks before talking to Novak. Armitage has consistently refused to discuss the case; through an assistant last week he declined to comment for this story. Novak would say only: "I don't discuss my sources until they reveal themselves."

Armitage's central role as the primary source on Plame is detailed for the first time in "Hubris," which recounts the leak case and the inside battles at the CIA and White House in the run-up to the war. The disclosures about Armitage, gleaned from interviews with colleagues, friends and lawyers directly involved in the case, underscore one of the ironies of the Plame investigation: that the initial leak, seized on by administration critics as evidence of how far the White House was willing to go to smear an opponent, came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone.

Indeed, Armitage was a member of the administration's small moderate wing. Along with his boss and good friend, Powell, he had deep misgivings about President George W. Bush's march to war. A barrel-chested Vietnam vet who had volunteered for combat, Armitage at times expressed disdain for Dick Cheney and other administration war hawks who had never served in the military. Armitage routinely returned from White House meetings shaking his head at the armchair warriors. "One day," says Powell's former chief of staff Larry Wilkerson, "we were walking into his office and Rich turned to me and said, 'Larry, these guys never heard a bullet go by their ears in anger ... None of them ever served. They're a bunch of jerks'."

 

[shereads]

It is quite well known that 'Scooter' Libby was not the one who leaked information about Joe Wilson's wife. Richard Armitage was the one who 'leaked' the information. Richard Armitage is not one of the White House guys who wanted the war with Iraq. Richard Armitage was not charged with leaking infomation about Joe Wilson's wife. The reason that Richard Armitage was not charged is that Joe Wilson's wife was not, at the time of the leak a covert agent and had not been a covert agent for quite some time. The law supposedly broken was the leaking of the identity of a covert agent. The fact that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA was quite well known around Washington at the time of the leak. Richard Armitage was not charged with anything, because there was nothing involved with Joe Wilson's wife to charge him with.

Richard Armitage did leak information contained in a classified document, but that is so common in Washington insider circles that is not considered a crime for a Washington insider. If an engineer did the same thing, goodbye security clearance and job.

By the way, Joe Wilson's claims about what he supposedly said in his report to the White House contain at least some lies. Joe Wilson cited a document that he claimed to have referenced in his repiort. Unfortunately the document was not published until after Joe Wilson wrote his report. Joe Wilson also claimed that Iraq made no attempt to buy African uranium. Iraq did make such an attempt, but was rebuffed.

If denial is a religion, you are its pope.

 

[rgraham666]

Quelle surprise, eh?

 

[shereads]

Quelle surprise, eh?

Well, yes. I was surprised. I thought Bush would let Libby serve four weeks, like Paris Hilton. Just for good form.

I guess public opinion doesn't really matter at this point. "Hell, yes, we're corrupt. So?"

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Get over it, Damnit!!! Libby was NOT indicted, tried and convincted of "Outing" Valery Plame. His crime was lying to Congress to cover up for his buddies in the White House (Chaney, et al).

According to three separate Appelate Judges (All appointed by Republican Presidents) who reviewed the case -
1. The trial Judge made NO MISTAKES.
2. After Libby was found guilty by a jury, the trial judge applied an "Appropriate Punishment in accordance with the existing statues."
3. Libby's appeal has no merit and would have been rejected by the Court of Appeals.
4. The trial judges insistance that Libby begin serving his inprisonment during the appeals process was again "Appropriate."

I will say this again. The Libby case had nothing to do with the outing of Valery Plame. He was conviced of exactly the same offense for which the Republicans, in rightous indignation, Impeached Clinton. Get over it.

 

[Guest]

His pardon has not yet been ruled out, according to Bush.

I can't quite get over that.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Sarahh,
I fully expect Bush to grant not only a full pardon, but then attempt to declare some kind of Retroactive Executive Privlige to keep his mouth shut.

"Anyone who has done wrong in my administration will not be working for my administration." GW Bush

 

[Subo97]

Quid Qo Pro Ho

It was worth the price of admission to watch Tony Snow tie himself into a pretzel of illogic when grilled by the ladies of the press.

I suppose it make the 26% happy.

It's just one more reason to punish the Republican lemmings in the polling booth.

 

[Guest]

Sarahh,
I fully expect Bush to grant not only a full pardon, but then attempt to declare some kind of Retroactive Executive Privlige to keep his mouth shut.

"Anyone who has done wrong in my administration will not be working for my administration." GW Bush

That's very clever, isn't it? I mean, in a greasy, underhanded, lying, cheating, twisting of all sorts of ethics sort of way.

I wonder who helped him figure out the angles?

 

[gauchecritic]

According to three separate Appelate Judges

I was just wondering what Applegate was.

A mysterious inner court that breaks into orchards?

And then I decided to use my eyes in the proper order.

 

[JamesSD]

Par for the course for the current Lame Duck administration.

 

[shereads]

Get over it, Damnit!!! Libby was NOT indicted, tried and convincted of "Outing" Valery Plame. His crime was lying to Congress to cover up for his buddies in the White House (Chaney, et al).

According to three separate Appelate Judges (All appointed by Republican Presidents) who reviewed the case -
1. The trial Judge made NO MISTAKES.
2. After Libby was found guilty by a jury, the trial judge applied an "Appropriate Punishment in accordance with the existing statues."
3. Libby's appeal has no merit and would have been rejected by the Court of Appeals.
4. The trial judges insistance that Libby begin serving his inprisonment during the appeals process was again "Appropriate."

I will say this again. The Libby case had nothing to do with the outing of Valery Plame. He was conviced of exactly the same offense for which the Republicans, in rightous indignation, Impeached Clinton. Get over it.

Are we having an argument?

Which side am I on?

 

[shereads]

His pardon has not yet been ruled out, according to Bush.

I can't quite get over that.

A pardon could complicate future criminal trials. Cheney's, for example. Commuting Libby's sentence means he's still a convicted criminal and therefore an unreliable witness for the prosecution.

It's the best of all worlds.

 

[shereads]

I suppose it make the 26% happy.

"If two-thirds of voters disapprove of the job the president is doing, it stands to reason that two-thirds of voters approve of the job he's not doing."

~ Stephen Colbert

 

[Somme]

If denial is a religion, you are its pope.

It's a river.

Merrily down the stream..........

 

[shereads]

It's a river.

Merrily down the stream..........

A word to the wise:

Don't mention rivers. R. will go postal.

 

[Huckleman2000]

A pardon could complicate future criminal trials. Cheney's, for example. Commuting Libby's sentence means he's still a convicted criminal and therefore an unreliable witness for the prosecution.

It's the best of all worlds.

Not only that, but Libby would then lose his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in such a trial, and could be forced to testify.
Unless Bush issues some kind of retroactive executive order or something, as Jenny pointed out.

 

[Somme]

A word to the wise:

Don't mention rivers. R. will go postal.

Native runners in loincloths carrying messages in cleft sticks spring to mind?

 

[jomar]

All I remember is Bush saying those that leaked Plume's name would be held accountable and brought to justice. He neglected to mention "in the Bush way."