Springtime for "Scooter" Libby
While the dramas of my own life have been rising to an ebb, there is yet another story that seems to eclipse the political landscape in America. You know what it is. Mr. Libby, the right-hand man of Vice-President Dick Cheney, was found guilty by a jury of his peers. As the story leaks out, it seems that the conviction brings to light a lot of issues that cannot be swept under the rug.
For Valerie Plame and her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the verdict only seems to buttress their lawsuit. Rightfully so, Ms. Plame did not deserve to be outed as a result of what allegedly seems like a vendetta in the making. Her name printed in a column by journalist Robert Novak, seemed to highlight the bonds the present Administration has with the press built out of fear and power. Instead of having a fourth estate who is objective and scrutinizing, there are the those in the Washington Press core who have given up their values of being balanced for the sake of being within the realm of the know. It is not so much to have valuable sources to make Pulitzer Prize winning stories; unfortunately, the highlight here has to do with how far reporters have sunk in order to keep their jobs for the sake of not going after the hard news items which can do a service for the public.
Mr. Libby's verdict seems to be the latest salvo fired in an already convoluted territory of scandal and wrongdoing that has filled the public eye for six years. What the jury did was not only bring the shenanigans of the present Administration to the fore-front; they punctuated a long way from some in America for justice to be served.
Now the question still hangs in the balance whether Congress will have the fortitude to have an oversight committee investigating the reasons behind the Plame outing. For that, we can only wait and see. But for now, we--as the public--cannot rest on our laurels with this small victory. We must continue to watch and wait, follow with aplomb, and question our national leaders when they have done wrong. And, perhaps, everyday Americans must embody what today's press cannot do: we must weigh each aspect of behavior with a jaundiced eye and discuss amongst ourselves whether the people have been served. After all, we are the ones who are the most affected by what happens behind the scenes. And our verdict will occur at the voting box when finally the mind-set of United States citizens evolve to the fact that we will not take the ineptitude of our politicians any longer. If we work in the name of justice, perhaps we have a chance to show the press that Americans will do the work that they will not: highlighting the bad, praising the good and working for change.
Let the verdict of Mr. Libby inspire us to do more.
