The Scooter Letters

Now that Scooter Libby has been sentenced to 30 months, plus a fine and probation, the court has released the letters sent to the judge by his supporters as character references. The website The Smoking Gun has them posted on the web.

When I read all those letters from Libby’s fans, I can’t help but wonder how, if Libby is a man of such integrity, so intelligent, and such a dedicated public servant, he could bring himself to lie to federal investigators and obstruct justice to protect an effort to expose a CIA officer.

All of these testimonials to his fine character make it seem like we’d want to really punish him, since the violation of the law is more heinous when a ‘good man’ does it. It's unclear to me why these people think these are arguments for leniency.

And I had to laugh out loud at Mary Matalin /James Carville’s overwrought “but what about the children???’ missive. Seems like the way for “Mr. Scooter” to demonstrate his vaunted concern for families would have been by not breaking several federal laws. (I don't think it's Judge Walton's job to worry about how Mary will be able to explain that Mommy's friend Mr. Scooter won't be with them this Halloween because, well, he is in jail. Maybe Mommy shouldn't work with felons.)

(BTW, can we finally stop calling Carville a Democratic operative now?)

These letters are worth a browse, just for a hint of what's wrong in DC.