Alan K. Simpson: …I found a singular attribute which will always remain undiminished in my mind. That is the attribute of Loyalty- unswerving, unselfish, unwavering loyalty. One could almost superimpose upon his brow the accolade “The Good Soldier.” …I observed on many occasions how Dick [Cheney] relied on this man.

rwcole @ 164

Bush is quoted as saying he won’t intervene- and that he refuses to comment on the possibility of a pardon…

Perhaps “intervene” means “Not do anything until the judge has made his final decisions—but we’re dealin with Clusterfuck here- so who knows.

He has had his henchmen release a statement that can be interpreted either way.

typical

That highlights what I think is going to happen. Bush is creating the illusion that he respects the justice system now by saying that he will “not intervene.”

After the dust settles, I’m certain the prosepect of a pardon for Libby will be raised. It’s against Bush’s nature to hold his boys accountable for anything but total loyalty to him.

Count on it. Reverse everything he says and you get the truth.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Znhycj0tA-w

Lewis Scooter Libby was sentenced to jail today in Washington D.C. for his role in covering up the illegal leaking of a C.I.A. undercover agents’ identity and lying to and misleading federal investigators from the F.B.I. and Justice Department about this activity.

Enjoy,

JT

Any comment from Fred Thompson yet?

Thanks to this there is still hope that the America that respects the rule of law above all else first still exists under all that muck and garbage Bushco and the GOP have wrapped America and Americans up in. The road back though is going to be very long, hard, and painful, and I fear there is not the political will within America to truly face the severity of the damage done by Bushco. I say this because what enabled this more than anything was the trust and faith given to him to fight America’s enemies after the pain of 9/11/01, and it is I suspect hard for many people to accept that by turning off their critical thinking and reflection where government actions are concerned (especially as regards civil liberties and the Constitution) they helped enable this. Yes, it was done with good intentions by such folks, but that does not change the ugly harsh truth that without that Bushco would never have been able to get anywhere near as far down this road as they have before the public started to have any real awareness of this damage. It underscores yet again that elections matter, because would this even now be known if the GOP had held onto Congress? I quite doubt it!

Libby deserves to be in jail for the appeal process, after all when is the last time that a sitting CoS to a US VP (or equivalent in the government, a rather rarified and exclusive category in this case) was indicted and then convicted of a false statement and 2 counts of perjury in order to obstruct justice investigating the public leaking of a CIA active duty NOC by those within the government, in this case the WH? This man needs to be shown no more consideration than any other convicted person that has obstructed justice into a serious national security investigation, and doing so so successfully that to date it has been impossible to actually indict on the underlying crime of outing the NOC in the first place at that. I rather doubt there are too many examples of convicted perjurers and obstructers of justice in national security investigations that got to sit out on bail during the appeals, and if there is then this only shows a much worse problem than I would have thought existed. This outing was the single most egregious act I saw from this Administration in its deliberate hyping of a threat from Iraq, especially on the nukes. Of all that I have seen nothing else raised the immediate rage and fury within me that this did, thanks to my familial connections to the intelligence world and my recognition of the tremendous act of treason (and yes I use that word with deliberate thought, whether one may argue it fits the letter of the concept I am utterly convinced it fits the spirit of it) and indifference to the many lives put in harm’s and even death’s way by this, all to knock back a domestic political attack on the motive/rational for the Iraq war being necessary months after it had been initiated. That has always been what made this so exceptional for me in terms of offensiveness and disbelief both, and why I find this to be the single most offensive thing Bushco has been behind at the personal level. Politically of course it is the illegal fraudulently sold war in Iraq, but that is another matter.

Thank you all here at FireDogLake for providing this poor Nova Scotian with such an invaluable resource with which to track this case in such exceptional detail, if it were not for this site I would have not been able to follow this in anywhere near the level of detail I would have preferred, especially with the media either ignoring it or pitching for the Libby side. I am also grateful for all the excellent analysis and contextualizing that occurred here, both from the front pagers and from so many of the commentators. While I have been a lurker for most of my tenure here I have appreciated this blog for the wonderful resource that it is from the outset, and once again I thank all those involved with this blog in all roles for making this blog one of the most remarkable places I have ever seen for its knowledge, critical thinking, humour, and simple caring, both for others around them and about the world around them instead of being indifferent. FDL will likely go down in history where the internet and blogging is concerned for all it has done on this file, and while the Plame betrayal is not the only excellent long term work done here it is the signature piece IMHO. Well done all, well done!!!