VDH:
Do you remember Lewis “Scooter” Libby?
In 2003, the Department of Justice appointed a special counsel to investigate allegations that Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, unlawfully disclosed the covert status of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Yet Plame may not have been a covert undercover agent, based on the formal government definition of that role. And even if she were, it was widely known at the time that Secretary of State Colin Powell’s subordinate, Richard Armitage, had most likely disclosed her status earlier.
In other words, Libby was in an Orwellian position of being accused of a crime that may not have existed. But if it had, it was more likely committed by someone else.
Publicity-seeking special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald persuaded a Washington, D.C., jury to find Libby guilty of obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to federal investigators — not the supposed crimes for which he was originally targeted by the media.
Apparently, the very suspicion of improper behavior by high public servants once warranted vigorous legal inquiry — by supposedly independent and autonomous prosecutors.
In the eight-plus years since the Libby trial, the Obama administration has blown up the law as we have known it for centuries.
Barack Obama once warned Latino activists that he had no legal authority to suspend enforcement of federal immigration law, stop deportations, and offer de facto amnesties.
But that caution was only a campaigning talking point. After his re-election in 2012 and the midterm elections in 2014, Obama made a mockery of immigration law.
Hundreds of liberal sanctuary cities have announced that federal immigration law does not apply to them. That scary, neo-Confederate idea of legal nullification was sanctioned by the Obama administration — in a way it never would have been if a city had suspended the Endangered Species Act, emissions standards, or gun-control legislation.
As a result, once-detained and later-released immigrants with criminal records have murdered innocent American citizens.
Consider the proposed nuclear deal with Iran. By past custom and practice, the nonproliferation agreement would be treated as what it is — a treaty.
But ratifying treaties constitutionally requires 67 yes votes from the Senate. Obama could never obtain that margin. So he managed to downgrade the treaty into a mere legal agreement. Then he claimed that the Senate required 67 no votes to override his veto.
Obama also was worried about the political impact of his new Obamacare legislation on the 2014 midterm elections. So he simply suspended by executive fiat the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Had another president done that to the laws of Obamacare, the Left would have demanded impeachment.
In Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement eased off and allowed a city to burn. But the cause of the rioting — the supposed improper police killing of criminal suspect Michael Brown — was based on the lie that Brown was shot in the back while fleeing. No matter. The ensuing public outrage seemingly exempted arsonists and looters from arrest.
Two of the rules that are driven into your skull during military leadership school are these:
“Never give an order that you know won’t be obeyed”
“Never make a rule that you yourself won’t follow”
Both of these will undermine your authority and encourage rule breaking.
I can’t pin an exact date for the beginning of the fall, but one of the biggest failures was the imposition of the 55mph national speed limit.
The average citizen thought that it was a meaningless law, and refused to obey. The rule of law was ignored by the citizens.
And we began to see publicized that our government rulemakers were ignoring the rules themselves, up to today when politicians and the elite are committing felonies, sometimes on camera (displaying a 30-round magazine on TV in Washington, DC for example) and facing no consequences.
The citizenry see that the ones who are more equal than them can break the laws, so feel no compulsion to obey them themselves.
Our nation is descending into lawless chaos, led by lawless politicians.
(There is more, but I don’t want to write a book)
The ridiculous part of the whole Valerie Plame event is that she had already outed herself amongst the Washington social club.
In a leftist regime addicted to power and control, laws are nothing but an instrument to be used against the enemies of the state (i.e., citizens that do not agree with the liberal agenda).
Curt she wasn’t covert when outed but for decades she WAS covert
Outing her outed all those whom she was ever seen with when she was covert
@John:
I guess then she probably shouldn’t have outed herself among Washington DC’s High society.
@John: #4
“Outing her outed all those whom she was ever seen with when she was covert”
And people were keeping track of all those with whom she was seen back then why?
She was covert, no one would have had any reason to keep track.
Besides, being covert means that you don’t have contact with anyone who is also covert.
Your logic is not logical.
@Ditto: #5
Yeah, IIRC, it was pretty well known of the beltway more-equals that she was using her past to gain status points.
But there is no way our enemies could have known that.
sarc/off.