More Opinions Columnists

• V.B. Price: Preserving our water is greatest challenge the city, state faces
• Jeffry Gardner: End of The Trib is part of the demise of serious journalism
• Katherine Augustine: Time with friends from Japan provides treasured memories

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

The paint had hardly dried on my "Free Scooter Now!" protest sign when President Bush commuted the sentence of the former aide to the Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Libby was found guilty on dubious charges of obstructing justice and lying to a grand jury, born of his outing of Central Intelligence Agency agent Valerie Plame, now of Santa Fe. Apparently riding a desk in Langley, Va., is so undercover that only gossip columnists and Vanity Fair photographers were allowed access to her double-naught spy status.

It matters little that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was Republican-appointed. In Washington, working against this administration is a rite of passage for many, and Fitzgerald proved to have an affinity for the media. That makes for sparkling jurisprudence, doesn't it?

From the get-go there's been an air of scam to this ordeal, led first and foremost by Valerie Plame's shamelessly self-promoting husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who labored overtime to spin their side of this yarn.

Wilson went to great lengths to portray his bride as a valued, deep-cover agent. This has been debated throughout the course of this entire goat rodeo.

The president's decision to commute Libby's prison sentence has put Wilson back where he likes to be - hanging out with friends like Matt Lauer on "The Today Show" and such, crying about the injustice of it all.

We do have experience, of course, with high-level government officials outing real operatives. In the mid-1980s, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, leaked information he had access to as vice chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee - an act his critics said ultimately led to the killing of a CIA asset in Egypt. That Leahy today sits as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee speaks to how well justice was served in that case. Few, if anyone, on the left is concerned with this hypocrisy.

Then there are the Clintons. As first lady, Hillary Clinton, among other things, ransacked hundreds of FBI files. Oddly, only Republican files were reviewed. Today she's the leading Democratic candidate for president.

And the impeachment charges brought against that dynamo of integrity, William Jefferson Clinton, stemmed from his lying to a grand jury and obstructing justice - sound familiar? - not with whom or how he smoked or didn't smoke cigars.

Today one imagines Bill licking his chops at the chance to return to his old hunting grounds, this time as first gentleman.

The litany of justice failed throughout the Clinton years was staggering. He added a little assault on the federal judiciary and our national reverence for the law and the American sense of justice of his own, pardoning and commuting more than 140 felons his final night in office. To have a look at how justice was served, go to usdoj.gov and search for "Clinton pardons."

Commuting Libby's 30-month prison term was hardly an outrage. Frankly, justice in such cases is a lot like beauty: Whether it is served is truly in the eye of the beholder.