I echo these sentiments from a reader:
Fitzerald was indeed very impressive. In my mind, the most impressive part of the press conference was his willingness to repeat, over and over, that Libby is innocent until proven guilty. This is a man who has spent two years away from his home, working tirelessly, to investigate what may or may not have been a crime. Rather than come out with both guns blaring, his chest puffed, disparaging one of the targets of this investigation, he reminds us all that there are processes to be followed and guarantees made to us by the Constitution that aren’t redifined by politics. This tells me that this man isn’t driven in the least by his ego, but that his true dedication is to the law. He is an absolute breath of fresh air at a time when it’s desperately needed.
Bush’s extremely brief non-response to the news was politically smart but a place-holder. Soon, I think, both he and Cheney will have to answer some very basic questions aout what they knew about all this and when.
WHY DID LIBBY LIE? I ask the question. You offer answers:
You are assuming that conspiracy is the cause, and not incompetence. It might be that when Libby testified he did not know a) that outing Plame might not have been a crime since she might not have been covert anymore, or her cover had been blown and b) assumed that reporters would not testify if asked – and thus no one could refute his account. It’s also possible that he told reporters about her because he did not realize that she was covert in the first place, and then panicked when he found out that she was, and that explains it.
Libby’s indictment as a consequence of his trust that reporters would never answer subpoenas? Oh, the ironies. But why, then, did he encourage Miller to testify? And why did Libby also lie to the FBI? As for “Official A”, Fitzgerald has a record of keeping identities secret until he has shaken enough witnesses to name them. Libby’s indictment may be a way for Fitzgerald to leverage harder facts about who else he believes was involved. Fitzgerald clearly thinks there were other leakers, and perhaps other liars. We don’t know if we will ever find out who those people are, but their existence seems to me a premise of Fitzgerald’s argument. Will this therefore go further? Is this indictment the very beginning? Another emailer suggests:
I don’t think this whole mess will go beyond Libby. If he can hold out and delay until after the midterm elections, he can be pardoned without Bush paying a price. I fully expect pardons in 13 months or the day before Libby has to do any jail time. Libby has no incentive to cooperate with Fitzgerald. He may be many things but he is not stupid. Protecting Cheney with the assurance of a pardon would be logical in his situation.
There are two tracks here: legal and political. Leave the legal side to Fitzgerald and the Libby trial. But the press now has a lot of questions to ask. I suspect more answers are in the pipeline. This story has legs.
The Dish 