A Bad Day for the Left
That's right; it's a bad day for the left. I know the media has been shouting from the mountaintops that it's a bad day for the White House, and granted, with the Scooter Libby indictment, it's not the best day the White House has ever experienced. But it's worse for the left.
An indictment against Libby for obstruction is not what the left wanted. They wanted Karl Rove. They wanted indictments for leaking the name of a CIA agent. After a two-year investigation, they got no indictments for leaking and nothing against Rove.
Yes, obstruction of justice is serious, and this is a serious charge against Libby. However, it's not much to show for two years of investigations, and for liberals trying so desperately to discredit the Bush administration, it's a huge disappointment. They'll never admit that; they'll continue trumpet this indictment as a serious blow to the White House, but it's not nearly what they wanted, and they're disappointed.
An indictment against Libby for obstruction is not what the left wanted. They wanted Karl Rove. They wanted indictments for leaking the name of a CIA agent. After a two-year investigation, they got no indictments for leaking and nothing against Rove.
Yes, obstruction of justice is serious, and this is a serious charge against Libby. However, it's not much to show for two years of investigations, and for liberals trying so desperately to discredit the Bush administration, it's a huge disappointment. They'll never admit that; they'll continue trumpet this indictment as a serious blow to the White House, but it's not nearly what they wanted, and they're disappointed.
posted by Bryan Alexander | 12:12 AM
3 Comments:
I think you put the best possible face on it. But it makes you wonder why such smart people let themselves get trapped by something that probably wasn't even a crime to begin with.
Bryan, someone named Ryan Smith gave you a nice compliment over on the KP site under "Good Question." ...just wanted to make sure you saw it.
Only yesterday you said that an indictment against Rove was still a possibility so you presumably don't think this thing is over? The best spin on this isn't "A bad day for the left" but surely "Not quite the best day for the left, yet"? These guys are putting a lot of ammo into this and, as you suspected, they may yet find enough to charge Rove, or even someone higher. After all, if Rove wasn't in the frame at all Libby would be a famous scalp. Are you prepared for the consequences of an indictment even higher up the food chain? I just wondered.
Lennox,
Thanks for commenting.
On Thursday I mentioned "the possible forthcoming indictments against Karl Rove and Scooter Libby." I did not feel at that time that Rove was going to be indicted, but in the context of Thursday's post, of course I would mention a possible indictment of Rove as well as a possible indictment of Libby because that, along with reports of Cheney being involved, which I also mentioned in that post, was what Joe Wilson said saddened him. I was not saying that I thought Rove would be indicted, only that Wilson said he was saddened by the whole situation.
Having said that, yes, there is still a possibility that Rove, or someone "even higher up the food chain" could be indicted. However, I don't believe it will happen. They've been working on this for two years, and if there was enough evidence to indict someone else, I think it would have happen already. I think the left believes that also. That's why it was a bad day for them, and that's not spin. The left is terribly disappointed that this is all they got. That's why in the Fitzgerald press conference on Friday, there were 9 questions asked about why other people were not indicted or whether indictments of others were still forthcoming. There were an additional 7 questions on why indictments on the underlying charges were not handed down, only the obstruction, perjury, and false statement indictments. They clearly wanted more and were clearly disappointed that this was all they got after two years of investigations.
That's not to say that perjury and obstruction are not serious. It is. But I am saying that it's not nearly as serious as what the left had hoped for.
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