Good Night and Good Luck: A Standard Waving From the Past

The Indictment of Scooter Libby
by Dileep Rao

Today is a great day for America, and I say that not as a gloating Democrat at the indictment of I. "Scooter" Lewis Libby. It's not that these Republicans are a dangerous 'cabal,' in the words of a former Bush Administration official. No, it is a great day because, as charged in the indictment, it is the United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby.

Our nation as a whole charges him with his alleged crimes of obstruction, perjury and false statements. The glimmer is here that we will all recognize when some behavior is termed beneath the acceptable tenor of our times, grotesque as they may be. The effort to out Ambassador Wilson's wife was a despicable one from the beginning.

There are people in this country, amorphous ethical contortionists who will do anything to apologize for this administration, who have said this case amounts to the 'criminalization of politics.' I beg to differ. It is the they who went down this course and deemed it a legitimate response to the criticism of their slipshod evidence as they hurtled toward war, they who criminalized the purposes of our government and its discourse.

There has been a long line of falsehoods surrounding the war in Iraq, a long line of fudging the line and misstatements. Much of our country hasn't cared much because the people who are paying the largest price for this are Iraqis, people most Americans don't care a whit about. Yet our soldiers have paid dearly, as have our future earnings, as we must pay China back for the money we have borrowed for the taxes and the war.

We have seen constant fraud, lies, falsehoods, denials, perjuries, cronyism, incompetence, ruthless tyranny, and uni-party hegemony, and perhaps we've grown accustomed to it. But today, a Republican prosecutor asked a Grand Jury to indict a powerful figure in this Administration. And your fellow Americans answered, yes, True Bill.

Dileep can be reached at dileep@babblog.com.