I also LOVE his baseball metaphor in his talk. He made the point that if a pitcher beans a batter upside the head and injures him, what matters is the injury. But you’d better not throw sand in the umpire’s eyes …

Also, I loved the line “All citizens are bound by law.” I think that is something that all politicians, no matter their political bent, need to remember.

I don’t care if Rove didn’t get indicted this time around. His comments were excellent, and it reminded the public of what was important. It is a danger to national security when covers are blown.

Sorry for the long comment - I’m so happy I’m celebrating with a beer later! Yay!

I agree with you, Pepper — and please don’t apologize for writing a long comment! Fitzgerald was excellent at the press conference. On ABC, George Stephanopoulos said that Fitzgerald is such a straight arrow that if a movie were made of this, he would be played by Tom Hanks.

And you’re right — the biggest point he made was that the charges brought against Libby were extremely serious, first and foremost because they kept the Grand Jury from finding out the truth about the leak itself. He did a great job of explaining why these charges are so important. And I, too, loved the baseball metaphor, which reminded me of John Roberts’ umpiring metaphor (talk about taking something and running with it).

Other big points made by Fitzgerald were that the trial needs to run its course, that he was not going to talk about anything outside of the charges brought today, and that Libby is presumed innocent until convicted by a jury.

Hopefully, that last item won’t take too long.

Meanwhile, Rove remains under a cloud of suspicion and an active investigation. Not a pretty picture for the GOP.

Cool volcano photos.

I think it might also be true to say that the perjury and obstruction charges are important precisely *because* they prevented the grand jury from determining whether or not the originary crime might have been committed. That’s not to say that Fitzgerald prosecuted Libby because he was mad at him, but that if Libby had told the truth they may have determined that no crime had been committed anyway, but because he didn’t, they didn’t have a chance to do that. So, Scooter, you’re so smart you turn out to be a dumbass. How ironic.

And the fact that no charges have been brought against Rove *yet* is great, in my opinion, because regardless of whether they eventually are or not, the White House can’t say, OK, that’s it, we know what we’re dealing with, it’s a discrete size and shape, let’s get our arms around it and seal it off. This means it goes on longer and keeps their attention, obviously. I’m liking that part of it very much.

What’s the over-under on the announcement of a Supreme Court nominee to take our eye off the ball? Half an hour? Suppertime? Tomorrow?

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…OF JUSTICE. Ha.

Oh, also, this part of the press conference was particularly satisfying, because in a totally non-political, non-partisan way, Fitzgerald said, “Don’t even think about trying to suggest that perjury is less important than leaking, because that would be bullshit”:

QUESTION: Mr. Fitzgerald, the Republicans previewed some talking points in anticipation of your indictment and they said that if you didn’t indict on the underlying crimes and you indicted on things exactly like you did indict — false statements, perjury, obstruction — these were, quote/unquote, technicalities, and that it really was over reaching and excessive.

And since, when and if they make those claims, now that you have indicted, you won’t respond, I want to give you an opportunity now to respond to that allegation which they may make. It seems like that’s the road they’re going down.

[Snip]

FITZGERALD: I’ll be blunt.

That talking point won’t fly. If you’re doing a national security investigation, if you’re trying to find out who compromised the identity of a CIA officer and you go before a grand jury and if the charges are proven –because remember there’s a presumption of innocence — but if it is proven that the chief of staff to the vice president went before a federal grand jury and lied under oath repeatedly and fabricated a story about how he learned this information, how he passed it on, and we prove obstruction of justice, perjury and false statements to the FBI, that is a very, very serious matter.

fitzgerald was so impressive. i loved when he explained the importance of the obstruction of justice charges, and also when he said “that talking point won’t fly.” gawd that was cool! thanks for getting that all down, rod.

I really admire Fitzgerald’s thoroughness and restraint. I also think this is a very satisfying outcome: not only has Libby been indicted, attention has been focused on the nasty machinations coming out of Cheney’s office; AND Rove is still under investigation. He’s not cleared; he’s still a target. This is grim for the White House, especially in view of Fitzgerald’s widening investigation. Where it stops, nobody knows…

THE BUSH SCOOTER DRIVEBY

WHERE BUSH barely stopped at the podium and said about the I is for Indicted Libby: Scooter, Scooter, extraordinary times . . . New phase . . .innocent. Trial . . .(Unless you are at gitmo) . . .serious

I’ve been fascinated by the statements of Cheney and Bush, both of whom made a point of praising Libby’s service and then reminding all of us that in our system of justice (I wish I had the exact quotes), a person charged with a crime is considered to be innocent unless found guilty in a court of law.

So I guess this means they’re going to let all those jailed alleged terrorists have a court date now?

Also, has anyone else noticed that the reporter from NPR who has been covering I. Lewis Libby Jr. (dontcha love that the guy has been known his whole life as “Scooter” yet he still has to use the first initial then full middle name convention of his fellow prepsters?–or maybe he doesn’t want anyone to know his name is really Irving?) for months is named….Libby Lewis?! Has anyone heard her do any other reporting on NPR?

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