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SCOOTER CERTAIN TO BE ACQUITTED
The New York Times reports:
I. Lewis Libby Jr.’s trial will largely turn on whether jurors are more inclined to believe him or members of the media.
Via the Briefing Room. Still, even if Libby is convicted, it needn’t be a bad thing. There are many very nice people to meet in the US prison system.
UPDATE. Play ball! Department of Justice special counsel Pat Fitzgerald explains the indictment such that even a simple-minded sports fan might understand. Or not:
If you saw a baseball game and you saw a pitcher wind up and throw a fastball and hit a batter right smack in the head, and it really, really hurt them, you’d want to know why the pitcher did that. And you’d wonder whether or not the person just reared back and decided, I’ve got bad blood with this batter. He hit two home runs off me. I’m just going to hit him in the head as hard as I can.
You also might wonder whether or not the pitcher just let go of the ball or his foot slipped, and he had no idea to throw the ball anywhere near the batter’s head. And there’s lots of shades of gray in between.
You might learn that you wanted to hit the batter in the back and it hit him in the head because he moved. You might want to throw it under his chin, but it ended up hitting him on the head.
And what you’d want to do is have as much information as you could. You’d want to know: What happened in the dugout? Was this guy complaining about the person he threw at? Did he talk to anyone else? What was he thinking? How does he react? All those things you’d want to know.
And then you’d make a decision as to whether this person should be banned from baseball, whether they should be suspended, whether you should do nothing at all and just say, Hey, the person threw a bad pitch. Get over it.
In this case, it’s a lot more serious than baseball. And the damage wasn’t to one person. It wasn’t just Valerie Wilson. It was done to all of us.
And as you sit back, you want to learn: Why was this information going out? Why were people taking this information about Valerie Wilson and giving it to reporters? Why did Mr. Libby say what he did? Why did he tell Judith Miller three times? Why did he tell the press secretary on Monday? Why did he tell Mr. Cooper? And was this something where he intended to cause whatever damage was caused?
Or did they intend to do something else and where are the shades of gray?
And what we have when someone charges obstruction of justice, the umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. He’s trying to figure what happened and somebody blocked their view.
Everybody clear on this now? Good.
(Via J.F. Beck)
UPDATE. Lawyers, Guns, and Libby.
The point of the baseball allegory was that it provided a standard of comparison for seriousness.
In this case, it’s a lot more serious than baseball. And the damage wasn’t to one person. It wasn’t just Valerie Wilson. It was done to all of us.
It appears to have been women’s baseball. Men’s baseball would be another matter.
It sounds like prosecutor Fitzgerald was hit in the head by a fastball.
To Tim Shell: In Washington, no one goes to jail for what they did. They go to jail for the “cover-up” of what they did. In the instant case, prosecutor Fitzgerald did not indict anyone for breaking the law, in fact, it has not been established that a law was broken. But Fitzgerald maintains that Libby lied during the investigation about whether a law was broken or not. It is against the law to lie to investigators.
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 10 29 at 11:41 AM • permalinkI don’t know about Fitzy’s analogy when he returns to the real world in the last few paragraphs above, but the baseball analogy isn’t poorly-worded for (North) Americans who are used to watching the game. (Actually, I could see using the Bertuzzi incident in an NHL ice hockey match as an analogy too.)
To translate his baseball-ese into Strine, let’s say it’s a footy match and a player shirts another player and it results in the abused player fracturing his neck. You’d ask yourself re. laying criminal or just league sanctions, if any at all, things like: Did he mean to shirt the guy or was it an accident (like grabbing the guy’s shirt to maintain his own balance)? When he shirted the guy, did he mean to break his neck, hurt him at all (and to what extent hurt him), or just knock him on his ass, or not hurt him at all but just strip him of the ball? Did the offender indicate before, during or after the match that he wanted to ‘teach that wanker a lesson’ or the like; and whether that lesson was meant to kill, seriously injure, mildly injure or just handle him roughly? And when all that had been established, what sanctions should be applied?
I assume he phrased it via an analogy because he can’t discuss the Grand Jury’s deliberations at all.
Still, let’s look on the bright side: the leftist wet dream (see Al Franken on the Letterman Show) of everyone in the Administration being charged with breaking the US-equivalent of the Official Secrets Act is nowhere to be seen. And a single perjury charge is a far cry from Bush-Cheney had Rove leak this info so Plame would be murdered by enemy “secret agents” to retaliate against Joe Wilson’s “honest” reporting in the MSM of Bush’s yellowcake lies that the MSM has been insinuating.
(P.S. I hope this hasn’t been posted twice.)
Posted by andycanuck on 2005 10 29 at 11:59 AM • permalinkOK, so that makes a lot of sense. Not. How about this for Fitzmas:
"Hey, I think Libby lied to the investigators. I can’t hang anything else on him, but I have to do something after all the media hype. So make the most of it, folks, because this trial is going to be worse than an Al Gore speech right after lunch on a hot day."
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 29 at 12:39 PM • permalinkLawyers, Guna and Libby
Well, I talked to old Tim Russert
The way I always do
How was I to know
He was with the mullahs too?I was gambling in my depo
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Karl, get me out of thisI’m the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between Iraq and the hard place
And I’m down on my luck
And I’m down on my luck
And I’m down on my luckNow I’m hiding here in Georgetown
I’m a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fanPosted by richard mcenroe on 2005 10 29 at 12:45 PM • permalinkWell done, richard m!
I haven’t been able to make heads or tails out of this whole Plamegate debacle since it began, but it just looks like a political bitchslapfest to me. My daily rag insists that the special prosecutor will have more indictments down the road, and all I see out of that is tax dollars down the drain with nothing to show for it, Ken Starr-style.
Of course someone broke the law prior to the investigation: the identity of a CIA agent was leaked. Of course, good luck proving who did it and if anyone else arranged it to happen.
But perjury is an offence in and of itself, as is lying to an FBI investigation. And a prosecutor takes what they can get. Of course if people didn’t lie to the grand jury and the FBI then it’d be much easier to actually prosecute someone for the original offence. But that doesn’t happen in Washington.
richard, when do you start working for Mick Jagger on his next album?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 29 at 02:08 PM • permalinkThe real JeffS—Soon’s I find a nother songwriter with a real bad cough…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 10 29 at 03:29 PM • permalinkA minor point of clarification. Mr. Fitzgerald is “Special Counsel”. This is of course entirely different than “Independent Counsel”.
As “Special Counsel” he still works for DOJ and the Executive Branch. Kenneth Starr was “Independent Counsel”, and as the title suggests was not a part of DOJ and oversight of his function was only nominally under the supervision of Congress.
And of course an indictment doesn’t mean squat. It’s often said that if you haven’t been indicted at least once in your lifetime then, you aren’t really trying.
Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2005 10 29 at 05:11 PM • permalinkSo is Fitzgareald saying Libby is really John Rocker or Roger Clemens?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 10 29 at 06:55 PM • permalinkThe moonbats over at Tim Dunlop’s think this is perhaps equal to or exceeding Watergate. The Presidency hangs in the balance.
In their dreams.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 29 at 08:14 PM • permalinkNotice how the left is saying how very, very serious the obstruction of justice charges are -25 years, as much as any murderer etc.
I seem to remember a Bill Clinton in this fix too. Then it was ‘only a peccadillo’ -’*anybody* would do the same’ etc.Clinton at least got the benefit of a rigged Senate jury - 50-50!
One theory making the rounds now is that Libby lied like a cheap Persian rug because he was sure the reporters would cover for him.
American reporters. For a Bush administration official.
Now you or I might think someone that dumb couldn’t manage unassisted breathing, but I guess we’ll see…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 10 30 at 12:46 AM • permalinkSincere Question: Why did Cinton who lied under oath to a Federal Judge get no jail time, but there’s talk of Scooter doing 30 years if convicted? BIG gaparoonie that I don’t understand ??
Posted by Jess1Dering on 2005 10 30 at 01:35 PM • permalinkSINCERE QUESTION: But didn’t Clinton cover up by lying to a Federal Judge??
Posted by Jess1Dering on 2005 10 30 at 02:17 PM • permalinkRebeccaH, Starr handed down at least 24 indictments and obtained over a dozen convictions. He did end up cleaning out some of the worst offenders in/from Arkansas, which I’m sure would have cost the US taxpayer more than $47M in the long run had the corruption continued.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2005 10 30 at 02:55 PM • permalinkJessWonder
Why did Cinton who lied under oath to a Federal Judge get no jail time, but there’s talk of Scooter doing 30 years if convicted? BIG gaparoonie that I don’t understand ??
Catch that key word “if”? IF he’s convicted, Scooter COULD do up to 30. Clinton was indicted, tried in the senate, and NOT convicted. Pretty complicated, huh?Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 01 at 02:49 PM • permalinkHere’s how this crap works:
1/ Politicians are the one class of people who can be relied upon to commit felonies, in order to cover up misdemeanors.
2/ Misdemeanors are so commonplace in DC that just about any determined prosecutor can find some, irrespective of what that prosecutor is SUPPOSEDLY looking for.
3/ All of the prosecutors in DC know this.
4/ So an intensive fishing expedition into Clinton’s pecadillos, based on subsequently-discredited charges brought by Paula Jones, eventually leads a determined prosecutor to some under-oath fibs about blowjobs. Then it’s a NATIONAL SCANDAL!
5/ So an intensive fishing expedition into somebody’s “outing” of a non-covert CIA analyst eventually leads a determined prosecutor to to under-oath fibs about sources of rumors. Then it’s WORSE THAN WATERGATE!
6/ Mr Libby’s troubles are Democrite payback for Mr Clinton’s troubles, pure and simple. And the long-term results will likely be parallel too. That is ...
7/ When Clinton caught his dick in a mousetrap, did all the Dems scramble over one another in their haste to distance themselves from him and leave him twisting in the wind? Or did they circle the wagons, and keep them circled from that very day until this?Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 01 at 03:01 PM • permalink
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I never had you pegged as a tatts man.