...Or so say the jurors, apparently, acknowledging post-verdict that he looked very much like a fall guy. Pelosi backs them up. Libby's guilty on four of five counts. He faces up to 30 years in prison but will likely receive 1 to 2 years. The defense is, of course, appealing.
It does suck for Libby, caught as he is in an administration that views accountability as a merely quaint ideal for the plebes.
4 comments:
I wonder if it really sucks. He's racking up martyrdom-hours from a conviction that would have stopped the clock had he been declared innocent. The more such hours he accumulates, the more politically easy goes his likely future pardoning. As to being able to work again among the high fliers, he might just look less tainted as a pardoned martyr than as a henchman who beat a rap and was never duly chastened. Remaining grounded is time well invested if it enables you to fly a lot higher once the fetters of active litigation fall off. A cynical man who believes this might enjoy resilience against the demoralization or embitterment or anger a scandalous public trial and conviction might cause guilty and/or innocent people generally. Or so my blockmates tell me.
You may be right. Lots of pardoned martyrs going around. But, on the other hand, there are also plenty of rap-beating henchmen. It's doubtful that he could ever hold as high an office again either way. But there's also really not much in his way for serving as a lobbyist, whichever the outcome.
You're kidding, right? I mean, doesn't Valerie Plame's chances for career advancement in the CIA suck just a wee bit more?
"Disgraced" right-wing types tend to do pretty good, as far as I can see. Oliver North should be a disgraced figure, instead he has a show on tv. G. Gordon Liddy hasn't done too badly either, with books and a radio show in LA.
Financially I suspect they're both doing better than say, Daniel Ellsberg.
Look at it this way: If Libby had quit rather than doing Cheney's dirty work, not only would no publishing house touch a Libby book, what with him resigning before it all hit the fan, the white house likely would've held up anything he would've written and redacted the **** out of it.
Instead, now there's a market for Scooter's book, and BushCo is far less likely to hold it up, he having done his GOP duty.
Incidentally, Helmut-- have you seen Juan Cole's arguement that the trial already provides enough info to to impeach the VP?
Good I hope they fry the bastard for his faulty memory. In my book it's big no-no to lie to the U.S. Attorney. Doesn't make the case any less of a hatchet job than they did on the rapist-in-chief no so very many years ago.
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