Today's Bloomberg News reports that former Tennessee Senator, now Hollywood actor, and rumored possible "alternate" GOP Presidential candidate, is leading the current effort to help raise millions of dollars to pay legal bills for convicted Vice Presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
According to the Bloomberg report,
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
those bills could run to over $10 million since he is using the services of not one, but three top flight (well apparently not THAT top flight since they didn't spring him) lawyers billing upwards of $800 per hour.
News of Libby's guilty verdict has brought in $70,000 in Internet contributions in a week. Wealthy supporters including actor Fred Thompson, publisher Steve Forbes and Wayne Berman, a Washington lobbyist and leading Bush donor, plan to raise much more. Thompson, a former Tennessee senator who's weighing a bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, is hosting a Washington fundraiser that may bring in more than $100,000.
That's a chunk of cash, but if the rumors of a total bill running over $10 million are true, it is going to take a lot of big-bucks contributors to make a dent in the tab. Not that it will hurt them all that much, but getting GOP fat cats to spend their bucks on legal fees for convicted party felons is better than having them spend it on programs to support voter suppression, and Swift Boating.
The Libby Legal Defense Trust has raised $4 million to date. The fund is headed by Melvin Sembler, a Florida developer and former ambassador to Italy under Bush. Sembler declined to be interviewed for this article.
Of course one has to wonder just what new favors the generous donors will expect in return for their contributions. Certainly ambassadorships come to mind....perhaps a lucrative no-bid contract or two, or a chance to get one-on-one face time with our noble leaders.
Libby's defenders say his prosecution was unjust and are seeking a presidential pardon. Many question special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's decision to bring the case, noting that other officials had leaked Plame's name with impunity.
``The way it has played out -- that the prosecution was inherently unfair -- will help him in his ability to be viewed sympathetically both for fundraising purposes and pardon purposes,'' said Howard Schiffman, Libby's former law partner at Dickstein Shapiro in Washington.
Interesting rationale isn't it. "Why did they find HIM guilty. Hell there were LOTS of other people doing the same thing who didn't get indicted. It's just so unfair." No mention of course of the fact that the scooter's actions, along with those of "lots of other people" were undertaken to smear a CIA undercover agent, destroy her career and hamper government efforts to monitor and track the spread of weapons of mass destruction....WMDs that were actually in existence.
The Libby fund's advisory committee includes Forbes, Berman, Frederic Malek, chairman of Thayer Capital Partners in Washington and lobbyist Bill Paxon, a former House member from New York.
Other participants are Martin Peretz, former owner of the New Republic magazine; former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp; and R. James Woolsey, a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Virginia, and a director of central intelligence under President Bill Clinton.
Thompson, working closely with Mary Matalin, a former political strategist for Cheney, has taken the early lead in organizing events on Libby's behalf.
Last year, Thompson hosted a Washington fundraiser that collected more than $100,000 and a second dinner or cocktail reception is being planned in the city.
``I will continue to help and remain committed to working with the defense fund to raise money to restore Scooter's good name,'' Thompson said in an e-mail.
Barbara Comstock, a Washington public-relations specialist who is assisting Libby, said several large pledges have come in from donors whom she declined to name. The fund isn't required to disclose contributors because Libby is no longer a public official.