Celebrating the Successful Obstruction of Justice

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  1. ManagedChaos says:

    And you expected a bunch of Zionist, Israeli-firster, neo-con traitors to act any different?

  2. Anonymous says:

    I bet he won’t get the same reception in prison. His mouth isn’t pretty enough.

  3. ManagedChaos says:

    EW, you don’t think a possible motive in the lying and obstruction from Scooter was to delay this case past the 2004 election by shifting the focus on journalists that Scooter knew would challenge the subpoenas and therefore delay the process? Wasn’t that delay essential to Bush’s winning of the election?

  4. Frank Probst says:

    Was his wife there? Or was she home taking care of the same small children that she’s going to have to raise alone if Scooter gets carted off to jail?

  5. *xyz says:

    I wandered over to the Commentary website and found a recent article entitled â€Lessons of the Libby Affairâ€.

    I have included a link below in case Marcy or any commenters want to take a break and shoot some fish in a barrel.

    http://www.commentarymagazine&…..p?id=10870

    I really hope Walton is made aware of Libby’s rock-star status among the neocon crowd – a status that was crystallized by his decision to obstruct justice to protect Cheney and the neocon agenda.

  6. Mimikatz says:

    The most troubling aspect is the continued zeal of these morons for toppling more regimes, despite the obvious, inescapable and dangerous failure of Iraq. I’m beginning to think that the fluoride that was added to the water when these Boomers were young really did rot the brain like the right-wing crazies of the time told us it would, or something like that.

  7. Dismayed says:

    Amazingly shameless, ignorant people. 1900 years ago these folks would have had the breath of their own bile and season tickets to the colosseum.

  8. Jukesgrrl says:

    â€Was his wife there? Or was she home taking care of the same small children that she’s going to have to raise alone if Scooter gets carted off to jail?†–Frank Probst

    Good point, but I’m sure these same 300 supporters will be happy to supply their hero with nanny services. Not to mention, I believe Mrs. Scooter has her own career, ironically something many of these uber-Republicans believe is wrong — except, of course when they’re doing it.

  9. bmaz says:

    EW – If you can find a video clip of this nonsense, I will personally find a way to make sure it gets in front of the Court’s eyes before sentencing. Even if we are beyond a theoretical submission deadline.

  10. Neil says:

    In fairness to convicted felon Scooter, he may not have had any control over the standing ovation at the neocon ball.

    Any man with such a fine education and legal career, who would oversee the manufacturing of fraudulent evidence for a war of choice, participate in the hit job on CIA Agent Plame and then in direct ethical and moral opposition to his fine education and professional traning, lie, perjur himself and obstruct justice, is a study in the flaws of human character.

    I wrote Judge Walton and asked him to consider the significance of the crime in terms of a calculus: when powerful men at the highest levels of goverment are choosing whether to tell the truth or to lie and obstruct justice, let them understand there are great consequences for choosong to lie and obstruct justice, and that the consequences are at least equal to, as punitive as, the penalties for the felonies they have successfully concealed. (There is probably no basis in law for this argument but then again, I have no legal training. The argument makes a point, nonetheless.)

    When powerful men in government lie and obstruct justice, they do so at great expense of the public trust.

    Write Judge Walton and tell him what you think about Scooter Libby felonies and what factors you hope he takes into account in sentencing. Kkeep it brief and to the point. Give them a Re: â€Libby†on the envelope.

    Judge Reggie B. Walton
    E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse
    333 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
    Washington, D.C. 20001

  11. Rayne says:

    Um, forgive me, but wasn’t there a period for pre-sentencing public commentary? Has it ended?

    And isn’t the address for Judge Reggie B. Walton here:

    UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
    E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse
    333 Constitution Ave., NW
    Washington, DC 20001

    Oh nuts, the period may have ended on 01-MAY-07…wonder if they still read letters anyhow, pointing out blatant and egregious behavior after the feedback deadline??

  12. Rayne says:

    Neil, thanks, you were faster on the draw than me, had my comment in the pending queue too long.

  13. bmaz says:

    Neil – Very well phrased. And, lawyer or not, your point has legal credence as a sentencing consideration.

    Rayne – either address will work just fine. Yours is the more technically correct, but either will work. â€Judge Reggie B. Walton†should be on top though. As to deadlines, I do think we are past one. My guess is that deadline was for consideration by the pre-sentence report writer and inclusion in the PSI packet (pre-sentence report). You can certainly send letters directly to Walton up till the day of sentencing. Nothing at all wrong with that. He may, or may not, see them; but no harm in trying. But if you find that video clip, I will find some creative way to make sure it is seen, along wish a passionate statement like Neil’s, from an officer of the court.

  14. *xyz says:

    Someone over at talking points memo made the following point:

    [snip]

    â€I’m beginning to wonder if some Republicans are now coming out to make a statement against Gonzales because they have inside information that a new AG has been selected and Gonzales has already planned to step down, perhaps next Friday, just in time for a recess appointment. People like Coleman can then say to their constituents that they asked Gonzales to resign, even though they only came out with the statement after they knew that he was leaving anyway.â€

    [snip]

    I fear that this is a very real possibility that would help the administration to sidestep a number of the very serious problems that are currently facing them.

    Do others here agree? If so, how can we get through to Harry Reid et al to convince them to keep enough Senators present so that a â€recess†does not occur over the Memorial Day weekend?

  15. Anonymous says:

    In the category of ’is nothing sacred to these guys’ since neither Rove nor this WH chose to recognize that he had no business in the DoJ, what was to stop Rove (certainly not a little thing like Security Clearances) from getting into the thick of the NSA programs. Since there are no boundaries I’ve yet to identify for Rove, it seems a reasonable question.

  16. Jodi says:

    There are really some small and mean attitudes here.

    Mr Libby just got some support from friends and compasionate people.

    And some here have to go with the prison sex humor and gloat about his poor wife raising her children alone.

  17. calugg says:

    Look the neo con crowd are nothing more than banana republic loving thugs. I thought one of the more effective Florida protests is when the legislature’s steps (I believe) were pelted with bananas.

    Can’t the neo-cons be greeted with similary disdain? It’s a great visual at gets to the heart of their disdain for the rule of law.

  18. Ishmael says:

    The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyersâ€. – (Henry VI, Part II, Act IV, Scene II).

    “Small things make base men proudâ€. – (Act IV, Scene I).

    The BushCo unravelling is becoming Shakespearean, with its roots in Bush’s usurpment/selection in 2000. Even Tweety noted this yesterday in his comparison of Fredo and Card to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Interesting to note that R & G were the tools of another usurper, Hamlet’s uncle, as are Card and Fredo to Bush 43. Like Dick the Butcher advocating mass legicide to the pretender Jack Cade, the answer to Bushco’s problems are to keep away the lawyers, from DOJ, from Guantanamo, anywhere the rule of law will expose their crimes. The depressing thing to me (as a lawyer) is that he was able to get so many lawyers to go along with it, even Comey for a long while. Schumer and Lahey are going to have to play Fortinbras in this tragedy to bring order back.

  19. P J Evans says:

    I love it when trolls comment on things that haven’t come up in the thread. Makes me wonder about their mental processes.

  20. obsessed says:

    poor wife raising her children alone.

    Hey Idjo: how many poor wives are raising their children alone as a result of Libby fabricating evidence to start a disastrous war in Iraq?

  21. freepatriot says:

    scooter libby didn’t have any control over this ???

    was he kidnapped or something ???

    as I see it, scooter CHOOSE to walk into that room, he’s responsible for what happened after

    show the tape to the Judge, and let Patrick Fitzgerald explain how the crowd’s reaction is related to the Jury’s questions about kkkarl rove

  22. Rayne says:

    Mr Libby A convicted perjurer just got some support from friends and compasionate people.

    Um, yeah, the same â€compasionate†[sic] conservatives who turned compassion on its head. The same people who have no compassion for a female operative working under the deepest cover, with two toddlers at home. Some family values they have there.

    I don’t suppose the convicted felon and his unindicted co-conspirators bothered with compassion for a father who might have had to raise his twin toddlers alone had Ms. Plame been â€terminated†after her outing. I’m pretty certain compassion failed to cross their minds after every asset — including women and children with whom the wife of an ambassador might typically socialize — was â€dispatched†or â€sanitizedâ€.

    And as the stepmother of an Iraq veteran, I find the pity for a felon that in no small way contributed to putting our family member in harm’s way absolutely immoral and galling.

  23. desertwind says:

    Libby gambled and put his family at risk. He lost. It’s his fault if his wife is forced to raise the kids without him for a few years.

    I imagine he ignored his wife’s input on this.

    That we point this out doesn’t make us culpable for either his actions or their result.

  24. Sara says:

    I think Jodi’s concern for the sexual security is misdirected. She should pay a little more attention to the Republican Candidates trying to one-up each other during the last debate on how much torture they would allow (except McCain who knows a mite about it.) I am expecting them to eventually offer up, that if elected, they will convert the WH basement into a torture chamber, and do it themselves.

    Yesterday I was trying to think of a Hillary comeback to this, should one or another of the pro-torture Republicans get nominated — and the best I can come back with is comic. Hillary should announce she will hire Monica and provide her with a huge supply of Cigars to stick into the parts of terrorists. But rather than clean up progressive blogs, I think Jodi should go clean up the Republican Candidates.

  25. Veritas78 says:

    Yes, we’re small and mean to fret about destroying the Constitution, and powerful people’s contempt for the law. How dare we plebes gloat when the mighty are brought low?

    Jodi, your champions have nothing but contempt for your gullibility — if that’s what it is.

  26. P J Evans says:

    I’d have more respect for McCain’s views on torture if he hadn’t voted for the bill to legalize it.

    I’d have more sympathy for Libby’s wife if he had actually done something like tell the truth, instead of lying and obstructing the investigation.

  27. John Casper says:

    â€And some here have to go with the prison sex humor â€

    ROFLMAO.

    From Scooter’s novel:

    â€He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him and her lower leg came against his. He held her breasts in his hands. Oddly, he thought, the lower one might be larger. . . . One of her breasts now hung loosely in his hand near his face and he knew not how best to touch her.†[…]

    At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest. […]

    â€He asked if they should fuck the deer.â€

    Taken from the New Yorker

    â€and gloat about his poor wife raising her children alone.â€

    TJ, first nobody held a gun to Scooter’s head and forced him to lie to the FBI and the SGJ. Addington, Cathie Martin, Fleischer, and other WH employees testified AGAINST Scooter. Nobody forced Scooter NOT to recant. He could have cut a deal for a lesser sentence. Not only is Scooter a big boy, he’s also a member of the bar.

  28. Neil says:

    There are really some small and mean attitudes here. Mr Libby just got some support from friends and compasionate people. Posted by: Jodi

    Your’s is an interesting interpretation of the ovation for Scooter Libby.

    I can’t remember an instance of people cheering a convicted felon. What is there to cheer about? Do you honestly believe he was unfairly prosecuted? If so, why cheer? Does he stand as an individual of unique moral authority demonstrating criminal disobedience in the face of greater evil? If so, justify it. I don’t think you can.

    What can one say about his lying under oath and obstruction of justice? I think the people who cheer him revel in his lawlessness. To them, he is some kind of hero.

    I have great contempt for people who feel that way. I feel as though Mr. Libby’s lies and obstrcution have done a great deal of harm to our democracy. I think he should spend a decade in jail. I think he should apologize to his wife and child for making the wrong choice, three times… in fraudulent pre-war evidence, the hit job on Plame, and the cover-up.

  29. ManagedChaos says:

    Jodi, so as to not let you down I hope Scooter goes to prison and has his asshole screwed so hard it fucking falls off. Maybe that will teach the other neo-con, zionist, israeli-firster, likudnik traitors not to fuck with my country!! Scooter(and the rest of the treasonous PNAC’ers) is lucky that I have a sound and balanced mind and that I have many things to live for, namely the day 9/11 is exposed as an inside job so I can laugh in everyone’s face for doubting me.

  30. ab initio says:

    ManagedChaos

    The cynic in me believes that even if the Libby trial and conviction happened before the 2004 election we would have had the same results. With the anarchy in Iraq every day leading up to the election and all the WMD and Saddam-AQ hokum known as bunk there were still enough â€true believersâ€.

    The 2006 mid-term results would not have happened if the Dems did not make Iraq a central part of their campaign. Of course not because they wanted – let’s not forget Rahm’s and Schumer’s initial instinct. IMO, the blogosphere and other like minded organizations like VoteVets made a big difference with its activism to make that change.

    I believe the Dems are not taking the sentiment of Nov 2006 as seriously as they ought to. On Iraq I feel the Dems will cave at the end and give Bush his money with no strings and claim victory that they moved the ball forward. By 2008 the occupation will still be â€surging†and the Repubs will proclaim victory is just another Friedman Unit away. A problem may become that the electorate once again buys into the ineffective Dems stereotype or is frustrated that the Dems are equally complicit in the prolongation of the quagmire.

    I am no political strategist or beltway consultant but if I had any opportunity I would try and convince the Dems to go all out on uncovering and making public the warantless spying issue and then taking vigorous action to directly hold Bush, Cheney, Rove accountable. The Dems will of course be attacked for a political witch hunt and partisanship in times of war and terrorist peril. But if they keep it simple, every American will understand and be outraged.

    The sheer hubris we have seen over the past few years is because people have not been held to account from Iran-Contra on. Notice that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Kissinger were all part of the Nixon era â€when the President does it its legal†mantra. Witness Cheney’s assertion in the Plame civil suit. Doesn’t it make sense they want to claim unitary executive that’s above the law?

  31. Jodi says:

    Hey Libby got convicted. He will most probably do his time. Only a pardon will get him off. And who knows what Bush will do?
    What do you care that he has friends?
    I have a very good friend, a good HS athlete over on the boys teams. He was in prison for selling cocaine, before he was 20. By the time he got out, I had a college degree and the greatest problem I had was which career path I would go down. While I was in grad school, he worked his way through college to a business degree, went to work, and now with a buddy has just bought a college bar.

    I applauded every step of his path back. He was an old acquaintance, a friend.

    I am sorry that the various branches of government are at each others throats. The Democrats applaud it when State or the CIA diss’ the WH, but what do you think will happen when you take over.

    More than that though I am sorry for the near 3,600 dead in Iraq, the 15,000 seriously wounded, the world that is really starting to detest the USA.

    Bush is as they described the Grinch, a bad banana with a black greasy peel, and worse he doesn’t even realize what he is doing, doesn’t look like a demon, seems like a nice upright guy which is why I voted for him in 2000. That is why he can get away with it, just as Clinton did. He doesn’t seem such a bad guy.
    This mess comes about because at a pivotal time in the world’s history, after the 4 week Mission in Iraq, it was â€politics as usual.†And the world is going to hell!

    The Democrats will get a chance soon, and then we shall see what the anti-war at any cost crowd will do as their favorite leaders have to act in a not so perfect world.

    I am seriously thinking about abandoning politics, except maybe for the condo board. I am not sure it really matters. There are so many people twisting the levers, pushing the buttons for their own special agendas, that the end result will be a total mess no matter who wins a particular race.

    Frankly I am beginning to think about one of my boss’s remarks. â€It is a lot easier to make money that to fret about politics.â€
    He has a very simple outlook. He says it doesn’t matter if the Democrats or the Republicans get elected, because money talks and gets the TV Ads, and the lobbyists control the world.

  32. bmaz says:

    But isn’t that the intellectual laziness from American citizens, American Businesses and American political leaders that got us to this position in the first place?

  33. P J Evans says:

    He has a very simple outlook. He says it doesn’t matter if the Democrats or the Republicans get elected, because money talks and gets the TV Ads, and the lobbyists control the world.

    Never mind the rule of law, you think it should be ’whoever has the gold makes the rules’?
    That’s not democracy, that’s not a republic, that’s oligarchy. It has no place here: that’s what ’all men are created equal’ was supposed to end.
    That’s why the Republican Party is the party of lies, corruption, and criminal behavior. ’The ends justify the means.’
    That’s why Libby is going to jail.

    That’s why we have little sympathy for him.
    That’s why we’d like to see Gonzales and Addington and Cheney and Bush impeached, convicted, and in behind bars.

  34. Dandre says:

    Jodi, Sounds like you are finishing the ’political’ journey that your conservative leadership loves. By ’getting out’ of politics you resort to the indifference that conservatives thrive on, they never thought you were smart enough to be involved in the first place. If EVERYONE in the country voted the repubican (not a typo) party would not ever win a damn thing. A party that thinks gov’t is bad governs BAD. They would love you to just stay home and leave government to the experts…..them. Instead, get educated…read the writtings of Jefferson and the other Founders to see what their Liberal vision was. Then read what conservative founders have been saying. There is no such thing as a ’free thinking’ conservative, the rules are in place and you are to shut up and get in line. If the conservatives would have had their way we would still be English!!

  35. Jodi says:

    Well, I should make things clearer. Most here are at the bottom of the well, and don’t really get a good complete view of the sky.

    My boss votes Republican when he votes.

    He gives a lot of money to the GOP.
    (He also gives money to Individual Democrats that may help him/business.)

    He can call in a favor from a US Rep, or US Senator, regardless of which party they belong to.

    … but as I say he no longer worries/frets over Politics.

    He pays up front for his government, and gets the best that money can buy.

    (Now that isn’t me, yet anyway.)

    But it just seems simpler, because as I see it the process is flawed, and everyone is cheating, so by the time a candidate is elected, he has been thorougly vetted as a complete liar and charlatan.