Not Exactly the News That The White House and Cheney Wanted on the Same Day as the SOTU

Michael Isikoff has a good run-down of Day 1 of the Libby Trial. And makes a good point about Libby's "I wasn't going to be the fall-guy for Karl Rove" defense: that it may seriously hurt his chances for a pardon, unless Dick Cheney truly is running the country.

Some people I've talked to thought that Libby's Rove strategy was a shrewd one from a jury perspective, as it puts him on the side from people, like Rove, who are presumably unpopular with a DC jury. However, I see two flaws with this strategy, if that's what it is. First, it aligns Libby with Cheney, who is even more unpopular than Bush. Second, it hurts his chances for a pardon, which many people viewed as the likely outcome in this case, no matter how politically reprehensible that course might be.

It's become clear, however, that not only did Scott McClellan lie to the press corps about the role of Libby and Rove in this matter (whether McClellan did so knowingly is another question), but so did Bush and Cheney back in the fall of 2003, when they both clearly knew about the involvement of their top aides, Rove and Libby, in the Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson issue. Indeed, Cheney DIRECTED Libby to take the steps that he took with reporters.

Also, if you're interested in some serious inside baseball, the campaign docs that Rudy Giulani's campaign lost are now available online if you want to take a look here.
- posted by Joshua @ 9:28 AM