NEW YORK A spokesman for the jury that convicted “Scooter” Lewis of four counts today of perjury and obstruction of justice today in a federal courtroom told reporters immediately afterward that many felt sympathy for Libby and believed he was only the “fall guy.”

Denis Collins said that “a number of times” they asked themselves, “what is HE doing here? Where is Rove and all these other guys….I’m not saying we didn’t think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells [his lawyer] put it, he was the fall guy.”

He said they believed that Vice President Cheney did “task him to talk to reporters.”

Collins said, “some jurors said at one point, ‘We wish we weren’t judging Libby…this sucks.” More than once he said many jurors found Libby “sympathetic.”

Asked about Vice President Cheney not testifying, he said, “Having Cheney testifying would have been interesting.” And when the defense opened the trial by suggesting that Libby was scapegoated by the White House, “I thought we might get to see President Bush here.” But Collins said Libby not testifying was not such a big deal since they’d listened to nine hours of tapes of his earlier testimony.

Editor & Publisher

In 1973, when President Richard Nixon dismissed independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and forced the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus during the Watergate scandal, it was called the “Saturday Night Massacre”. Congress considered it a gross abuse of presidential power and responded with several bills of impeachment against the president.

Nixon’s press conference defense provided an infamous final sentence:

“…I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, I’ve welcomed this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president’s a crook. Well, I’m not a crook!”

So what should we call it when eight nine - and counting - US prosecutors are forced to resign, when the thing they share in common is the investigations of Republican politicians or their supporters?

I think the Supersized Massacre sums it up best. It reeks of justice being obstructed by an expanding group of potential crooks. So do the political attacks launched against former Ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson and his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame, after Wilson publicly refuted claims the current president advanced about Saddam Hussein buying uranium, which sold the country on the necessity of war.

Which is what Libby was helping cover up.

He was the fall guy for a blatant attempt to squelch criticism of the president’s manipulation of evidence on the eve of the primary campaign for the 2004 election. Manipulation that has resulted in 3200 dead soldiers, and tens of thousands of wounded, plus the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis (half under age 16).

Troops with wounds like these people, profiled in the first 9 months of this 4 year old war.

Fact: Dec 2006-January 2007 was the second-worst two month total of wounded troops since the beginning of the war. The worst 60 day period was the first two months after the Abu Ghraib torture became public knowledge.

It has also resulted in the Walter Reed Hospital scandal. It has resulted in the highest death totals for journalists in any American war. It has resulted in hundreds of people being held in prison without due process for 3 and 4 years, then released because they weren’t considered a threat at all. It has resulted in illegal spying on groups like Grannies For Peace. It has resulted in $9,000,000,000.00 missing that was loaded on pallets and sent to our temporary government in Iraq - the Coalition Provisional Authority.

It has resulted in torture, authorized by the White House, that violates world treaties in existence since the 1920s. Videos of that are still being covered up.

Libby is the fall guy for one coverup of many, all obstructions of justice, all destructive of lives or careers, all so damaging to our democracy that it can’t be sold at a bargain basement sale.

Libby was Cheney’s fall guy who fell on his own sword with full knowledge of the truth being hidden. Our troops have fallen on real swords, though, at a far greater cost than any Libby will pay. And they did so while truth went AWOL.

Can Cheney and Bush say “…I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, I’ve welcomed this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their (president and vice president are crooks. Well, we’re not crooks!)”

No. They can’t say that honestly. And we can no longer depend on the press to demand the truth.

But we can say these examinations are welcome, necessary and urgent.

We can stop settling for fall guys.

We can determine if there’ll be justice for the masterminds of this deadly gang of crooks.

Or we can be a nation of 300 million fall guys.

Which do YOU prefer?