Jackson Free Press

A new Pew poll shows that the public is taking the indictment of Scooter Libby in the WMD-Plame cover-up very seriously:

The recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide has struck a nerve with the American public. Four in five, 79 percent, said the indictment of former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and other charges is important to the nation, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Pew noted that in September 1998, 65 percent said President Clinton's lies under oath were important. Clinton was impeached over his handling of an affair with Monica Lewinsky, but was acquitted by the Senate on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Libby was charged with lying to investigators and a grand jury during an investigation of his role in revealing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, wife of an outspoken critic of the war against Iraq. Most Americans, six in 10, say they do not think the news about Libby's indictment has gotten too much coverage.

The concerns about Libby's case come at a time that a growing number of people, 43 percent, now say U.S. and British leaders were mostly lying when they claimed before the Iraq war that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, while an equal number said they were misinformed by bad intelligence.

Previous Comments

ID

171981

Comment

Sure, Libby is currently taking the fall, but James Carroll of the Boston Globe says the problem is, and always has been (since the Nixon administration), Dick Cheney: At world-shaping moments across a generation, Cheney reacted with an instinctive, This is war! He helped turn the War on Poverty into a war on the poor. He helped keep the Cold War going longer than it had to, and when it ended (because of initiatives taken by the other side), Cheney refused to believe it. To keep the US war machine up and running, he found a new justification just in time. With Gulf War I, Cheney ignited Osama bin Laden's burning purpose. Responding to 9/11, Cheney fulfilled bin Laden's purpose by joining him in the war-of-civilizations. Iraq, therefore (including the prewar deceit for which Scooter Libby takes the fall), is simply the last link in the chain of disaster which is the public career of Richard Cheney.

Author

iTodd

Date

2005-11-08T16:22:07-06:00

ID

171982

Comment

Actually, I think it's Lynne Cheney. Dick just does what she says to do. You think I'm kidding? This woman is bad news and flies too far below the radar. I won't deny, though, that Dick Cheney can't point to a success, yet, other than getting his charge to appoint him vice president so his trail of disasters could have have even wider impact. But his wife; watch his wife.

Author

ladd

Date

2005-11-08T16:43:55-06:00

ID

171983

Comment

I'm just glad the public is waking up. I wish it hadn't taken so long, but ... It's remarkable the good will that the wingnut crony-magnums blew. They were given an incredible amount of rope with which to hang themselves, and didn't have to -- but they did. The truth is, you just cannot cover up the severity of an administration (a) lying to get American support for their children going to a war and then (b) outing a CIA agent to cover up the truth when someone was courageous enough to tell it and, oh, (c) doing gymnastics to then cover up those actions and, oh, oh, (d) then saying that the guy indicted (so far) in that conspiracy is a good guy who has served his country well. HOW STUPID DO Y'ALL CRONIES THINK WE ARE??? Not that stupid, that's for sure.

Author

ladd

Date

2005-11-08T16:50:37-06:00