This whole Scooter Libby thing is an ugly reminder of how the crooks and liars currently wielding power in Bush's administration cannot see how their own crimes are viewed by the rest of us outside the Beltway.

"Libby, however, refused to show remorse. He offered no contrition, only an
exercise in victimhood. Like the child who has killed his parents and demands
mercy for being an orphan, Libby tried to murder the truth and then got dozens
of people to plead for leniency based on his good character."

Sidney Blumenthal's excellent analysis of this pathetic spectacle points out very clearly the profound moral blindness of so many involved in this case. Yet there is another aspect of this episode not talked about so much. Former prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega draws attention to the danger that an outraged public might be distracted from the systemic abuse of power by this administration through too narrow a focus on the prosecution of relatively minor players.

We must not forget, De la Vega argues, "the interest the public has in ensuring -- no, demanding -- that Congress rein in the executive abuse of power that spawned the Iraq War, and so the smear campaign against Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson. Indeed, it is worse than illusory; it is actually quite dangerous in the long-term for the public to believe that the work of prosecutors and prosecutions can substitute for the work of Congress.
No, I am not decrying the "criminalization of politics" (as those on the right are so fond of doing). There are times -- and this is one example -- when our government officials have committed crimes and must be prosecuted. Nonetheless, the prosecution of those crimes, however expertly done, is a focused, precise task. To expect a federal prosecutor to remedy the gravely dysfunctional government that we currently have through one, or even many, criminal prosecutions is like expecting an orthopedic surgeon to cure a patient's multiple organ failure by setting a broken arm."

Those of us who worked so hard for change through the elections of 2006 must keep the pressure on Congress to rein in this gang of thieves in the White House. It won't be easy, but it has to be done.