Sure, "Scooter" Libby might go to jail. His career is in tatters, his life a
shambles. Even Denis Collins, the omnipresent juror-journalist, says he and
his peers feel sympathy for Libby, the "fall guy" in this whole spectacle.
But really, who is the real victim?
Joe and Valerie, of course.
"The golden couple targeted by White House machine," as described by one
British paper, have had to put up with so much. There's no need to dwell on
the hardships faced by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV: that arduous
junket to Niger helped along by his wife, Valerie Plame; the endless cups of
sweet mint tea he had to drink; the awkwardness that his findings, as
briefed to the CIA, supported President Bush's famous "16 words" although
Wilson said the exact opposite on the New York Times Op-Ed page and in 12
trillion television studios.
A man of less mettle might grow frustrated with the effrontery of the
Washington Post calling him a liar, a blowhard and the real destroyer of his
wife's career. Simply because it's true hardly justifies stepping on his
story line. Don't they know he's the author of a book, "The Politics of
Truth," and a winner of awards for his self-proclaimed courage for "speaking
truth to power"? Why should a bipartisan Senate intelligence report
cataloging his dishonesty and distortions stand against a man with such
important hair?
The Great Dissenter's burden doesn't end there. Joe wanted to appear on
equal footing, as befits his stature, with Katie Couric on "Today." Instead
he was stuck in D.C., and his "one chance to sit face to face with America's
sweetheart" was dashed. And it must have been those cheap partisans who
forced the ambassador to sell himself to the John Kerry campaign, to call
for the frog-marching of Karl Rove, to call Weekly Standard editor Bill
Kristol a "drunk." Joe's a statesman, darn it!
Then there's our gal Val. Oh, the price she's paid. Almost every night, the
ex-CIA officer has to see file footage of herself in that stunning white
gown and those tiresome pictures of her and Joe posing in their Jaguar for
Vanity Fair. CNN ran a segment comparing her to James Bond and Mata Hari.
The comparison wasn't perfect, CNN said: "Mata Hari supposedly blew a kiss
to the firing squad that executed her. Valerie Plame seems more inclined to
kiss her husband." It's right about that. Plame told Vanity Fair she spilled
the beans about her CIA status after her third - or fourth! - makeout
session with Joe "The Animal" Wilson. Thank goodness al-Qaida doesn't read
Vanity Fair. Not only would they find out what Plame looks like, they might
discover Joe's remarkable interrogation technique.