Free Republic

“it is now the Congress’ obligation and responsibility to intervene in the executive process”

Well, now we know what "compassionate conservatism" means. It means that if you're Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, and you're convicted of lying to FBI agents and a federal grand jury, you don't have to go to prison -- even when many others have for similar offenses.Lewis "Scooter" Libby was to be sent up the river, or so U.S. Attorney Peter Fitzgerald thought, after being found guilty of those lies in an investigation of a Bush administration leak by which Valerie Wilson had been revealed as a CIA operative. Her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a critic...

Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice — but even if you accept that these convictions were just, what Fitzgerald did not demonstrate was that any kind of harm was done. Whatever Libby did was unrelated to the the publication of Valerie Plame Wilson's name in Robert Novak's column. We know of a certainty that it was Richard Armitage who retailed her name, first to Bob Woodward before Libby ever heard of her, and then to Novak. Armitage, a State Department official, did this independently of any actions taken at the White House or anywhere else. Therefore, even...