Let the blogswarm begin...
It is official. Richard Cohen has either lost his mind or is unable to apply simple logic. Get a load of this drivel...
At the urging of the liberal press (especially the New York Times), he was appointed to look into a run-of-the-mill leak and wound up prosecuting not the leaker -- Richard Armitage of the State Department -- but Libby, convicted in the end of lying. This is not an entirely trivial matter since government officials should not lie to grand juries, but neither should they be called to account for practicing the dark art of politics. As with sex or real estate, it is often best to keep the lights off.
Apparently John Ashcroft and the CIA are now members of the "liberal press". Who knew?!?! And apparently in the 21st century, outing a covert CIA agent responsible for nuclear non-proliferation now qualifies as a "run-of-the-mill" leak.
I am having a hard time keeping my breakfast down right now.
Susan S diaried this earlier, but is went into the diary dustbin, so I figured it was worth reviving for those who are not night owls.
Update [2007-6-19 9:55:55 by justmy2]:BarbinMD also front-paged a similar post simultaneously.
Cohen's incoherence continues...
But the rest of us ought to consider what Fitzgerald has wrought and whether we are better off for his efforts. I have come to hate the war and I cannot approve of lying under oath -- not by Scooter, not by Bill Clinton, not by anybody. But the underlying crime is absent, the sentence is excessive and the investigation should not have been conducted in the first place.
Does Cohen even read the editorial pages of his own newspaper? It isn't even in the news section behind the "wall" this time.
[Myth] 3. Libby didn't leak Plame's identity.
Oh, brother, am I tired of this one. Libby wasn't charged with the crime of knowingly leaking classified information about Plame; he was charged with lying to investigators. But the overwhelming weight of the evidence at the trial -- including reporters' notes of their interviews with Libby -- showed that Libby had indeed leaked classified information about Plame's identity, even though that wasn't what put him in the dock. The jury agreed that Libby lied when he said that he'd been telling reporters only what other reporters had told him about Plame's role at the CIA
What is unclear is whether Libby knew she was a covert CIA agent at the time he discussed her with reporters -- a key point in determining whether this was an illegal leak. But Walton said that Libby "had a unique and special obligation" to keep such secrets, well, secret.
Apparently, the likes of Joe Klein and Richard Cohen simply can not fathom that their buddies in the government could ever do anything wrong, therefore, they can't really be guilty of anything, at least in their pretty little heads. That is why you won't see any outrage about the current email debacle or the GSA violations anytime soon, mark my words. If it doesn't directly affect them, there must not be anything wrong. There can be no violations of the law if politics were involved.
I sometimes wonder if some of these columnists even have editors. Oh wait, this could possibly have been ghost written by Cohen's editor, Fred Hiatt. As a matter of fact, I suspect this may be the priming of the pump for the big WaPo "FREE LIBBY/Pardon" editorial hitting your newsstands very soon.
This is a mess. Should Libby be pardoned? Maybe. Should his sentence be commuted? Definitely.
Well, he is right about one thing. Something is mess...this ridiculous column is atrocious!!!
Feel free to head over to the Cohen's editorial via the link at the top and leave some kind and gentle words for Mr. Cohen in the comments section . If Cohen is anything like Joe Klein, he won't read any of his comments, but maybe someone at WaPo will let Cohen know how off base he really is.
BE POLITE!!!