Over at TPM, Josh Marshall has an excellent rebuttal to the people who say Scooter Libby’s trial, conviction, and sentencing were all politically motivated. He goes down the list of the major players in this sordid drama and identifies them all as conservatives or leaners in that direction.
1. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Decided a special prosecutor was needed and then recused himself from the decision because of his proximity to the probable targets of the investigation.
2. James Comey. Yes, he’s the darling of the Dems now because he spilled the beans about the hospital stand-off. But Comey is, dare we say it, a REPUBLICAN. And not just any Republican but a pretty tough law-and-order type who only months earlier had been appointed Deputy Attorney General by President Bush. He had it in for Scooter? He let his partisanship get in the way?
3. Patrick Fitzgerald. Again, a darling of the Dems now for obvious reasons. But anyone who knows the guy’s history knows that while this registered independent may not lean ideologically right (in the way movement whacks might recognize) he certainly doesn’t lean to the left. It’s no accident that his appointments have come under Republicans.
4. Judge Reggie Walton. Let’s start with this: He was appointed by George W. Bush. And if that doesn’t do it for you, he was appointed to previous judicial appointments by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
There’s bonus material in there as well: some bashing of Marty Peretz and Josh’s take on why a pardon might have been acceptable but a commutation is just ridiculous. Check it out.
