When Perjury Matters

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, senior aide to VP Cheney, was convicted this week of perjury and obstruction of justice. Unlike Clinton, who was accused of such things in trying to cover up a tawdry affair that was nobody's business anyway, this was a serious matter.

Why does it matte? Libby - under the clear direction of Rove and Cheney, tried to destroy the life of a woman, Valerie Plame, and her husband James Wilson. Cheney, the real instigator behind this, is a true believer. He genuinely believes, as did Libby no doubt, that in opposing the Iraq war and exposing the Bush administration's lies, Ambassador Wilson was disloyal, traitorous, endangering the country, and affirmatively helping Al Qaeda. When Bush said, "if you're not with us, you're against us" he meant it about all Americans. For Bush, Cheney, and these right wing Republicans, all those who oppose the Bush Administration and the war - Nancy Pelosi, Cindy Sheehan, Jon Stewart - are necessarily helping Al Qaeda. We, the citizens of this country, are its enemies. And, as Goldwater said, "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." It's okay, as Nixon believed, to "ratfuck" your political enemies when, obviously, your political enemies are also enemies of the state. Karl Rove is, frankly, a mediocre practitioner of that philosophy, not the great guru he is made out to be by those who tuned into US politics yesterday. That is the modern GOP. Anyone who denies that (like Arnie) hasn't been paying attention.

They do not understand how opposition can ever be loyal. They do not understand the rule of law or representative democracy. No doubt they will try to fire Fitzgerald the way they have already hacked through the US attorneys offices for disloyal elements. They decided to "get" Wilson by hurting his wife, even though she also happened to be on the front line of US intelligence operations. That is more than just criminal. Cheney should be impeached for this also.

Bush is even worse. He also thinks that Jesus is on his side, and that criticizing Bush is blasphemy and sin. The problem is that these people lost their moral compass years ago. I'm a values voter: the GOP has lost any sense of real values. The 2006 elections may just have saved the republic from these men, but it is high time we all got past the idea that current Republican leaders just have honest differences of opinion with Democrats, and blather on about bipartisanship. They are not honest. They are intellectually dishonest and craven. And they must be politically defeated.