He will only serve 19 months if that. Bush will pardon him.
Wieseltier is a bit of a neocon, the liberal kind. The New Republic is a divided house, with viewpoints across a wide spectrum. That's a good thing. James Carville wrote a letter too.
While there is an aspect of the Washington elite protecting their own here, it is representative of an older less partisan way of operating in Washington, where Democrats and Republicans could fight on the issues but still be friends. Libby is undoubtedly a good and decent man. He has fallen in with thieves, however, and he's got to do his time no matter how much more appropriate that time would be for Rove, Bush and goddamn Richard Bruce Cheney.
The sooner they imprison him, the longer he serves.
Come January 19th, 2009, he will be pardoned.
We all know that.
But he'll still be a traitor, just like Cheney still is.
@ 2: James Carville signed a letter, it looks like Mary Matalin wrote it. I also have reservations and how "undoubtably good and decent" he is. Remember that book he wrote? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(book)
That's the kind of stuff that's floating around in his head. I'm not saying that makes him a bad person, per se, or that he would ever do any of the disturbing things he writes about, but I think it casts a slight shadow on his overall "decency."
Thought crimes is it now, Aislinn?
Libby should serve no longer for perjury as a fall guy about something he didn't need to lie about than a President's perjury about a blow job.
@ 6: I didn't say it was a crime, I said it casts doubt on his overall decency. That he spent 20 years writing a book where little girls are raped by bears and men have sex with dead deer (the latter, my Slog record will show, I think should be legal; that doesn't make it "decent") has nothing to do with how long he should spend in prison for lying under oath. But it has bearing on painting a picture of his overall character, which I don't feel is quite as "undoubtedly good and decent" as you seem to.
Oh, yes, let's hear more about Bill Clinton. That story is SO fresh. We're so not tired of your flabby decade-old grievance, and "b-b-but he did it too!" has always been such a grand defense, on the playground and in real life. I don't remember Clinton being convicted of anything, by the way.
Thought virtues is it now, Fnarf? Why is Libby "undoubtedly a good and decent man"?
He was part of the effort to stifle dissent about invading Iraq.
He lied to prosecutors to protect the administration. The administration has gotten away with it so far.
He's lucky he's not being prosecuted for treason. Yet.
And, by the way I think you misspelled "neocon, the liberal kind". It's spelled "useful idiot".
@8 & @9
Meow!
Except for the Wolfowitz letter, all the letters are self-promotional puff pieces about Libby being a swell guy. My favorite endorsement is where Kissinger praises Libby for his perfect attendance at meetings with Cheney.
The typical standard of debate on the Slog means there is no middle ground; if you believe it's possible for liberals as well as conservatives, Democrats as well as Republicans, to have a personal friendship with someone like Scooter Libby, you're defending him -- you might well be guilty of treason yourself.
Look: I think what Libby did was a serious crime, and I think the sentence handed down by the judge was a fair and just one, and hope he serves it out in its entirety without a pardon. I also think its unsurprising that he's got friends who are Democrats, and that he's a good family man, and that he's served to the best of his ability. These are not contradictory. To demonize Libby, who is simply a fall guy and a pawn in a bigger and uglier game, is to submit to the tyranny of the Bush worldview. You are in essence agreeing with Bush and Cheney, and are likely to get more like them, if that's the attitude you have.
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