Fred And Scooter

Mark Kleinman nails Law And Order actor Fred Thompson for his bullshit about Scooter Libby. In a speech to the Council For National Policy, Thompson said…

The only problem with this little scenario was that there was no violation of the law, by anyone, and everybody — the CIA, the Justice Department and the Special Counsel knew it. Ms. Plame was not a “covered person” under the statute and it was obvious from the outset. Furthermore, Justice and the Special Counsel knew who leaked Plames’s name and it wasn’t Scooter Libby. But the Beltway machinery was well oiled and geared up so the Special Counsel spent the next two years moving heaven and earth to come up with something, anything. Finally he came up with some inconsistent recollections by Scooter Libby, who had been up to his ears studying National Intelligence Estimates. But he worked for Dick Cheney, so that apparently was enough for the special counsel.

I didn’t know Scooter Libby, but I did know something about this intersection of law, politics, special counsels and intelligence. And it was obvious to me that what was happening was not right. So I called him to see what I could do to help, and along the way we became friends. You know the rest of the story: a D.C. jury convicted him.

And Kleinman points out…

I’ve highlighted the parts that the sentencing memo demolishes. Valerie Plame Wilson was a covered person: working covertly, having her identity actively protected, and having traveled abroad seven times under both official and unofficial cover in the five years prior to the leak, and while Libby wasn’t the only leaker he burned her to at least three different people before the Novak column ran. Note also the wonderful passive construction — Plame’s CIA identity “was leaked” (by no one in particular), and the deniably but unmistakably racist crack about a “D.C. jury.”

The Reality-Based Community: Fred Thompson and Scooter Libby

And in other Libby news, Scooter is seeking leniency depsite showing no remorse for lying “repeatedly and blatantly” to FBI agents and a grand jury probing the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity.