You need a scorecard to keep track of "who's on first" in the Scooter Libby trial ...

versus



It now appears clear that the (former) Bush-man I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby is in deep kim chee for his leaking Valerie Plame's identity to the press, but who is the real culprit, who is the real victim and ... will Mr. Cheney ever actually testify?

Although I certainly see both Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame as "victims" and yes, "scooter" is one of the culprits (along with Mr. Rove) ... the facts seem clear that Mr. Cheney is the guy who was (and still is) behind the entire affair and it (the leaking of Ms. Plame's name to the press) was done to punish Joe Wilson for his having told the truth to the American public about the primary reason given for invading Iraq in the first place.

The victim -- or victims?

Well, besides the Iraqi civilians who are suffering terribly ... and the American people who are paying for the war to the tune of about a billion dollars each and every day, the real victims are shown in the photo below.



Heroes? Well, Patrick Fitzgerald for one, I suppose. He is clearly one of the most competent prosecutors in the United States and has spent two and a half years working on the case. He's a workaholic who has slept in his office, piled up dirty laundry and fast food leftovers in his file cabinets and is slowly pulling the rat out of its (his) hole by its (his) ugly tail. My brother in Connecticut compares Mr. Fitzgerald to Elliott Ness from earlier, more black-and-white days in America. Of course, the Bush administration is fighting to avoid Libby's conviction and is struggling in these sad February days to avoid at least this one last humiliation -- the conviction of one of its top officials and leaving the lingering specter of a clear and resolute finger pointing at the #2 guy in the country.

And oh yes, that last question ... will Dick Cheney ever testify? Not on your (or my) sweet bippy! Mr. Libby will take the bullet this time without even going hunting with Mr. Cheney.

And our boys and girls continue to die in this awful war at a rate of about three and a half per day ...

And those are human lives!