Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Cheney and Rove: The O.J. Outcome

Just as O.J. Simpson escaped conviction in his criminal trial, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove have dodged the bullet in the Libby prosecution.

But just as O.J. was called to account in the Goldman family’s civil suit, the Wilsons may get similar satisfaction in their action against Cheney, Rove, Libby, Armitage and unnamed others for “intentional and malicious exposure.”

The Goldmans were awarded $8.5 million (still uncollected), but they got the satisfaction of having a jury brand O.J. as liable for their son’s death.

The Wilsons are seeking the same kind of vindication, money aside. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wilson’s $2.5 million advance for her memoir will ease the financial pain.

A haunting aspect of the case is the utter stupidity of exposing Valerie Plame. In the New York Times OpEd piece that set it all off, Wilson wrote, “In February 2002 I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office had questions about a particular intelligence report.”

If Cheney and/or Libby prompted Wilson’s trip, how on earth could exposing his wife discredit him? The sheer spite of it boggles.

No comments: