15 February 2007

After the Storm



The ice mist has passed over the white marble buildings on the Mall, and the skies are blue above the hard frozen landscape.

I panicked briefly when I looked at the calendar this morning. There is a morning activity listed, made with the optimism that the storm would have come and gone Monday, and the digging out would be complete by today.

I was expecting daffodils, perhaps, and not the frigid wind.

I am a pessimistic optimist, I guess. There is a reason that the month of February is so truncated and unloved. I am impressed with the implacable nature of the Federal judiciary, though.

Scooter Libby, his defense council, the Special Prosecutor, his minions, the Judge, Jury and officers of the Court all made it to wrap up his defense. The defense rested after just a dozen-odd witnesses were called. The prominent journalists were generally in agreement that the Chief of Staff to the Vice President seemed unable to remember things in any coherent order.

It was a comforting defense for those of us who revere the democratic process. So, this strange little case of a senior official who did nothing criminal except to lie about something that was normal operating procedure will be over soon. Final instructions will be passed to the jury, if everyone can make it through the snow, and a verdict will be rendered in just a few days.

I don't know where the spirit of H. L. Menken is these days. His savage wit is missing in these affairs where Presidents are brought low not for what they have done, but what they said they had not done. What was it he said? You can never go wrong underestimating what about the American public?

Or maybe a more applicable one to Mr. Libby's plight, which is more sympathetic than the caustic wit the old curmudgeon was known for:

“ It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. "

I need to be downtown. Talk to you later.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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