The Black Republican

The jury in the case of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was on trial for various offenses related to the CIA leak investigation surrounding Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his CIA-operative wife Valerie Plame, has reached a verdict of guilty on several counts. Earlier today, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced the prosecution strategy while juror Denis Collins explained the jury's reasoning to reporters outside the courthouse.

UPDATE: James Taranto points out the truth of the matter in the Libby case by utilizing an interesting turn of phrase one does not hear too much anymore. "We won't gainsay the jury's verdict," he writes, "But it remains a travesty that Libby was ever prosecuted to begin with."

If you want to be convinced that LIbby lied to investigators, and his lies were part of a massive conspiracy in the Bush Administration to discredit Joe Wilson, fine by me. Frankly, I don't know how much of that is true, and how much is Democratic hyperventilation. But the point for me is that I just don't care either way. Because Joe Wilson is a proven liar himself, and he and his wife were partisan hacks actively trying to undermine administration policy. The whole affair has nothing to do with spying, or national security, and everything to do with the ordinary, everyday sausage factory of Washington politics, reputation-building, and lucrative book deals.

An apolitical cynic might say the travesty is that only one of them is looking at a prison sentence. But as a partisan and a political blogger, I fear for the Republic when politics itself becomes the crime.