Politics

No Indictments for Leaking Identity of Undercover Operative


I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.
Photo Credit: AP

Yes, I. Lewis Libby was charged today with perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements (see indictment). No, he was not charged with illegally leaking the identity of an undercover CIA operative.

However, the indictment does not charge Libby with the original alleged offense that the grand jury set out to investigate: illegally revealing the identity of a covert agent in violation of a 1982 federal law (Washington Post).

As I predicted in my previous post, this has not prevented congressional Democrats from smearing the entire Bush administration and the case that it made for the Iraq war (see Harry Reid’s statement). Watch out for the smoke and mirrors. The indictments today provide no basis for indicting the administration or the case that it made for war.

Nevertheless, prepare yourself for a labyrinth of non-sequitors flowing from the Democrats in a cynical attempt to discredit the policies of this administration. Their words will sound like arguments, but they will be nothing more than anti-Bush rhetoric veiled in the misleading language of guilt by association.

2 Comments

  • Faimon Roberts

    Pardon me Denny, but wasn’t President Clinton impeached for making false statements about a matter the special prosecutor had not started out to investigate? If conservatives went after Clinton “not for the sex, but for the lying” shouldn’t we be similarly outraged at Libby’s offense?

  • Denny Burk

    You misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not disputing that Libby should be in trouble if it is proven that he has lied under oath. If he has, I hope that he recieves appropriate punishment.

    My point is not about Libby’s legal troubles, but about how his troubles will be spun by partisan left-wing hacks. Fitzgerald said in his press conference yesterday that his indictment has nothing to do with the case that was made for war.

    Yet the indictment was not out for even a day before Democrats began alleging just that. Even if Libby is guilty as charged, the charges have nothing to do with the rightness or wrongness of the President’s war policy. That’s why the Democrat attacks are at bottom non-sequitors.

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