We now know a good bit about the Plame affair and the way that various officials in the Bush White House used their insider positions to smear Joe Wilson in the public's eyes. Libby, Cheney, Rove--they all discussed Wilson in the context of their participation in the Iraq war council whose objective was to convince Americans that pre-emptive war (imperialistic war) in Iraq was necessary to protect us from terrorism. As the events of the summer and fall wound down, with Matt Cooper testifying about his sources, and finally Judy Miller revealing some of what she knew, we discover that Libby was in the thick of the Plame affair and, if the information included in the indictment is true, that Libby claimed to have gotten whatever information he had on Plame from journalists even when his own notes indicate that Vice President Cheney informed him that Wilson's wife was at the CIA. Rove is also on record as indicating that he was informed by Libby. See the Washington Post story here and a story in the Village Voice here.
What any thinking person has to ask is this--why would Libby have lied so many times as he apparently did before the Grand Jury, about conversations he had with multiple people who would also undoubtedly be testifying at some point before the Grand Jury? Libby is a very smart man, and these events were close in time to the actual conversations, so lapse of memory of this magnitude is simply not credibly possible. The timing, however, is suggestive, as E.J. Dionne suggested in a recent Washington Post editorial. If the information that we know now had been available before the 2004 elections, Cheney, as well as Libby and Rove, would have been substantially harmed. It looks very much as though Libby fell on his sword (lying to obfuscate and obstruct the normal processes of justice) in order to protect his boss Cheney and his boss's pet project--the deceiving of Americans about the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Cheney, Rove and Libby cast cast themselves as the defenders of America, but this leak shows them for what they really are--petty, scheming, blindly partisan manipulators of the press and of ordinary people, intent only on accomplishing what they have decided to do whether or not ordinary Americans support them. They are not willing to subject their policies and ideas to the open discussion that is the hallmark of a sustainable democracy, but instead have consistently attempted to manipulate the American people into supporting their policies on innuendo, misinformation and possibly outright lies and deceit.
It is entirely appropriate that Libby has left the White House in disgrace. What is not appropriate is the speech that Bush gave (and Cheney also) praising this man who treats truth as an unimportant detail that gets in the way of political objectives. The person holding the office of President owes us better than that. Bush should have noted the appropriateness of the departure of Libby due to his active involvement in a leak that could only have been intended to get even with Wilson (even if not intended to "out" a CIA operative), and he should have demanded the immediate resignation of Karl Rove. That is the only just ending to this sad and disgraceful affair.
And the media? Broadcast and print journalists should continue to pursue this story. They must ask the questions--what did Cheney know, and when did he know it? What did Bush know, and when did he know it? All the evidence so far suggests a concerted effort from the White House, and it is the job of the media to ferret out the details for the benefit of the America public.
Is the media performing its job? Clearly not. Newscasters and print journalists have treated the indictment as though it were as petty as Clinton's philandering! You can read about the way the story was presented on Friday on the FAIR website here. It shows that Tucker Carlson made light of Libby's lying about items that affect the public's right to know the truth about a war of choice! Ted Koppel implied that the indictment was only a big story for journalists and not of much consequence for ordinary Americans.
"Scooter Libby's indictment today is indisputably a major story. It was the lead on all the television network news programs earlier this evening. It will be the object of banner headlines in all of your morning newspapers tomorrow. As for its real impact on the lives of most American, though, not much. Not really. That's the strange thing about our business, the news business. Often, what seems so important to us, reporters that is, is of little or no consequence to many of you." Id.
The media, in other words, often treated the story as though learning that one of the top officals in the federal government had likely committed perjury, provided fraudulent statements, and intentionally obstructed justice is a minor affair. The media was worried about defending Judy Miller, who admits having agreed to lie to her readers in order to protect the identity of Scooter Libby in his campaign to undermine the credibility of a government critic in order to manipulate Americans' view of the White House's campaign for war. It is telling that America's journalists and broadcasters do not seem to understand that those actions by Libby are indicative of a deep disrespect for the democratic process