Politics in Washington can be an unpleasant affair. But the news that Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for perjury and obstrucion of justice during the investigation into the outing of the CIA agent Valerie Plame is particularly sickening.
This whole case has been an absurdity from start to finish. It is by no means clear that there was even a crime to lie about in the first place. Indeed, seeing as Libby had committed no crime—the source for her naming in the press was the then deputy Secretary of State Dick Armitage—Libby’s motivation for lying was not his own preservation but protecting his boss from political embarrassment.
This self-sacrificing attitude extended to the trial itself where the Libby’s defence team deliberately pulled their punches—for instance, not calling Cheney to the stand—so as not to embarrass the Bush administration.
Bush is a man who prides himself on his sense of loyalty and doing the right thing. So he should now pardon Libby. Bush has made many mistakes as president. Yet, it is still possible to see him as a good man doing his best but coming up short. If Libby spends a night in jail, it will be clear that this view is far too charitable to a president who is prepared to see a loyal foot solider suffer for the risk of losing another point or two from his already paltry approval rating.
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