PrintFebruary 5, 2007
Fitz the Gullible? --- The Only Explanation
If you believe prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's case against Scooter Libby, you must also be ready to grasp the "evidence" for catastrophic man-made global warming over the next thousand years. Because in both cases you're looking for a needle in a haystack --- one that is so nanoscopically tiny that only the eye of faith can pick it out. The only way Fitzpatrick can believe his own legal charges is if he is dreadfully naive. (I don't even want to think about the idea that he is acting in bad faith.)
That doesn't mean Fitzgerald is not an intelligent man. The world is filled with smart people who can't see beyond their own noses. They gather in droves in the academy, as Moliere famously pointed out several centuries ago. They can be smart as a whip on their school exams, and they often do well in puzzle-solving jobs like computer programming. But they don't have a whit of common sense; they lack a broad understanding of the world; and outside their well-worn mental grooves they are easily deceived.
That's the striking thing about Fitzgerald: His amazing gullibility. When this case is over, he might be a hot prospect for the nearest swampy real estate sales outfit in Florida. He looks like a big fat target for the con-man's art.
Clarice Feldman has been keeping daily track of the trial for the American Thinker. She knows far more about the facts and the applicable law than I do. But simply looking at the snarled mess from a distance, I'm aghast that Fitzgerald's whole theory of the case comes from sources that no sensible person could fall for: The big media. Mr. Fitzgerald seems to be possessed of a childlike faith in the media's interpretation of Scooter Libby's sinister intentions, namely, that the publication of Valerie Plame's non-secret identity is all a Dick Cheney revenge plot.
That's been the leftist media accusation since Day One, and Mr. Fitzgerald has fallen for it lock, stock and barrel. Why Veep Cheney would bother to waste time taking revenge on a third-level CIA analyst when he has an administration at war to think about, is never even asked. If those are Cheney's priorities when we have Soldiers at war, he should be fired. Fortunately, there is absolutely no indication that Vice President Cheney is that kind of human being.
The prosecutor's faith in the media therefore passeth mere mortal understanding. No one who knows the bottom-feeding habits of our journos could possibly be so virginal. Any professional historian knows better --- because careful research always shows the big headlines of the day to be a slapdash made-up job. Smart news folk like H.L. Mencken and A.J. Liebling notoriously think of their profession as an endless clown parade. And any blogger who remembers Dan Rather, Reuters fauxtography, and a slew of New York Times fabrications, has to be utterly skeptical about the media narrative.
(That's why they call it a narrative, Counselor. It's a story. They make it up. It's not really that complicated.)
Even a Washington, D.C. jury is likely to see through the flimsy wraith of ectoplasm that has now been whipped into a sinister plot to "out" the publicity-hungry couple of Wilson and Plame --- which is a lot like "outing" Liberace. Once you get past the glittery skin-hugging piano-playing Las Vegas stage act, there isn't much "outing" left to be done. Wilson-Plame have become rich and famous for being "outed," pretty much like Liberace.
It is very telling that the prosecutor has mightily resisted bringing in the two designated victims of the Cheney Conspiracy for a thorough cross-examination. In the absence of the Plame-Wilson duo it is the reporters who are now on trial --- though it is Scooter Libby's career, freedom, peace of mind, and reputation that are at stake.
Unfortunately for Patrick Fitzgerald, our conscientious reporters didn't even bother to take readable notes of the crucial conversations that have now placed Mr. Libby in the dock. Their memory for fleeting words heard many months ago is as just bad as anybody else's --- which is utterly dismal. The newsies never even bothered to use tape recorders, trained stenographers, personal organizers, or any of the other tools at the disposal of the merest junior attorney at the local ambulance chaser's office. It looks like they just followed each other's buzz, and if they all agreed on some conspiratorial version of events over that evening's booze, that had to be grist for the next day's headlines. This trial has therefore turned into an ordeal by baying newshounds. If Libby can sprint fast enough to survive their yipping and biting, he will be a free man. If not, he will be in jail.
Trial by ordeal is not exactly in the best tradition of Western jurisprudence, but that is exactly what we are left with. All thanks to our "prosecutor's prosecutor" and the tabloid press, working hand in hand.
This is not a shining moment in American legal history.
James Lewis is the nom de plume of a frequent contributor. He blogs at http://www.dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
