The Fitzgerald Disgrace
Published by Luckbox on Friday, June 01, 2007 at 11:23 AM.
Our government's recent history of independent prosecutors will end up being one of the saddest chapters of the last 20 years. From Ken Starr to Patrick Fitzgerald, our Congress has given extraordinary powers to men who decided the best way to use it was to conduct a witch hunt.
Just five days into Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the "leak" of Valarie Plame's name, he learned the initial leaker was Richard Armitage and that the leak was completely unintentional with no malice. After all, Armitage was one of the most moderate members of the Administration when it came to the Iraq war, generally falling in line with Colin Powell. Publically, he was the good soldier. Privately, he detested the direction we were moving. Given that, it made absolutely no sense that he would have secretly leaked Plame's name to help the war cause and damage the Wilsons.
In fact, it was never clear during the investigation that Plame was even a covert agent. I challenge any of you to find anyone with the CIA saying that Plame was a covert agent. When asked about it, they've never stated that she was covert or protected by the IIPA. That no definitive conclusion could be provided was yet another reason Fitzgerald knew no crime had been committed.
Once again, this all became clear in Fitzgerald's first week of the investigation. At that point, the investigation should have been shut down and millions of taxpayer dollars would have been saved. Instead, Fitzgerald decided he needed to cement a legacy and that meant finding a crime, any crime, that he could prosecute.
Weeks after learning no actual crime was committed, Fitzgerald first talked to Scooter Libby. I don't know why Libby lied. He says he didn't. A jury says he did and he's paying for it. The point is that the interview never needed to take place. There was no crime before the investigation started. Fitzgerald learned there was no crime within his first week. But he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. He was drunk on power and caught up in the left's desire to burn Karl Rove or Dick Cheney at the stake.
It's a disgrace. As big of a disgrace as Ken Starr's pointless investigations after learning there was no crime in the Whitewater affair. The left will never accept the former point, however. They just celebrate Scooter's demise. It's not about being right. For them, it's just about winning.
Just five days into Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the "leak" of Valarie Plame's name, he learned the initial leaker was Richard Armitage and that the leak was completely unintentional with no malice. After all, Armitage was one of the most moderate members of the Administration when it came to the Iraq war, generally falling in line with Colin Powell. Publically, he was the good soldier. Privately, he detested the direction we were moving. Given that, it made absolutely no sense that he would have secretly leaked Plame's name to help the war cause and damage the Wilsons.
In fact, it was never clear during the investigation that Plame was even a covert agent. I challenge any of you to find anyone with the CIA saying that Plame was a covert agent. When asked about it, they've never stated that she was covert or protected by the IIPA. That no definitive conclusion could be provided was yet another reason Fitzgerald knew no crime had been committed.
Once again, this all became clear in Fitzgerald's first week of the investigation. At that point, the investigation should have been shut down and millions of taxpayer dollars would have been saved. Instead, Fitzgerald decided he needed to cement a legacy and that meant finding a crime, any crime, that he could prosecute.
Weeks after learning no actual crime was committed, Fitzgerald first talked to Scooter Libby. I don't know why Libby lied. He says he didn't. A jury says he did and he's paying for it. The point is that the interview never needed to take place. There was no crime before the investigation started. Fitzgerald learned there was no crime within his first week. But he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. He was drunk on power and caught up in the left's desire to burn Karl Rove or Dick Cheney at the stake.
It's a disgrace. As big of a disgrace as Ken Starr's pointless investigations after learning there was no crime in the Whitewater affair. The left will never accept the former point, however. They just celebrate Scooter's demise. It's not about being right. For them, it's just about winning.
