Scooter's new Judy strategy: up your aspen
Remember Scooter's letter to Judy about how the aspens "turn in clusters, because their roots connect them"? The one everyone assumed couldn't possibly be the ham-handed attempt at code it appeared to be -- at least until excerpts of his soft porn novel began showing up online. (Think he compared notes with Lynne Cheney on that topic? You know, Scooter lauding the literary value of bestiality, while the Second Lady waxed poetic about girl-on-girl action...)
Well, it looks like Scooter's lawyers are about to take some big ol' garden shears to those roots. As discussed at The Next Hurrah, the new legal strategy appears to be to discredit the reporters. In another context, that might be analagous to putting the victim on trial, but not, repeat, not here. Watching Libby's surrogates go toe-to-toe with his jilted lover AKA Our Lady of the Chalabi Hobby, would almost make up for Fitz not giving us a Rove frog march for the holidays.
Alas, I don't believe for a second it will get that far. As annoying but knowledgable Alan Dershowitz notes,
Damn it.
Well, it looks like Scooter's lawyers are about to take some big ol' garden shears to those roots. As discussed at The Next Hurrah, the new legal strategy appears to be to discredit the reporters. In another context, that might be analagous to putting the victim on trial, but not, repeat, not here. Watching Libby's surrogates go toe-to-toe with his jilted lover AKA Our Lady of the Chalabi Hobby, would almost make up for Fitz not giving us a Rove frog march for the holidays.
Alas, I don't believe for a second it will get that far. As annoying but knowledgable Alan Dershowitz notes,
(Scooter's) two new lawyers (both of whom are tough, experienced and first rate) will demand every bit of classified information arguably relevant to his defense. The independent prosecutor will seek to turn the material over, because he knows that unless they are turned over, the judge may well dismiss the charges.I don't know how Fitz can prevent this outcome. And I can't think of a reason for any of the other players not to go this way. So as delicious as watching Scooter's team put the Washington press corpse on trial would be, I just don't think we will ever get tickets to see this boffo show.
But the intelligence agencies will veto the independent prosecutor’s decision, claiming that disclosure of the requested classified material would endanger national security.
The question will then be posed quite starkly: who makes the final decision about whether to disclose such material? Does the independent prosecutor have final authority? Or do the intelligence branches have final authority? If the latter, will they be beholden to the White House? If so, will the White House use its power to try to get the charges against Libby dismissed by refusing the prosecutor’s request to turn over the classified material, even if it is not really confidential?
Damn it.
posted by bluememe at 11/07/2005
1 Comments:
Why so negative? Where is the hope and optimism? Before Fitz even finished the press conference lefties were saying, "It doesn't matter because Bush will just pardon him anyway." Have we been down so long that it looks like up to us?
The whole Watergate fiasco took time. And it came hot on the heels, I believe of the whole Pentagon Papers business. They go down because they go too far. They ALWAYS got too far. And eventually, it catches up with them.
Let's have some patience. Let's look to the positive - like Fitz's office space. Like Cooper's public statements contradicting Rove's public statements. This implies that their is conflicting testimony as well. IT will come out eventually.
(How's this for spirited discussion? And Happy Blogversary as well.)
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