Question about Scooter Libby.?

Question

How is what Scooter Libby was charged with any different than what Bill Clinton was charged with? Both were charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. (Libby was actually convicted, Clinton was not). Basically, both men lied under oath to a court or investigators. Both men were being investigated for more serious charges when they lied under oath (Clinton- sexual harrasment, Libby- releasing the identity of a covert agent), but there was not enough evidence found on these more serious charges in either case.

I personally just find it amusing that those that supported Clinton vilify Libby and those that vilified Clinton support Libby.

Answer 1

That sums up the hipocracy inherent in party politics. In the UK, Tony Blair has implemented many policies that were too far right wing even for Margaret Thatcher, yet the socialist labour members of parliament did not utter a peep of resent for years.

Had Thatcher tried privatising huge chunks of our NHS and mortgaging the hospitals in valueless for money private finance initiatives, they would have screamed the country down. yet that is what Blair has done, with barely a tut tut from labour members.

They are utter hipocrites. Before I support, or reject any policy, I ask myself, (a) will it work in it's intended aims? (b) Will the unintentional consequences be worse than the intentional ones, and (c) what would I think of the policy if the other party was proposing it?

Far too many people, mindlessly and without any thought or rationale, support, or reject policies based ENTIRELY on the party that proposes them. It's like, some GOP/DEM supporters would support the ritualistic burning of babies in the main square, if Bush/Clinton was for it. like wise they would oppose any policy set out by the other side.

Answer 2

Clinton never went to court for the sexual harrassment suit. He did pay an $850 grand settlement in the case. He also was fined $50 grand by a judge in DC for contempt of court.

Another difference - Clinton was the perpetrator and the perjurer. The perpetrator (self-admittedly Richard Armitage) in the Libby case has not been charged with anything, so Libby was accused of obstructing an investigation into a crime that wasn't really a crime, apparently.

Answer 3

We want a change in the country and are tired of the corruption...Clinton was the president ,therefore he shouldnt be charged with anything. It was none of the FBIs business he was banging that sloppy hoe. Didnt they have better things to worry about? ALSO LOOK AT ALL THE THINGS BUSH HAS LIED ABOUT...BUT HE IS THE PRESIDENT SO YOU NEED TO RESPECT THAT...unless he committed crimes against humanity. Scooter libby has still not been sentenced therefore dont go crying yet.

Answer 4

You'd have to look at the actual indictments -- it's possible they were charged under different sections of Title 18 of the US Code.

Libby was indicted under 18 USC 1503 for count 1, 18 USC 1001(a)(2) for counts 2 and 3, and 18 USC 1623 for count 5.

Answer 5

Also look at Clinton's security advisor Sandy Berger who snuck into the National Archives, stole classified documents, and destroyed them. All he got was 100 hours of community service. Can you imagine if he had been a republican.

Answer 6

Personally both commited perjury and both deserve whatever punishment they get.

Answer 7

I wonder how amusing you find this:::::::::::Shooting Elephants in a Barrel
by Ann Coulter (More by this author)
Posted: 03/07/2007
Lewis Libby has now been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lies that had absolutely no legal consequence.
It was not a crime to reveal Valerie Plame's name because she was not a covert agent. If it had been a crime, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could have wrapped up his investigation with an indictment of the State Department's Richard Armitage on the first day of his investigation since it was Armitage who revealed her name and Fitzgerald knew it.
With no crime to investigate, Fitzgerald pursued a pointless investigation into nothing, getting a lot of White House officials to make statements under oath and hoping some of their recollections would end up conflicting with other witness recollections, so he could charge some Republican with "perjury" and enjoy the fawning media attention.
As a result, Libby is now a convicted felon for having a faulty memory of the person who first told him that Joe Wilson was a delusional boob who lied about his wife sending him to Niger.




This makes it official: It's illegal to be Republican.
Since Teddy Kennedy walked away from a dead girl with only a wrist slap (which was knocked down to a mild talking-to, plus time served: zero), Democrats have apparently become a protected class in America, immune from criminal prosecution no matter what they do.
As a result, Democrats have run wild, accepting bribes, destroying classified information, lying under oath, molesting interns, driving under the influence, obstructing justice and engaging in sex with underage girls, among other things.
Meanwhile, conservatives of any importance constantly have to spend millions of dollars defending themselves from utterly frivolous criminal prosecutions. Everything is illegal, but only Republicans get prosecuted.
Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh was subjected to a three-year criminal investigation for allegedly buying prescription drugs illegally to treat chronic back pain. Despite the witch-hunt, Democrat prosecutor Barry E. Krischer never turned up a crime.
Even if he had, to quote liberal Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz: "Generally, people who illegally buy prescription drugs are not prosecuted." Unless they're Republicans.
The vindictive prosecution of Limbaugh finally ended last year with a plea bargain in which Limbaugh did not admit guilt. Gosh, don't you feel safer now? I know I do.
In another prescription drug case with a different result, last year, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (Democrat), apparently high as a kite on prescription drugs, crashed a car on Capitol Hill at 3 a.m. That's abuse of prescription drugs plus a DUI offense. Result: no charges whatsoever and one day of press on Fox News Channel.
I suppose one could argue those were different jurisdictions. How about the same jurisdiction?
In 2006, Democrat and major Clinton contributor Jeffrey Epstein was nabbed in Palm Beach in a massive police investigation into his hiring of local underage schoolgirls for sex, which I'm told used to be a violation of some kind of statute in the Palm Beach area.
The police presented Limbaugh prosecutor Krischer with boatloads of evidence, including the videotaped statements of five of Epstein's alleged victims, the procurer of the girls for Epstein and 16 other witnesses.
But the same prosecutor who spent three years maniacally investigating Limbaugh's alleged misuse of back-pain pills refused to bring statutory rape charges against a Clinton contributor. Enraging the police, who had spent months on the investigation, Krischer let Epstein off after a few hours on a single count of solicitation of prostitution. The Clinton supporter walked, and his victims were branded as whores.
The Republican former House Whip Tom DeLay is currently under indictment for a minor campaign finance violation. Democratic prosecutor Ronnie Earle had to empanel six grand juries before he could find one to indict DeLay on these pathetic charges -- and this is in Austin, Texas (the Upper West Side with better-looking people).
That final grand jury was so eager to indict DeLay that it indicted him on one charge that was not even a crime -- and which has since been tossed out by the courts.
After winning his primary despite the indictment, DeLay decided to withdraw from the race rather than campaign under a cloud of suspicion, and Republicans lost one of their strongest champions in Congress.
Compare DeLay's case with that of Rep. William "The Refrigerator" Jefferson, Democrat. Two years ago, an FBI investigation caught Jefferson on videotape taking $100,000 in bribe money. When the FBI searched Jefferson's house, they found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer. Two people have already pleaded guilty to paying Jefferson the bribe money.
Two years later, Bush's Justice Department still has taken no action against Jefferson. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently put Rep. William Jefferson on the Homeland Security Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, engaged in a complicated land swindle, buying a parcel of land for $400,000 and selling it for over $1 million a few years later. (At least it wasn't cattle futures!)
Reid also received more than four times as much money from Jack Abramoff (nearly $70,000) as Tom DeLay ($15,000). DeLay returned the money; Reid refuses to do so. Why should he? He's a Democrat.
Former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger literally received a sentence of community service for stuffing classified national security documents in his pants and then destroying them -- big, fat federal felonies.
But Scooter Libby is facing real prison time for forgetting who told him about some bozo's wife.
Bill Clinton was not even prosecuted for obstruction of justice offenses so egregious that the entire Supreme Court staged a historic boycott of his State of the Union address in 2000.
By contrast, Linda Tripp, whose only mistake was befriending the office hosebag and then declining to perjure herself, spent millions on lawyers to defend a harassment prosecution based on far-fetched interpretations of state wiretapping laws.
Liberal law professors currently warning about the "high price" of pursuing terrorists under the Patriot Act had nothing but blood lust for Tripp one year after Clinton was impeached (Steven Lubet, "Linda Tripp Deserves to be Prosecuted," New York Times, 8/25/99).
Criminal prosecution is a surrogate for political warfare, but in this war, Republicans are gutless appeasers.
Bush has got to pardon Libby.