Libby, VP Cheney’s former chief of staff, found guilty. Now what?! -The iPINIONS Journal

Most Washingtonians seemed genuinely shocked yesterday when word broke that – after 10 days of deliberations – a jury had convicted Scooter Libby on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. Of course, their shock stemmed from the fact that few people expected anyone to be indicted, let alone convicted, in this federal case that was made out of relatively inconsequential questions about who leaked CIA employee Valerie Plame’s name to reporters in 2003.

Indeed, let me hasten to clarify that Libby was not convicted for outing Plame. In fact trial testimony from a number of inside-Washington big shots, including NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert, made it clear that her identity was an open secret.

Instead, Libby was convicted for lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury about his efforts to cover up a White House dirty-tricks campaign, headed by VP Dick Cheney, to discredit Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson. And they launched this campaign because Wilson wrote a credible Op-Ed in the New York Times in which he asserted that President George W. Bush’s claim in his 2003 State of the Union address – that Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire uranium from Niger – was a lie. And recall that this was one of the main reasons Bush proffered to justify his preemptive strike against Iraq.

Meanwhile, I was not even surprised by the guilty verdicts. Because here’s what I wrote about this case and the prospect of indictments almost two years ago:

Despite the mandated secrecy of grand jury proceedings, everyone expects Fitzgerald to indict Bush’s political “architect” Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby. And, even though indictments will effectively end their political careers (and probably their freedom for a little while), predictions that they will plunge Bush’s presidency into complete disarray and fecklessness are grossly exaggerated.

If either Rove or Libby (or both) is indicted, however, he (they) will soon be relegated to the dust-bin of Washington history – after pro forma Presidential pardon(s) for all crimes committed that everyone expects Bush will grant on his last day in office in January 2009, [if not before].

Therefore, forget Libby. Moreover, ignore indignant remarks by Democrats about what his conviction and all the purported lies that paved the way to war in Iraq now portend for the Bush Administration. After all, notwithstanding those lies, some of us opposed the invasion and predicted that it would amount to a “march of folly” (me). But far too many of the politicians criticizing Bush today are the very ones (Hillary Clinton, John F. Kerry, et al) who rubber-stamped his decision to invade Iraq.

This sucks. We wish we weren’t Libby…this sucks. I will say that there was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr Libby. What are we doing with this guy here. Where’s Rove? Where are these other guys? …He was the fall guy. [Juror Denis Collin – former reporter for the Washington Post…]

And, with all due respect to their ingenuous, if not hopelessly confused, minds, please disregard the Libby jurors, like Mr Collins, who evidently could not wait to vent specious lamentations on their wholly judicious verdicts. (Incidentally, I’m sure Libby is wondering why their moral sympathies did not compel these jurors to grant him the benefit of the doubt that the jurors who deliberated Michael Jackson’s fate on child molestation charges granted him; ie., by finding him not guilty, and then lamenting that he was probably guilty.)

Instead, I urge you to take heed as my more intriguing prediction about what political machinations a Libby conviction might precipitate plays out. Because here’s what I wrote in this respect:

But there could be a silver lining in the political dark clouds now hovering above the White House. Because these indictments would provide the perfect cover for Bush to finally extricate himself from the neo-con cabal that led his presidency astray (into Iraq) and drove away his most prudent adviser, former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Moreover, if he is favored by the gods, someone he genuinely respects – perhaps his wife Laura – will do for Bush what Nancy Reagan did for her husband President Ronald Reagan when his presidency was in similar crisis: Namely, advise him to get rid of the ring leader of this White House cabal – Vice President Dick Cheney – who, after all, will be an un-indicted co-conspirator if Libby is indicted. The country deserves this act of enlightened courage and his legacy demands it.

And, just imagine how fortuitously things could fall into place after that: He could appoint Condoleezza Rice as his VP – positioning her to win the Republican nomination for president in 2008 by acclamation.

Now, consider how uncannily coincidental it is that just this week Cheney was the target of an assassination attempt (in Afghanistan), and was admitted to hospital with an acute case of deep vein thrombosis, which could have sent his already weak, if not tortured, heart into terminal cardiac arrest. Clearly someone’s trying to tell him something…resign Cheney, resign!

Therefore, stay tuned….

NOTE: I’m reserving my commentary on Ghana’s celebration of 50 years of independence for my “Good (news) Friday” feature.

Scooter Libby, CIA leak investigation