Posted on 10/29/2005 6:05:53 AM PDT by Liz
MARCH 2, 2001
Lewis Libby, a top Republican lawyer, who is now VP Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told the House Government Reform Committee....that he agreed with much of Bill Clinton's widely discredited op-ed article outlining the former president's reasons for pardoning fugitive tax evader Marc Rich.
In a session that stretched late into the evening, Libby, who represented Rich for several years ending in the spring of 2000, told the committee he believes Rich is not guilty of tax and racketeering charges filed by federal prosecutors in 1983. Libby said he "quite possibly" would have considered applying for a pardon for Rich had Rich asked him to do so.
Libby, who said his law firms collected as much as $2 million for representing Rich, testified he had nothing to do with the application that led to clemency for Rich.
He declined to say whether he approved of the decision to pardon Rich, but he conceded that he called Rich on January 22, two days after the pardon, to "congratulate him on having reached a result that he had sought for a long time." Libby testified he made the call from his home to make clear that he was calling in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of the Bush administration.
In a particularly damaging exchange with Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski, Libby agreed that Rich might be characterized as a traitor for fleeing the country and renouncing his American citizenship. Kanjorski asked Libby why he would call a traitor to congratulate him on his good fortune in winning a pardon. Visibly uncomfortable, Libby had no answer.
For Republicans, Libby's testimony was a sour endnote to what had been a long day of revelations that made President Clinton's decision to pardon Rich seem even more inexplicable than previously thought.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
"You went to jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover -- Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—-and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers. With admiration, Scooter Libby."
--
I guess they both most love the West ...
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0202/16/lklw.00.html
RE: Novel "The Apprentice"
EXCERPT
LIBBY: Well, it's interesting. I first wrote it in Japan -- contemporary Japan -- in college for a credit. Had a good reason -- I wanted to graduate.
But the story sort of wouldn't let me go, and I sort of said, why am I writing about -- this about Japan?
And I went back and rewrote the book entirely in New England -- set in New England. Went out to Colorado, drank tequila and wrote. And sort of the dream life.
Oh, I dunno....Scooter is a lot better than being called "Louie"............LOL.
LIBBY: Don't believe I know any other traitors.
KANJORSKI: Stick around this committee long enough you may learn something meet many more traitors!
I read this transcript in total amazement.
Libby is a neocon's neocon. He studied political science at Yale under former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and began working with his former teacher under Cheney at the Defense Department during the George H.W. Bush administration, thinking about grand national security strategy in the post-Cold War era.
Man, that sounds like a heavy-breathing, bodice-ripper.
Betcha what's his face---Fabio---is on the cover.
More from the LKL transcript ...
EXCERPT
KING: Let's touch some other bases. The book, "The Apprentice" is now in paperback. It was called by the "Washington Post," "strikingly original. A small triumph of meticulous craftsmanship" -- not bad.
The "Boston Globe" called it "an alluring novel of intrigue."
OK. Based on -- is Dick Cheney OK, by the way? Has he been seen?
LIBBY: He's been seen. Even last night, when you were supposed to be there. He ...
KING: Yeah, you had your book party, ...
LIBBY: Right.
KING: ... and I was stuck here.
LIBBY: Right.
KING: Boy, I really wanted to come. He's a great -- as you say, he's a great guy.
Should he release the names already of -- is this pressure too intense on the Enron thing?
LIBBY: Well, I don't think so. You know, he's written one book in his life. And that book was about the speaker -- the great men who served as Speaker of the House.
When he walks through the House, through the -- or through the Senate chamber, he can tell you stories about every nook and cranny. He loves that institution.
And I think he would rather chew off his right arm than do anything to violate the prerogatives of that place.
But he also feels strongly about the White House and Constitutional rights and obligations and duties of the presidency, and protecting those.
And this is a case where he firmly believes -- believes to the point where, when he talks about it, his eyes get a little bluer -- that for the presidency to operate properly, it needs to be able to have confidential communications.
And that's part of what our forefathers set up when they set up two co-equal branches of government.
The courts have looked at issues like this, and they have decided that there are certain communications and certain roles that are distinct and that should be protected.
Reporters claim a privilege to protect their sources, not just what they said, but who said it. Why? Because we, in everyday common sense, believe that there are some people who won't come forward and tell you exactly what they think if either their identity or the content would be known.
KING: So, you think people would not meet in government meetings if it was revealed just that they met?
LIBBY: Well, it's not the government. The government officials have all been disclosed.
What we're talking about are those Americans who came to talk to us, who have on their own chosen not to go out and say who they were.
We encourage anyone who comes to meet with us to go out and say, here I am.
Libby started his government career in the State Department in 1981 (with the Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle, who also segued to the Bush admin).
Libby has also, at various times in his long career, held positions with the American Bar Association, the RAND Corporation, the Department of Defense, and the United States House of Representatives (as a Legal Advisor).
After graduating from Phillips Academy, an exclusive boarding school in Andover, MA, Libby graduated from Yale University in 1972, where one of his professors
was Paul Wolfowitz, and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree Columbia University Law School in 1975.
Libby was a founding member of the Project for the New American Century. He joined Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and others in writing
its 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century."
Libby co-authored the draft of the "Defense Planning
Guidance" with Wolfowitz for then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in 1992.
Don't forget Ann Coulter & her younger, liberal boyfriend.
"President is involved in this"
The President is involved in WHAT??? There is no crime!!! Except for the lying of ONE individual, there is no crime!!! Even many in the press acknowledge this...NO CRIME!!!!
Come on, Bush. Pick a supreme court nominee so they'll move on to something else.
What I've always wondered about is why when Clinton got into the White House, he "cleaned house," in particular, with the federal prosecutors... When President Bush was elected, he kept many of Clinton's top appointees... This is something that just STINKS... What to the Clintons have on everyone in Washington? I just wish that there was one honest and decent person in politics who would fall on his own sword and expose what's going on there!
Mark
Don't hold your breath.
Ever notice?
Neocons have a disconcerting way of popping up whenever a conservative president takes office. They grab whatever top positions they can get their hands on, ones that have veto power over policy-making decisions. Once they get the power, they run off and play in their natural habitat, with the liberal crowd.
You'll never see a neocon at a pro-life rally because neocons would never, ever deign to consort with the rabble----rabble like pro-lifers, the no gay marriage crowd, churchgoers, Bible believers, Ten Commandments adherents.
You know......the 62 million American values voters who voted for Bush.
That was my thought also after reading the indictment yesterday. Did the guy think he was an Ari Fletcher or what? Who in the press didn't he chat up? Well, maybe Helen Thomas? Idiot.
I think you're basically right but I wonder why- it's not as if he's likely to run for another office.
Why??? Same reason they went after and got Agnew.
Do you get the impression there's more between Libby and Miller?
One wonders if she went beyond protecting a source. Her actions don't add up, and it sounds like Fitz had indictments without her revelations. Her request for a personal waiver from Libby, though he'd signed a general waiver, and her jail stint(/stunt) are still baffling.
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