Many of us in the liberal/progressive blogosphere have been exulting in the guilty verdicts for 4 out of the 5 counts in the trial of Scooter Libby. Exulting, actually is an understatement. Jubilant, elated, overjoyed, doing back flips, gleefully giggling nonstop, and triumphal are all words one could choose to describe the irrational exuberance expressed by so many after one member of the Bush administration has finally been found guilty of a crime in connection with the deceits foisted upon the American public to convince us to invade Iraq.

And don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way when justice, no matter how small and no matter how long delayed, is finally achieved. However, in the cold light of the day after the verdicts (and in my case, as a resident of upstate New York, that means literally very cold indeed) I think it behooves all of us to step away from our joyous celebrations, and face a few unpleasant facts. Because in the larger scheme of things not much has really changed.

(cont.)
Bush is still President, and Cheney is still the Vice President. Nothing in the Libby case has changed that. We have another 22 months of their misrule yet to endure. If you think they cannot yet do tremendous harm to this country in that time, you are either a hopelessly foolish optimist, or you’re a diehard Republican who continues to drink the Koolaid.

Libby is very unlikely to ever serve time in jail. His appeal will be tied up in the courts for most of the next year or so, and should his verdict be upheld on appeal, in all likelihood he will receive a pardon from President Bush. Libby’s price for not testifying at his trial, and for not requiring Vice President Cheney to testify, was an explicit or implicit promise by the White House he would be pardoned. Libby will not “flip” to rat out his bosses at this point. By limiting the fallout from the Plame affair to himself, Libby, ever the good soldier, has insured that Bush and Cheney, and other members of the Bush administration who participated in the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson, will not have to face the scrutiny of the legal system for what they did.

Which essentially means, as Patrick Fitzgerald said yesterday, that the investigation into the treasonous and criminal disclosure of a covert CIA operative by the Bush administration is over. The story, without any further indictments or trials, will die as the media moves its focus on to other topics. The right wing noise machine will also throw up enough dirt and dust to cloud the significance of the Libby verdicts in the minds of many Americans, which, except for those of us who frequent the liberal blogosphere, have never been adequately informed of the case’s relevance. Already yesterday, one could see the media eating up the standard GOP line pushed by numerous pundits that Libby is a “martyr” and the case was really about “nothing” other than prosecutorial abuse by Fitz, since no one was ever charged with the underlying crime of outing a CIA agent.

The Congress may decide to pursue further investigations, but in the absence of someone coming forward with additional damaging evidence of Cheney’s or Bush’s involvement in the scandal and/or its cover-up, that investigation is unlikely to get very far. Furthermore, the media will likely happily regurgitate GOP talking points about the “politics of personal destruction” and “spiteful Democratic partisanship” with respect to any Congressional hearings, unless new evidence is forthcoming. The Wilson’s civil suit may eventually provide a clearer picture of who did what when and why, but that case is unlikely to go to trial until long after Bush is out of office.

What was really accomplished, yesterday? One man was convicted for lying. One. Justice for those who told bigger lies and committed bigger crimes for which those lies were spread like so much pungent manure, is no closer today than it was yesterday, or the day before that. In the absence of a serious impeachment effort by the Democrats, we are unlikely to ever see justice served against the “bigger fish” of the Bush administration.

After Downing Street, after Katrina, after Bush’s illegal spying program, after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and secret torture prisons, after the travesty of the veterans’ treatment at Walter Reed, and now after the Libby verdicts, you would think that impeachment would be on the lips of every Democrat in Congress and emblazoned in big bold headlines across the front page of every major American newspaper. But of course, it is not. That word is eerily absent from our official political discourse inside the Beltway. Off limits. Taboo.

Last night, my family and I went out to eat at a very nice restaurant to celebrate something, but it wasn’t the outcome in the Libby trial. No, we celebrated the completion of my wife’s last chemotherapy treatment for her cancer last night. That was a very good reason to be joyful and thankful. The outcome of the Libby case? Not so much.