i'm sorry. but what happened today was total bullshit. fitzgerald should be ashamed.
to burrow his own baseball analogy, fitzgerald had at least ten at-bats (bush, cheney, rove, libby and his two deputies, fleischer, bolton, miller, novak, etc). AT LEAST ten at-bats. but he struck out on ALL but once.
i admit that i don't know what will happen now with his "on-going" investigation. i also concede that getting libby was better than getting no one at all. but this case was far too important - not just for us liberals, but for the entire nation - to settle or compromise. yet, fitzgerald was all too willing to do just that.
consider the following statements from the crime fighter himself during his press conference today:
This indictment is not about the war. This indictment's not about the propriety of the war. And people who believe fervently in the war effort, people who oppose it, people who have mixed feelings about it should not look to this indictment for any resolution of how they feel or any vindication of how they feel.
This is simply an indictment that says, in a national security investigation about the compromise of a CIA officer's identity that may have taken place in the context of a very heated debate over the war, whether some person -- a person, Mr. Libby -- lied or not.
The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified. This is stripped of that debate, and this is focused on a narrow transaction.
And I think anyone's who's concerned about the war and has feelings for or against shouldn't look to this criminal process for any answers or resolution of that.
how could his focus have been so narrow? even a nimrod like me could see that iraq was at the heart of this whole case, yet this harvard-educated, apolitical, sharp-minded man couldn't? you mean, kinda like how rove didn't know who valerie plame was???
bullshit!
clearly armed with more evidence than needed, for whatever reason, fitzgerald compromised this historically important case. therefore, he not only failed us here at kos, he failed the entire nation.
he should be ashamed.
to use another baseball analogy...
with two outs, we sent fitz in to close the inning. fitz came in and flexed his muscle. but he would give up hits and runs to his first 8 batters before finally forcing libby to a ground out. fitz walks back into the dugout and vows that his relief pitching will continue until the game is over. and if things still don't work out? fitz and his manager say that they won't tell us what went wrong after the game. they're just folding and going home.
great. god bless america.
UPDATE
okay...thanks for all the feedbacks, except for those who left condescending, negative comments, and one impugning my liberal convictions. come on...there's no need to be mean. so, a BIG *F* you to all of you who are evidently too smart to indulge in this shit, yet left your meaningless two-cents anyway.
now that i defended myself from certain assholes who had nothing better to do than belittle my grief, here's my official, updated rebuttal to your rebuttals (for those who actually had something more than 2-cents worth to say)...
ok, i admit that this diary was written from a defeatist's point of view (i can be very cynical). but what many of you are overlooking is this:
IT'S THE TIMING, STUPID!
in today's political climate (in most everything we do, now that i think about it), timing is everything. and up until yesterday, the momentum was on our side. but today, the big storm has passed and regardless of what MSM and pundits are saying right now, or will be saying in the near future, BUSH, the guy supposedly in charge and the guy people actually VOTED for, remains unscathed in the minds of the public. so, unless rove gets indicted *soon*, i fear that this story will become old news.
as most of you are keenly aware, there are many, many underlying stories to this case with which middle americans aren't familiar. if all this information - the truth - isn't hammered home in the next several days, this story could fade in the minds of the public, fast.
that's why indicting rove today was so crucial, in my humble opinion, not because i wanted everyone to go down at once (i did, i do), but because that's the only way to really hammer home the message to all those middle americans who suffer from apathy yet still vote.
and if you believe for one second that bush's next SCOTUS nominee will take a backseat to this "old" investigation in the media and the minds of the public, you're in bigger denial than i am.
with miers' resignation in the face of cons' blistering attacks, it'd be foolish to assume that bush will go out and try to find a moderate, pragmatic nominee to the supreme court. rather, to regain the support of his base, bush will likely nominate a right-wing ideologue. and then what? i'll tell you what: the public interest in fitzgerald's case will erode as america divides itself over the nominee. plus, bet on the cons' spin machine to divert the public's attention from this investigation/case starting tomorrow.
timing is everything. but today, by indicting libby alone, fitz squandered the momentum a case like this needs to grab the nation's attention and bring down the entire evil empire. in a nutshell, that's all i was saying.
trust me, though. i'd love nothing more than to be wrong about this.
UPDATE PART II
since i'm being called everything from a dumbass freeper to illiterate, i'll further explain where i'm coming from.
i know that this is bad for bush and his fascist party. but this would've been almost catastrophic if rove had been indicted with libby today.
by delaying the indictment on rove, or by exonerating him, fitzgerald is inadvertently burying the story in the minds of the public.
see, i don't think libby's indictment is enough because by the time they go to trial, america will be consumed by whatever else is brewing in the country at that moment. think about it. i know most of us can, but how many americans do you think can accurately describe what happened during watergate or iran contra aid?
the message of corruption is burnished in the minds of the public when big news like this initially hits, not during an on-going trial(nobody watches c-span. come on!). but because libby isn't well-known like rove and lacks the draw of OJ Simpson, no bloc of middle americans that can affect the outcome of an election will follow the rest of this investigation as closely as we will.
that's why i'm so pissed off: because today was the best opportunity to send a message to every corner of this country about how corrupt and damaging this administration and their party really are. but by singling out lewis libby who no one really knew or care about, the entire story can be easily dismissed by the public as just more "politics."
i believe in justice. and i believe in our system. but relying on them alone won't win us any elections. haven't we figured that out by now?
a large bloc of middle americans collectively decided that WH lacked moral values when lewinsky affair blew up in clinton's face. so they went out and voted. and we got bush as a result.
while bushco's treasongate is a far more damaging crime, it lacks the cheap elements and transparency of obvious wrongdoing by those at the top for middle americans to closely monitor and follow the story. i'm still holding out hope, like so many have already commented on this thread, that the case will build and eventually get to bush. but this is his second term. toiling away by jabbing at this administration and their party is not going to turn this country around in the long term.
i really feel that what we needed from fitzgerald's announcement today was a shock and awe on the (middle) american public. karl rove's indictment would've done just that because he's well-known, especially in texas which used to be a swing state. but libby's indictment alone fails us because quite frankly, nobody in middle america gives a shit about libby much less know who he is or what he does.
don't even get me started on cheney. people really hate him regardless of their party affiliations. if cheney ever gets indicted, middle americans will say, "that's a good thing because dick was a bad influence on our good ol' W."
my eyes are on the 2006 & 2008 elections. and my ideas and views stem from my desire to see that crucial bloc of middle americans turning against the cons for good...or at least for awhile.