Inventory of the Scooter Libby Letters
I’ve read them, all of them. (Big PDF Part One; Big PDF Part Two; Excel file of all the letters)
What a depressing way to spend a weekend day. You see, I believe all those people when they describe how loving Libby is with his kids. And I believe all those people who describe what a great mentor Libby has been to young professionals. But there’s no denying that Libby threw all that away, presumably out of a warped sense of duty. I’m reminded of the two pieces Libby’s childhood friend Nick Bromell has written about him, particularly when he describes,
I want to insist that Scooter’s respect for power is not just a front for cold self-interest. At bottom, there’s a kind of innocence about Scooter. He has submitted to masters like Paul Wolfowitz and Cheney because he respects them, just as a Zen novitiate submits to a meditation master or a young violinist reveres the prodigious talent of her teacher.
Because in the end, these letters make complete sense. They paint a rich portrait of Libby’s commitment to duty and loyalty. And that, of course, is what got him into trouble.
I’ll have one or three posts on individual letters today or tomorrow. But for now, I thought I’d provide my rough inventory of who wrote letters.
Total letters: 196
Letters favoring a harsh sentence: 25
Letters favoring a lenient sentence: 171
Letters from obvious Neocons: 34
Letters from OVP affiliates*: 49
Letters from former Dechert colleagues: 15
I didn’t count the number of those whose kids were friends with Libby’s kids, those who play football with Libby, or plain old neighbors. Those were the good letters, the ones that read true, but they’re also the ones, as such, that deserve some privacy.
*For OVP affiliates, I counted anyone who described working for OVP during Libby’s tenure there, whether or not that person is still there. This may have been work directly in OVP or in a service position (such as Secret Service detail) that worked exclusively for OVP. It may have also involved working in NSC in a close role with OVP or being–like John Bolton–the sleeper agent for Cheney in some other agency. In addition, I counted those whose sole tie to Libby comes through an OVP affiliate. For example, I counted Jenny Mayfield, her sister, her father, her father’s partner, and her fiance as OVP affiliates, since their sole tie to Libby is through Mayfield’s work as Libby’s Assistant (in which position, she stamped incriminating documents with the improper stamp “Treated as Top Secret/SCI”). Both Jenny Mayfield and her sister (who worked for Lynne Cheney briefly) have moved on to new jobs.
If you use the Excel files, please let me know of errors–it was a quick first pass so I don’t guarantee its accuracy.
Thanks for this, Marcy.
They pay you for this kind of self-abuse, don’t they? They should.
Please move â€world bank president†down one line, and add â€formerâ€
Hmm, before we get all sympathetic towards Libby, I’d like to repost two comments I made late in the last Libby thread:
A. Valerie Plame Was A Soldier Too
Which means Libby isn’t so much the ’fallen’ soldier (which Ajami argues) as he is the one who stabbed a fellow soldier in the back, left her bleeding on the ground, and posted a sign next to her saying ’Desecrate This U.S. Corpse’.
With that reasoning in mind, Libby should be court-martialed, at the very least.
B. All Roads Lead To Libby
Libby first learned of Valerie Wilson’s CIA status from Dick Cheney. Libby almost certainly propagated that information on Cheney’s orders, but let’s not forget that it was *Libby* who did the propagation. All roads in the leak lead to Libby.
Rove probably first learned of Wilson’s CIA status from Libby.
Armitage learned of Wilson’s status from an e-mail generated by Libby’s requests, at the very least. Though I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Armitage got a heads up from Libby first, either specifically about Wilson’s status or just to look for the memo Libby had requested.
Novak learned of Wilson’s status from Rove and Armitage, each of whom learned it — whether directly or indirectly — from Libby.
Ari Fleischer learned of Wilson’s CIA status from Libby. As did Condi Rice.
Matt Cooper’s sources for Wilson’s status were Rove — who learned it either directly or indirectly from Libby — and Libby himself.
Judy Miller learned of Wilson’s status from Libby.
Bob Woodward learned of Wilson’s status from Armitage — who learned by way of Libby.
While Fitzgerald might not have been able to indict Libby on the most relevant charge — IIPA violation — there is no doubt that Fitzgerald prosecuted the man most guilty (outside of Cheney) for the leak and widespread dissemination of Valerie Wilson’s status as a CIA agent.
Libby was the person most responsible for the dissemination of Valerie Wilson’s CIA affiliation. And it was only Libby’s *Obstruction of Justice* that prevented Cheney from being indicted or impeached in the matter.
So enough with the ’Libby was just a fall guy’ or ’Libby just committed perjury’ talking points. Libby deserves every second of the prison sentence he received for Obstruction of Justice, and more.
Sorry, Marcy, the whole episode just leave me too appalled to feel any empathy for Libby at all. In general, I’m all for tolerance and mercy, but draw the line at tolerance of the intolerant and mercy for the vindictive.
And Libby’s outing of Valerie Wilson was nothing but political vindictiveness of the worst sort — putting political loyalty above the interests of national security.
Being nice to children may humanize Libby, but he can’t even begin to make amends without showing contrition for his acts — which he hasn’t done yet. Until he does, any sympathy, empathy, or mercy due to mitigating circumstances is misplaced and fulfills the goals of his political supporters. Without contrition, there’s nothing to mitigate.
.
Yo, JGabriel, by stating the point in this form:
you imply that scooter libby is actually a soldier, and making an equivelency argument between Valerie Plame and scooter libby
there IS NO equivilence between Valerie Plame and scooter libby. Valerie Plame served within the CIA and held rank equivilent to a Colonel in America’s military services
scooter libby never served in ANY MILITARY CAPACITY AT ALL
scooter libby is not a soldier. he never was a soldier, and he will never BE a soldier
scooter libby is an idealogically motivated bureaucratic hack, a convicted felon, and a soon to be disbarred lawyer
Freepatriot: â€Yo, JGabriel, by stating the point in this form: ’Valerie Plame Was A Soldier Too’, you imply that Scooter Libby is actually a soldier, and making an equivalency argument between Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby.â€
FP, that’s ridiculous. I’m merely extending Ajami’s metaphor to show that even if one accepts his analogy, i.e. his grounds of arguemt, that Libby *still* deserves jail time.
Everyone is disgusted by Ajami’s metaphor of Libby as a soldier, and the point needs no further belaboring. I’m just pointing out that even if you accept Ajami’s revolting reasoning, Scooter still belongs behind bars. In other words, that Ajami’s argument was not just obscene, but *stupid* as well.
EW, I suggest you identify lawyers from other law firms where Libby worked, including Emilio Cividanes, who knew Scooter from Dickstein, Shapiro. I think there are several from people who knew him there.
masaccio
I have those as notes, and Dickstein listed by name, in the last column.
JGabriel
I did this not out of a desire to show sympathy–or even empathy–for Libby. I’m arguing that all the good qualities they wrote about Libby are teh same qualities that would lead him to lie to protect the VP.
masaccio
Oh wait. I started doing that later in the alphabet. I see what you’re saying…
yo, JGabriel, sorry bout that. I didn’t mean to offend, but ya gotta be careful bout the language you use I’m a stickler for exactatude in some areas of discussion, and My Soldiers and Valerie Plame are hot button issues (and yeah, they’re â€My Soldiersâ€, they serve to protect my happy ass …)
on a other topic, Yo, EW, any way to highlight the WHIG players in this collection ???
are there any WHIG players in this mix ???
and are there any ethical guidelines about conflict of interest that we could apply to any of the letter writers who might also be lawyers AND be involved in this crime ???
EW: â€I’m arguing that all the good qualities they wrote about Libby are teh same qualities that would lead him to lie to protect the VP.â€
Okay, fair enough. I guess I kind of knew that. But there did seem to be a note, maybe, of sympathy or empathy, and I didn’t want the seriousness of, and responsibility for, Libby’s crimes to go unnoted in that context.
Sorry if it came across too strong.
FreePatriot: â€I didn’t mean to offend, but ya gotta be careful bout the language you use I’m a stickler for exactitude in some areas of discussion…â€
S’ok, FP. I was just surprised because I thought the word ’if’ and the quotes around ’soldier’ (â€if Libby is a ’soldier’â€), made my skepticism of that false equivalency pretty clear. Anyhow, no offense taken, just a little puzzlement and bemusement. And I applaud your efforts at exactitude and clarification; I can be kind of a stickler for those things too.
Libby, a nice guy and all that, perhaps. But a boy scout, not. Nor do you say so.
Rather, to me is seems like someone star stuck to the max. Never really grew up, and is so totally enthralled that the likes of these demi gods would deign to hob nob with him, little scooter.
Psychologically the result is the same: lapdog or pit bull, blinded by his own self importance, the significance of the work the neocns epouse, and totally committed to the cause.
Let him rot. Or let’s see some real enlightenment, contrition, and perhaps even confession.
JGabriel and freepatriot–Thank fortune somebody in this evil empire of the Bush administration and Republican mindwarp cares about exactitude and clarity. Good on both of you.
gotta say I’m still surprised that none of the letters mentioned Libby’s literary â€abilitiesâ€
I did not see the WSJ article in print until this weekend. The play was huge, with photo, like a fallen head of state.
I recognize that the WSJ op-ed page is by the hard right, for the hard right, but it was still appalling.
I do not recall if I posted this earlier, but the word I get is that the Hudson Institute made writing â€free Scooter†letters a homework assignment for its personnel. Just in case bulk matters.
DonS: â€Libby, a nice guy and all that, perhaps. But a boy scout, not.â€
Mighty Mouse: â€I’m still surprised that none of the letters mentioned Libby’s literary ’abilities’â€
Okay, the juxtaposition of boy scouts and Libby’s literary output — i.e., Libby in a Boy Scout’s uniform with a bear in a cage — just created the worst mind image I’ve experienced in months.
Please, somebody give me a brain scrub.
now this is what â€organizedâ€
looks like — i love the excel-sheet, thanks
for the yeoman effort in entering it
in that format — i’ve saved one off.
great great great!
now — the only other addition
i might make would be a column for
â€self-identified as NON-republicanâ€
that would be helpful with the PRO/CON
column. . . by my first pass, last wed.,
i tallied only four letters PRO-libby (i.e.,
sought compasssion from the judge, or an out-
right reduction in sentence request) that were
self-identified as non-republican. . .
of course, i didn’t write the names down,
just did a hash-tic count. . . [doh!]
but the one i do remember was richard
danzig — will have to go find it. . .
the last suggestion — i promise:
how about a list of those known to
be â€skulls†— it includes jim wolfensohn,
paul wolfowitz, john bolton, christopher cox, richard
danzig [may explain his letter]. . .
skulls â€possibly includeâ€: richard carlson, benjamin haddad,
andrew lunquist and. . .? who else?
great stuff!
re: the troubled metaphor of Libby as a â€soldier†(thus making the Bush administration stalwarts a sort of paramilitary group), one thing that strikes me is the departure from these folks’ usual language of sports metaphors (even simple ones like â€team playerâ€) in favor of military metaphors.
~wheel, have you noticed in these letters or elsewhere any trends in the imagery used, esp. military vs. sports analogies? just curious.
sorry — one more possible
skull & bones society member:
christopher demuth
that’s all i see. . .
Mighty Mouse
Actually, several of the letters talk about his novel–maybe about 7 of them? I contemplated digging out my lit crit credentials to lord over these folks on how bad Libby’s novel really is, even ignoring the bear in the cage. But it’s simply not worth it. The novel is THAT BAD.
Thanks for the link to the Libby profiles, Marcy. And your post, too, of course.
Do you never sleep?
Two stories told about him — Libby of The West.
Cowboyed up at Jackson Hole rodeo and pleased as punch when Judy doesn’t appear to recognize him.
Knockin’ back tequila shots in an Aspen bar.
Oh, man.
emptywheel: confession is good for the. . . –I actually did not read all the letters (THANK YOU for doing it for us)– but just assumed (always dangerous) that nobody would go there, to the bear, the novel, blecch. . .
for purely OCD reasons,
i feel compelled (he he!)
to note that william f.
buckley has published an
opinion PRO scooter. . .
and he is definitively a skull. . .
okay — i’ll shut up now.
Speaking of letters. I’m intrigued by the comparison between the fates of Scooter Libby and Paris Hilton. Cue Lawrence FIshburn, â€History, it seems, is not without a sense of ironyâ€. What a teaching moment.
Both are people born to privilege.
Both in their respective spheres possessed power and prestige.
Both were media darlings that used the media to advance their respective unseemly interests.
Both broke the law.
Both were duly processed through the criminal justice system.
Both have been sentenced to incarceration in payment to society for their crimes.
Both are trying to stay out of jail.
Both appealed their plight to their respective authority figures. Paris’s plaintive, lame cry to, â€Mom, it’s not right!â€, while Scooter appeals anonymously to the great white father.
How does it feel to be Scooter Libby and be equated with Paris Hilton? Paris Libby? Scooter Hilton? That’s gotta hurt.
But Paris Hilton has one thing on Scooter Hilton. She NEVER represented herself as anything but a pop culture icon wanabe. Someone that was suitable to fill dead ET airtime and the dark side of the paparazzi lens or American psyche. Scooter Hilton, on the other hand, was always the ever so staid, button-down face of Washington officialdom, which makes his lying hypocrisy all the more rank and reprehensible.
That settles it.
BE IT RESOLVED!
Let us agree to write fervent, bodice ripping missives to all of Scooter’s well-placed supporters and demand that they also labor for Paris’s release. After all, she is only being crucified for living the life we American’s would like to live, albeit, vicariously, voyeuristically and at a safe distance.
FREE PARIS!
[Ed note: Try to work in a line using, Liberté, égalité, fraternité. If necessary outsource to â€The Generalâ€. I’m sure his inner Frenchman can come up with something.]
I did a quick Google search on Leon Wieseltier that is listed as ’pro bono’. It seems he has been a literary editor at The New Republic since 1983. Interesting that he’s the person Scooter chose for his pro bono work.
i haven’t read the letters
and i’m not likely to.
but, true to form, i’ll take a flying leap anyway.
the tenor of these letters reminds me of what you say at a funeral,
personal, simple, overtly affectionate, somewhat maudlin, remembrances.
â€alas poor isidore, i knew him well,
a kindly man to dogs, to small children, and to his boss,
always paid his light bill on time,
but he had a weakness,
he just could not abide cia agents. they were too sneaky.â€
while it may be that the letters are all part of a clever plot to keep scooter out of jail, which i’ve thought might be the case,
it maybe instead that folks understand that scooter is, in fact, going up the river and just want to say something nice,
so that when he gets out,
he won’t come looking for them.
or maybe big dick is laying on the pressure to be sure scooter knows how beloved he is while he doing time in the big house.
we’ll know more in time,
but right now i’m leaning toward thinking that all those letters are for isidore’s funeral pyre.
My other problem with the soldier metaphor is that outting Plame hurt not only her crew of followers but our entire army and country.
I mean what kind of soldier sends his country to an unneccessary war when he has the means to know that there is no need for war?? UGH. It just freaks me out that this is not what is spoken about him. I swear the media is still tip toeing. He and Cheney outted the one person who could probably have proven that Iraq had no weapons and may have been able to lead us in our problems with Iran.
UGH.
It’s treason. It’s treason. It’s treason.
I didn’t read the letters…I know they would tell me what I have always known, the one thing that the neocons cannot accept…and that is…â€it’s not black and white.†Nothing is. Not the coke dealer, not the wife beater, not the corporate greedy hack, none of it. But there are consequences.
Everyone person on this earth deserves compassion and the earth is better for it. At the same time there are consequences and whether we as a nation mete them out, they will come. It is our duty to recognize the transgression for what is, and what it is not. We need not punish him â€for†cheney. We need to continue to push for Cheney to serve his consequence as well.
I am all for compassion, but compassion should not/ does not stand in the way of consequences. Then it is not compassion but enabling.
I agree that the letters from the social friends, and parents of the kid’s friends ring true. The letters from the stewarts and drivers and assistants from previous law firms echo the language of the social friends as to Libby’s personal qualities.
The letters from people he worked with prior to the appointment by Cheney point out the professionalism and skills of Libby.
If we ignore the letters from the current administration personnel, I think we get a good portrait of Libby. It isn’t possible he wasn’t lying, and doing it on purpose. He must think it is a matter of honor, a matter more important than his children and wife. It is just incomprehensible that his wife would let him take the fall. Can you imagine Mr. Emptywheel letting you take a fall like that? I assure you that ms. masaccio wouldn’t let me, at least if we had kids at home. How the hell can she rationalize the conviction to the kids?
Maybe she doesn’t really love him. I know of several cases where the wife stood with the husband through trial, then quietly divorced him.
Rats. I meant to mention that all of the letters from the junior people he worked with pointed out his importance to them as a mentor, both on work and personal matters, which is another sign of a decent person.
Though keep in mind, only Cheney, Libby, and Bush know of the leak. I notice no letter from Cheney or Bush, but then they’re busy trying to avoid a conspiracy to obstruct charge.
I’m arguing that all the good qualities they wrote about Libby are teh same qualities that would lead him to lie to protect the VP.
I was particularly struck in that regard by the emphasis on his lawyerly scrupulousness from some of the letters. (I believe Shulsky might have been one of thos.) And then of course there was the Alan Simpson letter that might as well have said, Libby did it out of loyalty to Cheney.
I loved the one from a parent of one of the OVP employees who referred to his child’s work in the administration of Vice President Cheney.
Yup, Jeff, Simpson is one I’m coming back to. It looked like those in OVP who were ordered to decided to write letters were warned to disassociate their letter from their original position. But not Simpson, it’s all about loyalty.
I have been reading through John Dean’s diaries on the issues of the day and found his summary of the predicament of BushCo with Libby/Pardon Issue a good read and feel that I can now tackle what I assume will be a very interesting and detailed assessment of the â€molti quanti amici†letters you have planned for this week- here is a link:
â€The Bush Administration’s Dilemma Regarding a Possible Libby Pardon –
And How Outsiders Such as Fred Thompson Appear to Be Working on a Solution
By JOHN W. DEAN â€
link: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070601.html
I hope I am not overstepping my bounds as a poster to your blog, if so, please forgive me.
Libby was convicted on several counts of perjury. We can argue the reasons or intents from here to doomsday, but in a court of law he was convicted of perjury. He was also convicted of obstruction (one count.) Now that is a more difficult thing to assess, and I won’t trod that path tonight for I have worked all weekend, and need to get up early to travel.
I see no reason that Libby shouldn’t be out on bail until his appeal is heard. Even if you consider he is guilty and his appeal will fail, it is not likely that he will commit another crime while awaiting his appeal.
And emptywheel
I haven’t forgotten your question. I just haven’t looked it up.
But on Martha Stewart, I never understood a lot of that either, but I thought the evidence was clear that she â€did the deed.â€
I will say that the court threw out and rightly so the business where the Government wanted to charge Martha for â€pleading innocent†and was calling that â€stock manipulation.â€
(I sometimes get tangled up in the insider morass, because by the nature of my work, I know what some companies’ futures look like because of new products or product enhancements that I work on. )
One course of action is to first only own mutuals and second to only buy on a regular schedule.
jeebus it just never ends with these people.
two counts of perjury ( i.e., lying through his teeth to the freekin’ FBI !!! ) and two counts of obstructing Justice.
he should go directly to prison.
end of story.
this guy worked in the Office of the Vice President of the United States of America.
the standard these people are held to is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay above the rest of us peons.
please get off the horse – it is dead.
Libby’s Supporters Who Wrote to Judge Learn That Letters Take on New Life on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06…..ooter.html
In what may be a sign of things to come, the lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. last month invoked the rarely used courtroom tactic: the “bloggers can be mean†defense.
The issue was whether to release the more than 150 letters written to Judge Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court in Washington, nearly all in support of Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Mr. Libby was convicted in March of lying in investigations into the leak of the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative, Valerie Plame Wilson. Last week, Judge Walton sentenced Mr. Libby to 30 months in prison.
I’ve looked over the excel spreadsheet and came across three names (Cesar
Conda, Christopher Cox, and Ronald Christie) with ties to the OVP that are
now employed by a lobbying/marketing/pr/issue management firm called
Navigators (http://www.dcnavigators.com/) that does extensive work with
Republicans and corporate clients across the country – in this case, using =
a
firm called Rhumb Line, LLC
(http://www.dcnavigators.com/index.asp?node=3D49). My questions are:
1. Could these three have been paid to write these letters?
2. If so, could they have been paid from Libby=B9s defense fund?
3. If so, would this be legal?
The typical criminal loves his kids, just like anyone else. No kudos to Libby for that.
ApacheTrout
Yes, I noticed the Navigators too. It may be nothing more than the fact that Dick’s former employees all seem to go into propaganda and influence peddling when they leave. Go figure. (Jenny Mayfield is working for an energy PR firm in Dick’s home town of Jackson WY–you think she still lobbies him??.) But yeah, the Navigators thing struck me too.
Scooter Libby may be Mother Teresa when he’s not working for Dick Cheney. The rest of his life is not what he was on trial for. He was on trial for his lying justice obstructing role in the CIA leak case. #129 first name is Jan.
Libby’s Supporters Who Wrote to Judge Learn That Letters Take on New Life on the Web
By NOAM COHEN, NYT â€In what may be a sign of things to come, the lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. last month invoked the rarely used courtroom tactic: the “bloggers can be mean†defense.â€
If you were mounting a PR offensive to get Libby released on appeal and ultimately pardoned (because at this point that’s all the defense has left), wouldn’t it be to your benefit to amplify coverage of these letters as a news story? Judge Walton read the letters for the arguments on the merit. The policits of a Libby pardon will be based on completely different considerations such as what the letters deonstrate about the pubic opinion, and the political cover the letters provide. As a mentioned earlier, after reading a dozen or so of these letters, I had trouble remembering whether the subject was Scooter Libby or Mother Teresa.
Consider the â€please don’t throw me in the briar patch†aspect of defense councel’s argument to not release the letters to the public.
Link to Noam Cohen’s NYT article:
Greenwald’s take on the phenomena of the right’s response to Libby’s plight:
It occurs to me that Libby is the ultimate authoritarian follower, and that seems to be the main source of the great admiration for him. At least from the rank and file right wingers.
Like La Cosa Nostra, those that do time for the boss earn a special respect.
How about a cross reference of all of the Libby supporters who also urged impeachment and/or conviction of Clinton?
I don’t think the letters paint a rich portrait of anything but a creep. Going through the motions and pretending to be a nice guy do not make you a guy. He lives in a superficial world and if you’re well-connected everyone is glad to take you at face value and call you their friend. I’m sure the majority of his â€friends†and â€supporters†in these letters are looking forward to the day when they can ask favors of their â€good friend†Scooter Libby. Jobs? College recommendations for the kids? Tickets to the theatre? An invitation to a swell Scooter Libby where all the swells can…swell?
The guy’s smug puss, his obvious sense of entitlement, that’s what we should all take away from these letters. His supporters are all just fellow travellers.
And Mary Matalin prostituting her own children in this cheap and tawdry fashion? That’s the most despicable thing in any of these letters. â€Waah, we wuv him, Unca Twooter! Why him be convicted of lying under oath?â€
My favorite letter-of-kind: Kissinger. I’ve saved a copy so I can catch the tone right when I am forced to write a letter of (non) support for somebody.
test
Scooter Libby’s children,–Hal Libby and Ricki Libby, as revealed by court documents–are each likely to grow up to be the same kind of smug, sleazy slimeball that their father is. They’ll smirk all the way to high-paying jobs that they get not because of merit but because of connections. Irve Lewis Libby’s children, Libby’s wife, and Libby himself–what a family of cheap, disgusting whores, lower than a toothless crack whore living in a cardboard box and selling blow jobs for a living.
Anon, you should be completely ashamed of yourself. Personally attacking Scooter Libby’s children? What have they ever done wrong? You don’t even know them. I, on the other hand, happen to know Scooter Libby’ son. Who, by the way, happens to be extremely intelligent. He attends one of the best public high schools in the country, a school specifically for science and technology. And I know what you’re thinking, well he only got in because they’re rich and his dad is famous. But you’re wrong, this is a public high school, therefore free, and during the application process there was no way to have known that Hal was Scooter Libby’s son. When he becomes successful it will be on his own accord, and will have nothing to do with who his father is.