Sad For Scooter Libby, Sort Of
Posted on March 8, 2007
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The airwaves have been filled with the ubiquitous juror Denis Colins describing the feelings amongst fellow jurors as sympathetic to Libby and how they did not relish the job they had to do. I’m not ragging on Collins: it’s our news culture. He seems bright, careful and sincere. Interviewers and commentators were happy to jump in saying they, too, felt sorry for Libby. Frankly, I feel a little bit sorry for I. Lewis Libby, myself.
My reality check came when listening to “On Point” on NPR this evening. Someone was saying how Scooter was a regular guy with a family and any number attributes many people can identify with. No one but White House insiders knows whether Libby will ever serve time for his convictions. I think for me and for a lot of people, the sympathy stems from a belief that there were larger crimes instigated and perpetrated by others that will go unpunished. There is a sense of injustice here, but really, that someone else did something worse does not nullify Libby’s bad actions. I might feel outrage if I’m given a ticket for going 70 mph right after being passed by cars going much faster, but that does not change the fact that I was doing 70.
My sympathy is blunted, also, by the knowledge that less well-connected people are incarcerated every day for non-violent or victimless crimes. Small-time dealers and consumers of drugs may harm fewer people than the proprietor of a liquor store, but somehow they offend societal sensibilities and can be forced to serve time. A single dealer who supplies marijuana to a small circle of friends and acquaintances really does little harm by those actions alone. One may argue that while the single dealer does little harm, the network that supplies him may be harmful indeed.
I suspect that may be true in Libby’s case as well. While his untruths may seem minor, those lies facilitated more serious crimes, and on a much grander scale than most illicit drug operations. With Libby’s complicity, an undercover CIA agent was exposed, the investigator discredited who was sent to Niger to check out allegations of Iraq’s efforts to acquire WMD, and a preemptive war started based on those allegations. More than 3,000 American soldiers have been killed along with unknown, much greater numbers of Iraqis.
We may have to live, for the time being, with Libby’s four convictions standing in for greater accountability of the administration. Still, I can feel bad for Scooter when considering one man’s life, just as I feel bad for the guy caught with an illegal stash. I just don’t see that Scooter’s freedom is worth more than the next man’s.
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