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Standing Up for Scooter Libby
www.firstthings.com ^ | 6/7/07 | Joseph Bottum

Posted on 06/07/2007 12:28:23 PM PDT by The Blitherer

Scooter Libby was sentenced on Tuesday to thirty months in jail and a $250,000 fine. And I can’t much stand the bloodsports of American politics anymore.

At the time of his conviction, I wrote a small essay about my friendship with Scooter—others knew him better, but we had a genuine literary friendship, free from the politics that infects too much conversation in America these days. And I, along with many others, wrote a letter to the sentencing judge pleading for mercy. Bill Kristol has perhaps the strongest reaction to this week’s imposition of an enormous sentence. And Kristol’s furious indictment of President Bush for his failure to act seems exactly right.

But, then, why should the president act, when even much of the conservative press seems willing to forget the man who is Scooter Libby. Here, for instance, is the reaction on the webpages of National Review: “Libby? Heck, he’ll be all right, and a taste of low life might educate him some.” Rich? Ramesh? Jonah? Jay? Kathryn? Kate? Are any of you reading what your writers are saying? This is vile.

I was so angry and hurt that I thought I would write that I would never read National Review again. But it isn’t true. The world is too small not to continue to know the magazine, to read it, and to interact with it.

Still, this much is true: From the moment Scooter Libby was indicted, all the way down to this moment of his sentencing, I have judged the character of many acquaintances in the worlds of writers, public intellectuals, and conservative politicians—their courage and their trustworthiness—by a simple measure: whether or not they stood up for Scooter Libby.

The person who could write that line for National Review—“Libby? Heck, he’ll be all right, and a taste of low life might educate him some”—may be an interesting writer, and we might find that he’s a fun person to spend a little time with. But we also know now that he is not trustworthy when trust really matters, and we know that he is not brave.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: libby; scooterlibby
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1 posted on 06/07/2007 12:28:24 PM PDT by The Blitherer
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To: The Blitherer

This is a perfect example of why so many good people hesitate to go into politics. Today people try and destroy their political enemies. Literally, kill them if they can.


2 posted on 06/07/2007 12:30:20 PM PDT by kjo
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To: The Blitherer

What is this guy talking about? National Review Online was probably the first to have up an editorial called “Pardon Him,” less than an hour after the sentence came down.


3 posted on 06/07/2007 12:32:48 PM PDT by freespirited
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To: The Blitherer

Maybe they should all leave Washington and get a Border Patrol job. We’ll see who goes to prison then.


4 posted on 06/07/2007 12:34:17 PM PDT by donna (They hand off my culture & citizenship to criminals & then call me racist for objecting?)
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To: kjo
Churchill: "Politics are almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times."

Why don't they just bring back dueling in DC and get it over with?

5 posted on 06/07/2007 12:34:31 PM PDT by The Blitherer (These are not dark days; these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived. -WSC)
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To: The Blitherer

Will the president allow Libby to rot in jail until it politically convenient (when he is on his way out of the White House) to pardon him? And what about the Border Patrol Agents? Criminal of him to sit on his hands when he could do the right thing.


6 posted on 06/07/2007 12:35:09 PM PDT by twonie (Keep your guns - and stockpile ammo.)
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To: The Blitherer

“But, then, why should the president act, when even much of the conservative press seems willing to forget the man who is Scooter Libby.”

It might be a bit old fashioned, but the President could pardon Libby just because it’s the right thing to do and forget about the politics involved.

Just dreaming again.


7 posted on 06/07/2007 12:36:10 PM PDT by vetsvette (Bring Him Back)
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To: The Blitherer

I have a feeling he’ll get pardoned more or less immediately after the 2008 election, just to clear his record so a criminal conviction won’t be a bar to any future employment (because he’ll surely already be out on bail by then). And his friends will make sure he gets the $250,000 back one way or another, and will make sure he gets a plum job in the private sector if he wants it. Still sucks though. Wilson and Plame should be the ones in the slammer.


8 posted on 06/07/2007 12:36:29 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: kjo

Sandy Berger is free, and Scooter Libby has to go to jail? Paris Hilton violates parole two times, and goes home, and Scooter Libby has to go to jail? Richard Armitage outed Valerie Plame, and Scooter Libby has to go to jail?

Is this REALLY America?????


9 posted on 06/07/2007 12:36:33 PM PDT by Judith Anne (Thank you St. Jude for favors granted.)
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To: donna

In Washington, they only support amnesty for lawbreakers, not for the innocent victims of political witch hunts.


10 posted on 06/07/2007 12:37:00 PM PDT by andy58-in-nh
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To: vetsvette; twonie

Let’s not jump to judge Bush on that point. It’s very possible that Libby has asked him not to issue a pre-election pardon.


11 posted on 06/07/2007 12:38:01 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: freespirited

He’s talking about John Derbyshire, who is off the reservation at NRO on more than a few issues.

His comment was actually that all the uproar about pardoning Scooter would be more appropriately aimed at getting pardons for the two Border Patrol agents who were recently convicted.

I’m agnostic on both cases, but I do know there are probably thousands of low-profile individuals who are at least as deserving of a pardon as Mr. Libby, but nobody is making a fuss over them.


12 posted on 06/07/2007 12:40:44 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Diversity in theory is the enemy of diversity in practice.)
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To: andy58-in-nh

Kick me. I’m a citizen!


13 posted on 06/07/2007 12:42:56 PM PDT by donna (Kick me. I'm a citizen!)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

If they wait that long he will already be serving his sentence and bail will not be an issue.


14 posted on 06/07/2007 12:48:32 PM PDT by CaptRon (Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: Sherman Logan

He’s implying that Derbyshire’s comment is the only view that has been expressed at NRO. Although I disagree with Derb COMPLETELY on this, I dont see anything wrong with him offering a view contrary to what the editors expressed in their editorial. NRO would be quite boring if all the writers thought alike.


15 posted on 06/07/2007 12:50:05 PM PDT by freespirited
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To: Judith Anne

It is not the America that we’ve known and loved. It has become AmeriKa.


16 posted on 06/07/2007 12:52:51 PM PDT by MichiganCheese (Pray for our nation's boys, our future will be determined by the kind of men we bring them up to be.)
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To: The Blitherer

Heh heh.. Scooter Libby has a friendly relationship with joe bottum.


17 posted on 06/07/2007 1:02:14 PM PDT by JerriBlank
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To: CaptRon

What’s your point? Yes, he’ll likely be spending some time in jail. But I suspect he will not have a criminal record when he gets out, nor will he be financially behind where he would have been if he’d never been put in or fined. Sometimes friends in high places can’t make things perfect. And I really doubt that Libby wants Bush to give him a pre-election pardon, potentially at great cost to the Republican Party’s election results. Unlike the Plame-Wilson beast, most of the people in the Bush administration actually do have some things they put a higher value on than their own personal pleasure, status, and wealth.


18 posted on 06/07/2007 1:03:08 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GovernmentShrinker

My only point is by that time he would be serving his sentence and can’t be bailed. That he should spend a second behind bars is a travesty. Pardon him now or, if the President doesn’t want to do that, commute his sentence to a fine.


19 posted on 06/07/2007 1:08:20 PM PDT by CaptRon (Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: Judith Anne

You make good points. That’s just the way it is. One standard for Democrats and the well-connected another for Republicans.


20 posted on 06/07/2007 1:09:04 PM PDT by kjo
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