Scandalous

I am frankly underwhelmed by the whole Scooter Libby verdict. First, it's no rel surprise. Let's say it's as much of a surprise as the impending pardon will be. Second, as everyone says (including the jury), wrong guys. So Scooter lied. Big deal. It's who he lied for and why that I really want to know, and we never will. With Scooter's conviction, this whole issue goes away. The federal prosecutor didn't charge anyone with the "outing" of Valerie Plame because he didn't think there was anything there that would stick. But again, now that Scooter got smacked, I think we're at the end of this whole deal. Scooter took the hit for Rove and/or Cheney and this investigation is done. Color me...bored.

I see a lot of hay being made about this. I see there is something cathartic about someone in this administration finally...finally being held accountable for something. But the "victory," for what it's worth, is empty. The people who should pay won't. Cheney was exposed as the architech behind the smear campaign of Joseph Wilson, but h is not going to be held accountable for it.

The Dems on Capitol Hill are pointing out that this is one more thing that confirms the administration's lies to get us into Iraq. A concerted effort from the White House to suppress information from the CIA that proved the "yellowcake" charge was bullshit, stemming apparently from Cheney (as the trial showed), is the root of the idea the Dems are pursuing. But I think it's a chasm of distance between the root reason behind why we're pissed off - being lied to - and Libby's conviction, which strikes me as a bit more about retribution against those who we really can't touch (but really, really want to. In a bad way) than justice.

There seems to be a lot of grasping at what is going to be "really really big." Libby's conviction was going to be "really really big" and expose all sorts of...whatever. Well, he's convicted. Sure, he lied in a big, illegal way and essentially tried to block an investigation. But an investigation to what? To nowhere. The federal fucking prosecutor sees no case that will stick. So the "big thing" turns into a bit of a mediocrity.

The firing of the six U.S. Attorneys is being touted as the next "big thing." Maybe. Maybe we'll burn another Republican Senator over it, but I certainly don't smell jail time. It is tough to prove there is some White House conspiracy here to fire guys who might be leading an investigation against administration people and replace them with hacks. Well, we know they replaced them with hacks. But why? How long will it take to find out? And will it nail anyone who means anything?

Nothing makes me more furious than how we treat our wounded troops. I can hardly listen to the NPR reports or read the Newsweek article without wanting to cry. Dudes in DC are getting fired or quitting all over the place about this. But it's not the first time our Government have fucked our injured troops (what do they mean Agent Orange is eating their skin off?), and the worse that Bush himself is guilty of in this collassal fuck-up is political gamesmanship. It rrrreeeeeaaaallllyyy pisses me off that he does it with our injured troops. But we're burning all the people who ought to be burned for it. Sure, it shows more lack of leadership from the Bushies, but if you want to talk about inept leadership when it comes to dealing with our injured troops, you've got to blame every administration since the end of WWII. As a veteran, this shit has got to get solved by someone pretty damn quick. It's been wrong from a long time.

What this is is a sum of all evils; an indication of poor leadership and a group of people so sure of their own power that they don't even try to hide the bullshit. Mostly because...what exactly are we going to do when we find out? Convict a Fall Guy and celebrate a great victory? Pretty hollow.