July 21, 2007
Saturday

Mr. Williams did a lot of political name calling in his July 18th letter blasting the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence. Had he not piled on with all his all that political vitriol, people might take his comments seriously. He said negative things about the Fox Network, castigated Rush Limbaugh and used the Lefty name calling "Wrong Wing" epithet to denounce Republicans. Since his trashing of everything not Left-Wing Democrat is so obvious, it is a little difficult to take his diatribe seriously enough to answer but here is an attempt.

Scooter Libby was not convicted of "outing" Valerie Plame or anyone else. Her name and position with the government did show up in news articles and if we didn't have the First Amendment in our Constitution guaranteeing Freedom of the Press, Steve and his buddies could torture reporters to find out the truth about the Plame leak. Libby was convicted of not telling the truth to the FBI and in sworn testimony. He probably should not have talked to the FBI or testified at all and there is a lesson here for all of us. Law enforcement asks a person questions about a long ago incident. The person answers the best he can but his memory is not perfect so he says something not accurate and a skilled prosecutor convinces a jury that the person lied. I think that is what happened here. Under our Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, Libby did not have to tell the FBI anything. I bet Steve would like to revoke that amendment too, at least for non-Left Wingers who don't agree with Nancy Pelosi and that Democrat paragon of lawful virtue, Ted Kennedy.

Scooter Libby must still pay a $250K fine, have his career ended and be on probation for several years. When President Clinton pardoned his criminal supporters as he did hundreds of time while in office, he in effect found them innocent. There was no penalty at all for people like renegade financier Mark Rich, likely because his family donated so much money, I call it bribed, Clinton. President Bush thought the three year sentence was excessive for a first time offence for a man who has led a crime free life as a civil servant. Was Scooter wrong and did he do anything bad? I don't know but I agree three years is too long a sentence for a technical violation being prosecuted politically.

I wonder how Steve Williams does feel about Clinton's six hundred or so pardons? I wonder why he hates Bill O'Reilly?

Mark Neckameyer
Irvine, CA

Received July 19, 2007 - Published July 21, 2007

Related Viewpoint:

Where is the Law and Order outrage? By Steve Williams - Klamath Falls, OR

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