Posted on 02/02/2007 4:23:48 AM PST by Laverne
NOBODY knows what is going to happen in the perjury trial of Scooter Libby, the one-time chief of staff to Vice President Cheney. Every day, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's team presents evidence that Libby lied to a grand jury. Every day, Libby's defense effectively pokes holes in the prosecution's case. ...snip....
I have no doubt that Fitzgerald gets up in the morning and looks in the mirror and sees a righteous man. But alas, his eyes deceive him, and his mirror shows nothing but Narcissus.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Good article; and both Firedoglake and JustOneMinute are noted in the article.
Narcissus - A skill learned in law school.
Libby needs a pardon before the VP has to testify.
Lets see what happens before we talk pardon. Fitzy will finish up on Tuesday, with his star witness Fat Dim Russert (aka potatoe head). Lets hope the judge dismisses the charges because Fitzy has not proven his case, by any stretch. Every witness has changed their testimony, every witness has forgotten something or other, Cooper was proven to be a liar, Miller files her notebooks in shopping bags, etc., etc., etc. I would hope that the judge will say, nice try Fitzy, but...you haven't made your case.
Again...blame Alberto Gonzales. He had the power and the duty to dismiss Fitzgerald the moment Richard Armitage revealed that he alone was the beginning and the end of this whole silly matter.
Another Jimmy Carter mirror eh? Too bad neither one can see.
Why didn't the judge dismiss? The judge knew this, and let Fitzy go forward. Gonzales hasn't been steller, I concur in that for sure, but why has the judge allowed this farce to continue?
This is a particularily bad week for ineffective government. The senate busies itself with debating non-binding resolutions while taking an occasional swipe at the Maliki government for not doing enough. The judiciary is enmeshed in trivia. And, the government of Boston wants recompense for paralyzing the city over reports of Light Bright advertising. We could furlough them all and just relax and enjoy the Superbowl.
The president can't just pardon Libby!
Didn't the president just say that he cannot pardon the Border guards because there are very strict federal guidelines with respect to the granting of pardons? [sarcasm off]
I don't understand why Armitage isn't being investigated and tried if he was the one who did it. Does he get off free? I realize it is all a sham to embarriss the Bush administration but the MSM acted like it was a national security matter so why not go after Armitage?
Simply because there is no crime to investigate no matter who leaked Plame's name. It was not a criminal act, and Fitz has known this all along. He has abused his authority and has done harm to the many individuals involved on all sides of his over the top investigation (one of who served nearly three months in jail). He has spent more than three years in a pointless inquisition that benefits only select group of political hacks and himself.
Clearly Fitzgerald has never worked in my office. Sh- happens at the Speed of Light. Who told who in passing is not something that is guaranteed to stick. It's only with hindsight that the gravity of something like this is established & it becomes hard to believe that you can't remember who told you a particular fact & to whom you might have relayed it.
...I don't know whether Libby told the truth to the grand jury.
But neither, in point of fact, does Fitzgerald. And yet he has brought the unlimited resources of the federal government to bear on a single man simply to justify his own pointless and lengthy investigation.
Your looking for courage in the political-class? Good luck.
Alberto Gonzales, like all Washingon-politicians, has 1-eye firmly on his next job. In his case it is probably a partnership at a prestigious law firm (you know: the kind that hires BOTH D's & R's). If he were to intercede & fire Fitzgerald, Alberto would be 'radioactive' and could look forward to a small judgeship in Texas & retirement.
Still, it would be nice.
Interesting comparison. Unlike Libby, there's no question that said border guards falsified their reports.
But in fact, Fitzgerald must have the jury agree beyond a reasonable doubt something even more convoluted: That Libby could not have been confused about whether he accurately remembers hearing about something from once source before he accurately remembered hearing about it from another source.
If you go to his grand jury testimony and his statements to the FBI agent, you will see that his wording is colloquial, rough, and imprecise. There are any number of possible interpretations of his statements. He is trying to explain what he remembered about his mental state about long ago conversations. Fitzgerald simply picks the set of interpretations which are least favorable to Libby and which best supports Fitzgerald's tenuous charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to an FBI agent.
That is not my point!
It appears that our president is not fully aware of his capacity to grant a pardon at any time. (See President Ford granting pardon to Richard Nixon.) Or, he is aware of his pardon granting privileges under the Constitution but doesn't have the guts to say why he is not granting our Border guards pardons.
It should be.
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