Libby

I agree with this article by Glenn Greenwald.
It's totally clear that the defenses of Libby in the press and from the politicians on the right has been just pathetic.
-First there's the allegation that Libby didn't really commit a crime because the person in question(Valerie Plame) wasn't an active agent at the time of the outing. Why that changes the fact that he lied under oath is another matter, but this argument has not only been proven untrue, but let's be serious about this. If the CIA sends a person on a covert mission to a foreign country and then a year or so later is relieved of that duty, isn't it still dangerous as hell to release information on their covert activities or their existence as a covert agent? If I were against the U.S. and lived in that country and found out that the person we used to deal with was a CIA agent, I'd kill everyone I knew that had any dealings with that person under the blanket assumption that anyone connected to that person must be a friend to the U.S.
-So now the new mantra for pardoning Libby involves his "service to the nation" and his "upstanding qualities and record". As Greenwald writes:

But what the Libby case demonstrates is that so many establishment journalists believe this just as religiously. To our media stars, "Beltway crime" is an oxymoron, at least when it is committed by a high-level political official. In exactly the way they treated all prior acts of lawbreaking by Bush officials as innocuous political controversies, the Beltway press speaks of Lewis Libby's felonies as being something other than a "real crime," all so plainly based on the premise that Libby -- as a dignified member in good standing of the elevated and all-important Beltway court -- ought to be exempt from the type of punishment doled out to "real criminals" who commit "real crimes."

That's right, just because Libby committed a crime, that can't make him a criminal. Criminals don't exist in high office in the GOP. The apologists continue to claim that even though the jury unanimously found that he deliberately lied to the FBI and a Grand Jury on material matters, he can't be a criminal because well he's Scooter Libby. They also want to claim that Libby's association with Cheney is the real reason behind this. That were he not such a high profile official, this case would've been thrown out. This is all, of course, bullshit. If you're convicted of a crime, you're a criminal. If that crime somehow contributed to something of value or involved a poorly written law, then perhaps pardon is a feasible option once the appeal process is completed, but when you are found guilty of several counts of perjury, it's time to give in and make your appeals count. Don't assume that pardon is the way out because the man with that power has more lies under his belt than any member of the Administration.