Posted by
Bert Chapman on Tuesday, March 06, 2007 5:25:37 PM
The conviction of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby is another example of the politicization of the judicial system. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that Valerie Plame was not a sensitive covert operative but an analyst. It's been amazing to hear liberal journalists, who normally don't give a rip about protecting national security secrets, receive the "gospel" on the importance of protecting such secrets. Of course, in this case, it's protecting secrets that augment their arguments against the decision to go to war and their deep-seated personal and ideological hostility toward President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
The fact of the matter is that if Valerie Plame were so concerned about maintaining her fictitious "cover" she should not have married a glory seeking publicity hound like Joseph Wilson. Wilson's credibility has been shot to shreds by National Review and similar publications. Plame also would not have pursued such an active social life if she and Wilson had been concerned about protecting her anonymity.
Hopefully, President Bush will have the political courage and cojones to pardon Libby at some convenient time and tell critics of such action to shove it. My sympathy to Libby and his family and I hope this idiotic conviction is overturned on appeal. Cases like this make it hard to imagine why anyone would want to hold a position of high responsibility in the U.S. Government considering the highly poisonous and politicized atmosphere of national security policymaking positions at this time.