The Scooter Libby trial has begun...

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...defense lawyer Ted Wells is making an impassioned opening argument, and much of it is a hard-edged attack on Libby's former White House colleague Karl Rove.

"There will be some people at the White House — at the White House, not the office of the vice president — who you will learn may have pushed reporters to write stories about Mrs. Wilson," Wells said. "There may be people at the State Department who pushed reporters to write stories about Mrs. Wilson. But Scooter Libby did not push any reporter to write a story about Mrs. Wilson. Yet the man who pushed no one is sitting here in this courtroom."

Wells told the jury that the White House went all out to defend Rove against accusations he revealed Mrs. Wilson's identity, but did not protect Libby in the same way, leading Libby to suspect that he was being singled out for blame in the matter. "[Mr. Libby] was concerned about being the scapegoat," Wells said. "Mr. Libby said to the vice president, 'People in the White House are trying to set me up, people in the White House are trying to make me a scapegoat.' People in the White House are trying to protect a man named Karl Rove, the president's right-hand man," Wells said.

Wells said he will present a note written by Dick Cheney himself about a conversation with Libby. In part, the note says, "not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others." Wells continued: "The person to be protected was Karl Rove…Karl Rove was President Bush's right-hand person. His fate was important to the Republican party if they were going to stay in office. He had to be protected…the person to be sacrificed was Scooter Libby."

All of a sudden this could be massively interesting.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

ah, man, if he successfully throws karl under the bus...

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

Whoa

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

okay I wasn't expecting that tack

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

It might explain the stories about how Rove has gone to ground a bit. Allegedly it was to prepare for 2008 (which I'm sure is a priority, obv.), but now...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:31 (nineteen years ago)

Now I wonder how far back the tension between Cheney and Rove existed.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

I love to say I told you so, but I told you so.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

also

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.centrelink.org/Cannibals.jpg

― Edward III (edward iii), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

well these guys (Cheney, Dubya, Rove, Libby) are pretty much done with their political careers at this stage, might as well start throwin people under the bus I guess

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

SCOOTER IS NOW CLAIMING HE WASBRAINWASHED!!!

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

Where does it say that???

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

i was just lookin to spice up a thread, jeez.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

yeah say what?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha! jhoshea - the Fox news of ile!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

hillary is a gay

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

Ari Fleischer on the stand, part one.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 29 January 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

hahahaha nepotism. as if!

― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 29 January 2007 18:48 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Michael_Isikoff_comments_on_Ari_Fleischer_0129.html

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

The best Libby commentary has always been at JustOneMinute

― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:49 (eighteen years ago)

Miller on the stand...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 19:45 (eighteen years ago)

I was in the courtroom watching Miller today! Was pretty clueless, however, about what was going on with the numerous lengthy sidebars during her cross-exam. I guess Don Weiner's link explains it.

― tobo (tobo), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:35 (eighteen years ago)

If you can even slightly explain this Coulter column, you're a better one than I.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

sweet

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/01/cia.leak.ap/index.html

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:53 (eighteen years ago)

he seems pretty fucked now. memory defense was probably not the best tack to take.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 22:31 (eighteen years ago)

why do you say that?

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 01:13 (eighteen years ago)

have fun with this one

― kingfishy (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 8 February 2007 23:19 (eighteen years ago)

On MSNBC they're covering the trial like it's the Normandy Invasion, starring Elvis Presley, as told by Joseph Goebbels.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
would be really cool IRL.

― jambalaya backgammon (grady), Thursday, 8 February 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

I haven't seen or heard anything yet that makes me give a damn. Joseph Wilson's self-martyrdom always revolted me anyway.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 8 February 2007 23:38 (eighteen years ago)

I haven't seen or heard anything yet that makes me give a damn about your opinion!

― Charmmy Kitty's Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (ex machina), Thursday, 8 February 2007 23:41 (eighteen years ago)

"I haven't seen or heard anything yet that makes me give a damn."

Yeah fuck it's not like fabricating intelligence to start a fucking useless war and then trying to punish and discredit anyone who tries to buck your useless incompetent administration is be a big deal at all. God what a fuckwit.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 8 February 2007 23:57 (eighteen years ago)

Look, if you wanna go after the Bushies, then tell the fucking Democrats to grow balls and cut off funding from the war. This thing is a footnote to a larger record of malfeasance. This and this settled it for me.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:08 (eighteen years ago)

It's also possible that Wilson and Valerie Plame ennobled by Annie Leibowitz on Vanity Fair's cover three years ago did the required trick.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:11 (eighteen years ago)

"Look, if you wanna go after the Bushies, then tell the fucking Democrats to grow balls and cut off funding from the war."

I repeat: you are a fuckwit.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:33 (eighteen years ago)

Awright, if you're gonna get nasty, then I'm done here.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

Good riddence.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

For the record I trust Hitchens about as far as I can kick him and most of the evidence cited in that first article has been pretty roundly debunked (by the Iraq Study Group for one.) It wasn't happening, Albert. It was bullshit. They knew it was bullshit (or maybe they didn't but they should have.) And they sold it, time and time again.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:41 (eighteen years ago)

riddance. Albert. ahem.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:45 (eighteen years ago)

ALFRED.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:47 (eighteen years ago)

I'm so sorry Uncle Albert.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:47 (eighteen years ago)

As I said already, there's a whole list of grievances for which the Bush administration should be held accountable: never publicly announcing that there was no link between the 9-11 attacks and Saddam until enough evidence existed to render this cover story a political embarasssment; hastily announcing that WMD inspections were a farce and we were invading anyway; not sending in 300,000 troops; disbanding Saddam's army; annointing a gladhanding apparatchik like Paul Bremer as viceroy; and refusing to bolster a crumbling Iraqi infrastruture because, as Henrik Hertzberg once suggested, the Bush administration DOESN'T CARE FOR THESE THINGS AT HOME. But Cheney's obsession with discrediting a press-shy wallflower like Wilson seems comparatively minor, and certainly not worth the attention. It always dubious, like the Washington press corps' obsession in early 1987 with wondering whether Reagan would fire Don Regan and make him the fall guy (as the Tower Commission suggested; don't put much faith in "bipartisan commissions" designed to cover a lot of asses) when they should have been going after the grinning doddard himself.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 9 February 2007 00:53 (eighteen years ago)

andrew, he said god ridancE!

― cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Friday, 9 February 2007 01:04 (eighteen years ago)

PAUL MCCARTNEY SHOULD BE INDICTED FOR WRITING THAT SONG

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 9 February 2007 01:04 (eighteen years ago)

I need gear here imitating Donald Sutherland in JFK: the Libby case is just "scenery for the public," or in this case, the Washington press corps.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 9 February 2007 01:06 (eighteen years ago)

I generally agree with Alfred, that the Plame case isn't the smoking gun that many Bush administration foes (including me) thought it would be, that this will be little more than a footnote in the whole sordid history of the Iraq debacle, and that Wilson is a prima donna.

I think this is an interesting story, but there is so much public evidence condemning this administration, our congress, and in general, the opinion-makers and the press, that it is almost ludicrous to focus on this little blip of a story.

There is so much willful incompetence, political savagery and fantastical treachery painted across the history of the past five years, that it's pretty easy to dismiss this case as unimportant in the grand scheme.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Friday, 9 February 2007 01:08 (eighteen years ago)

Well, Alfred, they sent up Al Capone on income tax evasion, even though he was responsible for several dozen murders, so there is sometimes a good reason to fry a big fish over a small fire.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 9 February 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

there are so many damn small fires that my eyes have long glazed over.

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 9 February 2007 02:25 (eighteen years ago)

mother should i trust the government

― kingfishy (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 9 February 2007 02:36 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

guilty on four of five counts

He'll be pardoned.

― Dandy Don Weiner, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)

yeah probably

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 17:37 (eighteen years ago)

The elder Bush pardoned his Iran-Contra cronies and suffered little for it. At this point Junior has little to lose, either, what with no third term and his approval numbers already in the toilet. I find the pardon hypothesis plausible, but immensely depressing. I suppose it is better to establish guilt and then force a pardon and let the cards fall where they may, than to let BushCo get away with it entirely.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)

Actually, Mary Matalin and other Bush I apparatchiks admitted that Pappy's pardoning of his Iran-Contra confreres -- and the release of special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's I-C report a few days before -- cost them a few votes.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:07 (eighteen years ago)

pardoning Libby isn't going to hurt anyone, including the CIA and Fitzmas.

― Dandy Don Weiner, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:14 (eighteen years ago)

Behold Mark Steyn:

I have no idea whether Scooter Libby is a “good man” or a partisan hack, but I certainly hope he has a Bush pardon in his pocket or in his shoes I’d be making a break for the border. I never feel more foreign than when observing contemporary American justice, which seems to the outsider to have absolutely no sense of proportion. Mr Libby has been convicted of lying about his recollection of a conversation. The lies about who leaked Mrs Wilson’s name, the lies about what her husband was told in Niger and what he reported back to the CIA and how he got the job in the first place, all these are still out there. And in particular the leaker Armitage – who remained silent as the drip-drip-drip of speculation corroded the Administration’s integrity month in month out – remains a beloved figure on the social scene, full of delightful asides and amusing gossip. Only the peripheral lie about the minor lie arising from major lies is to be punished.

The Bush Administration can be faulted on several grounds for its conduct here, but one of its earliest errors was apologizing for the notorious “16 words” in the SOTU that started this thing:

''The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The British government stands by that statement. So does Lord Butler, in his investigation. In stepping back from the statement, the Administration showed an astonishing political ineptness, and in effect legitimized Wilson’s core grievance.

Three years on, meanwhile, MI6, the French and others still know far more about what’s happening on the ground in Africa. The real scandal has always been that the world’s most lavishly endowed intelligence agency’s idea of an investigation is flying in a politically-motivated tourist for a long weekend.

I must admit: I forgot what the Butler report said about uranium. Anyone want to clarify?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:16 (eighteen years ago)

Nothing terribly credible.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

http://boingboing.net/images/2001883825464813443_rs.jpg

― Gukbe, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 01:39 (eighteen years ago)

Man, Nas is really not looking good these days. . . .

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 03:36 (eighteen years ago)

*theme to the untouchables*
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/06/washington/07libby-7-337.jpg
*theme to law and order*

― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 06:55 (eighteen years ago)

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