John Podhoretz On The Libby Lynching

"...Yesterday, the anti-Libby partisans were thrilled with the first bit of testimony by an FBI agent who interviewed Libby in 2003. "I'm reading and I'm not quite believing it," said one poster at the Fire Dog Lake site, "but yes, it does seem like Scooter is toast." Then Libby's lawyers rose to interview the agent - and the pro-Libby folks instantly rose from the depths of despair to the unshakable sense that their man would be acquitted.

It would be impossible in fewer than a thousand words to explain how Libby's lawyers made FBI interviewer Deborah Bond look bad, but they did.

And since she was the final witness of the week in the Libby case, one poster at the Just One Minute site crowed: "The jury leaves with the taste and smell of burned Feeb."

"Feeb" is a pretty crude way to refer to an FBI agent just because she's testifying against the guy you're rooting for. But it's become the habit of those consumed with this case's details to depersonalize their "enemies" - meaning not only Libby or Fitzgerald, but also their witnesses, fellow lawyers and the like.

Maybe that's because the case against Scooter Libby is so astoundingly petty that arguing over it is like arguing over scraps."

"Feeb" is a perfectly good colloquial appellation to hang upon, well, a Feeb. Blogging, and the comments from readers, can hardly be described as an excercise in Marquis of Queensbury tit-for-tat, but what bothers me most is Podhoretz cloaking a Feeb within an aura of superiority merely because said Feeb happens to work for the Feebish FBI.

It's not polite to refer to an FBI agent thusly? Whoa. Seems like Mr. J-Pod has been confusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the Gestapo. Here, you see, we can call our public servants anything we want. In fact it's our duty to call a Feeb a Feeb, or perhaps that whole Revolution thing was just a bad mistake.

Great scott but I tire of mealy-mouthed "Conservatives" who wouldn't say shit if they stepped in it.

The trial itself? I believe Libby should be convicted of having one poor ass recollection, and be sentenced to ingest mass quantities of Ginseng, and what's the name of that other memory aid, I forget...