Looking For Some Context in Scooterville
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Lewis “Scooter” Libby is, it would appear, down on his luck. So much for his status – and his job – as Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. So much for $161,000 a year, so much for any normalcy of life and everyday existence. We can safely observe that things aren’t going so well in Scooterville. Of course, maybe it’s all deserved. After all, Scooter has very recently been indicted for perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying, which means that in the estimation of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, he’s not the most upstanding of White House characters. And that’s saying a lot: after all, perjury and lying are pretty much the status quo at 1600 Pennsylvania and environs.
Still, the frantic and mindless politicization of this altogether sordid affair is fairly demonstrative of the very worst of American politics, the sort of stuff that leaves voters disenchanted with the system and wondering who to trust. Worse yet, the political spectrum is polarizing exponentially, powerful magnets attracting evenly vaguely like minds from the center and ripping them to one side or the other. Political moderation, I fear, will soon become obsolete. All this political maneuvering, unfortunately, makes us wonder whether Scooter Libby is really the problem, as opposed to being part of the problem or emblematic of the problem or the guy who takes the fall for a problem that really shouldn’t be his problem at all.
Unless we are to believe the improbable conspiracy theories thrown about by liberal bloggers and assorted “pundits,” Scooter Libby simply exercised very poor judgment, failed to keep his mouth shut, and then lied to cover his tracks. The thing is, beyond this sort of action being uncharacteristic of Scooter, these allegations are positively anti-Scooter. Scooter Libby has been the trusted confidante and friend of Dick Cheney for so long exactly because he exercises excellent judgment, is the ultimate behind-the-scenes advisor, and simply isn’t the type of guy to face a criminal felony charges any given Friday. Political insider Ed Rogers noted more eloquently: “If there was such an award in high school - most likely not to be indicted - that would have been him.” In fact, Scooter Libby, according to most reporters, is one of the least accessible staff in the White House and often refuses even to be mentioned by name.
So the question remains: Why did Scooter suddenly, completely out of character, decide to out CIA operative Valerie Plame to thoroughly indiscreet Robert Novak (who, incidentally, has emerged from this whole debacle quite incredibly unscathed)? On their own, comments toward Scooter’s character neither prove nor disprove his culpability in the affair, but at the very least they do provide some context to a debate that has been lacking it all along.
If Scooter Libby is the problem, we can all probably sleep a little bit sounder at night, secure in the knowledge that one generally intelligent man made a very reckless and unintelligent decision. But given the context that we do have and the context that is inevitably festering beneath the surface, all kinds of other scenarios need to be imagined. Is Scooter Libby taking the fall for his boss, Vice-President Cheney? Is Karl Rove just as guilty but simply better at hiding his tracks? Or have we missed the boat entirely with these allegations and insinuations?
If there is a boat to be missed, of course, it will be missed by the fantastically unhelpful media and blogging community. Perhaps the best example of this disturbing trend is the name for “indictment day” in the leftist blogging community: “Fitzmas,” in reference to prosecutor Fitzgerald. Yeah, Merry Fitzmas, Scooter. You just lost your job and your reputation. And Happy Fitznukkah, too. You could face thirty years in jail or more than a million dollars in fines. A time for celebration in liberal circles, I’m sure, but callous nonetheless. Most troubling, however, is the rationale for the celebratory fervor in the first place. In the world that is contemporary American politics, we wait anxiously for the next scandal like vultures hovering above a ravaged carcass.
So let’s wait for some context. So far, we’ve heard one side of a story that lacks a coherent plot. If we are to get the bottom of this, we will certainly be faced with many sides and a twisted and complicated storyline. Which may indeed be complicated and twisted, but I can guarantee that everyone will be following along. An honest, informed, debate, even if it doesn’t have an identifiable “good” or “evil,” is the right debate. A little context, and, who knows, it might not turn out to be so bad after all.
