Impressions from yesterday's Libby verdict, in which Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby was convicted on four counts of perjury for lying to a grand jury and the FBI about the events surrounding the disclosure of a CIA agent's identity:
-gratitude for the American judicial system, which, among other things, (i) gives people of high and low station alike the right to present evidence and be judged not by the government itself, but by a jury of fellow citizens; (ii) enables prosecutors, through its rules of procedure, the power (and protection) to investigate even the highest-ranking government officials for violations of law, free from retribution; and (iii) allows a person convicted the right to appeal;
-tempered with a sense of sadness for the crisis in Libby's life (there but for the grace...).
Although it's hard to muster much sympathy for someone like Libby's boss Dick Cheney (who, seriously, must be one of the most unappealing, distasteful political characters in generations), it seems like Libby is a fall-guy in this whole affair - an impression stated by some of the jurors in the case as well.
Mind you, someone must be held accountable for the misdeeds of George W. Bush and the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, so the verdict must be applauded; but it would just be nice if we could see those who are really pulling the strings in this atrocious presidency (Cheney, Rove, Bush) answering the tough questions in the dock, rather than this seemingly decent-enough guy Lewis Libby.
By: Michael Anthony Lawrence
