Scooter takes the fall

By Libby Spencer


Don't let Fox News fool you. They apparently fell victim to yet another one of those curious typos that keep cropping up when bad news for the White House hits the news cycle. Scooter Libby has indeed been found guilty on four out of the five counts.

I have to say I'm kind of glad that it's over. Since we share a name, the headlines have often startled me. So when I opened up my email and found a message saying "Libby found guilty," my first reaction was to wonder if I had been convicted of something in absentia. My second reaction was actually disappointment that it was just Libby and not Cheney and Rove who were in the headlines.

I'll have more to say on this later when I have time to read through the press but for now let me point you to Media Matters, where they're doing a little pre-emptive debunking of the anticipated right-wing spin. I think their first point is the most important. The White House supporters will surely spin this as a vindication of the administration and offer it as some kind of proof that no underlying crime was committed, but as Media Matters points out:

Since a federal grand jury indicted Libby in October 2005, numerous media figures have stated that the nature of the charges against him prove that special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation of the CIA leak case found that no underlying crime had been committed. But this assertion ignores Fitzgerald's explanation that Libby's obstructions prevented him -- and the grand jury -- from determining whether the alleged leak violated federal law.

Scooter did his job and took the fall. The first question that comes to mind is how long will it take for Bush to issue a presidential pardon? Anybody taking bets?

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)