Scapegoat or patriot?

While the news hounds remain consumed with JonBenet Ramsey's faux killer the Scooter Libby trial grinds along quietly in the background. For most that's probably a good thing, but I confess to some mild interest.

The judge in the case, Reggie Walton, earlier ruled in favor of the defense in allowing them access to CIA classified daily briefings provided for VP Cheney during the period in question--summer 2003. The Judge ruled they be condensed into summaries, leaving out specific details. But Libby wanted details to help support his memory loss defense. To that Judge Walton said no:

"The documents and information at issue are extremely sensitive and their disclosure could cause serious if not grave damage to the national security of the United States,".

Sounds like a loss, but maybe not. An inquiring mind might wonder what Libby thought was so powerful it would overshadow a brewing political scandal in which the president had already ordered his staff to "get it out there" to counter the growing story.

Ironically, Judge Walton's ruling seems to lend credence to Libby's claim by proving the information he was seeking was so sensitive it couldn't even be released lest the walls of Jericho topple down. That might explain why his legal team attempted such an unwinnable sounding gambit to begin with.

The biggest news of late was the Times' revelation Tuesday that Richard Armitage had a couple of appointments with Bob Woodward in June of 2003, before Libby officially talked with Miller. It'll be interesting to see if this revelation might make the entire thing go away. Speaking of Miller, she was seen breaking bread with John UN Bolton last week. Just an old friend, probably discussing trees and stuff.

MORE 8/27/06

Newsweek's piece on the new Plame game book has some nuggets, such as this conversation between Armitage and Larry Wilkerson:

"One day," says Powell's former chief of staff Larry Wilkerson, "we were walking into his office and Rich turned to me and said, 'Larry, these guys never heard a bullet go by their ears in anger ... None of them ever served. They're a bunch of jerks'."

It's true Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rummy and Libby never heard bullets go by in anger. But the same could be said for Cheney when he was the Secretary of Defense during the first Gulf War, yet it wasn't a big issue. Weird, since at that time America had not been attacked.

But the weirder thing is why Armitage escaped prosecution in this whole mess. He leaked to Novak and probably to Woodward, yet Fitzgerald had no interest in him. One might almost think a collusion existed between State and Fitzgerald in an effort to 'get' the 'jerks' in the administration.