Bill Moyers Says It Beautifully

When I grow up I aspire to write as well as Bill Moyers:

We have yet another remarkable revelation of the mindset ofWashington’s ruling clique of neoconservative elites—the people whotook us to war from the safety of their Beltway bunkers. Even as Iraqgrows bloodier by the day, their passion of the week is to keep one oftheir own from going to jail.

It is well known that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby—once Vice PresidentCheney’s most trusted adviser—has been sentenced to 30 months in jailfor perjury. Lying. Not a white lie, mind you. A killer lie. ScooterLibby deliberately poured poison into the drinking water of democracyby lying to federal investigators, for the purpose of obstructingjustice.

Attempting to trash critics of the war, Libby and his pals in highplaces—including his boss Dick Cheney—outed a covert CIA agent. Libby then lied to cover their tracks. To throw investigators off the trail, he kicked sand in the eyes oftruth. "Libby lied about nearly everything that mattered,” wrote thechief prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. The jury agreed and found himguilty on four felony counts. Judge Reggie B. Walton—a no-nonsense,lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key type, appointed to the bench by noneother than George W. Bush—called the evidence “overwhelming” and threwthe book at Libby.

You would have thought their man had been ordered to Guantanamo, sointense was the reaction from his cheerleaders. They flooded thejudge’s chambers with letters of support for their comrade and took tothe airwaves in a campaign to “free Scooter.”

Vice President Cheney issued a statement praising Libby as “a man…ofpersonal integrity”—without even a hint of irony about their collusionto browbeat the CIA into mangling intelligence about Iraq in order tojustify the invasion.

“A patriot, a dedicated public servant, a strong family man, and atireless, honorable, selfless human being,” said Donald Rumsfeld—thevery same Rumsfeld who had claimed to know the whereabouts of weaponsof mass destruction and who boasted of “bulletproof” evidence linkingSaddam to 9/11. “A good person” and “decent man,” said the one-timePentagon adviser Kenneth Adelman, who had predicted the war in Iraqwould be a “cakewalk.” Paul Wolfowitz wrote a four-page letter topraise “the noblest spirit of selfless service” that he knew motivatedhis friend Scooter. Yes, that Paul Wolfowitz, who had claimed Iraqiswould “greet us as liberators” and that Iraq would “finance its ownreconstruction.” The same Paul Wolfowitz who had to resign recently aspresident of the World Bank for using his office to show favoritism tohis girlfriend. Paul Wolfowitz turned character witness.

Bill Moyers gets it. Why don’t the beltway Heathers?