Libby was found guilty today in his Valerie Plame-related trial for perjury and obstruction of justice. According to the Associated Press, “Libby is the highest ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid 1980s.”
This is obviously a big break, as we’ll finally, finally see someone get punished significantly for this Valerie Plame scandal, which, by exposing a covert agent, damaged our national security.
Of course, Mr. Law and Order man, Fred Thompson, assures us that “it was not a crime.” (I actually enjoy his Law and Order work, he should stick to that.) This attitude is typical of Republicans. To wit, then, this is the conservative mentality on crime:
An individual lies about having sex with a woman: he should be thrown out of office, possibly immolated, and is a threat to the nation’s dignity.
On the other hand, if an individual attempts to cover up for an investigation about an administration exposing a covert agent as a dirty trick: no biggie, dude.
This will serve rational analysis well when we deal with the next Republican scandal, the Department of Justice Massacre. Essentially, after pressuring their own prosecutors to give Republicans favorable treatment, the Department of Justice fired eight prosecutors and replaced them with their own cronies.
The Democrats will be holding hearings.