The Left Spawns the Libby Legend

Slate writers theorize that Cheney was the real leaker and that Libby is simply falling on his sword. Listen for yourself.

During the Miers debate it was very difficult for those entrenched on the left to understand what the beef was? Now we see things in reverse. While conservatives recognize that there are serious issues facing Libby many of us can't comprehend the epic tale being spun on the left.

From what I gather it goes something like this:

Dick Cheney was pissed at the CIA. In fact the White House and most conservatives are paranoid about the CIA undermining their war efforts.

For Cheney and company, Joe Wilson's whistle blowing was the latest example of an agency run amok... so Cheney decides to get even while at the same time trying to undermine Wilson's claims. Cheney twists the facts chalking up Wilson's Niger trip to nepotism. (Conservatives claim that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame gave him the job. No! She merely recommended him for the job).

To dish out this dirty political trick he asks his loyal lieutenant, Scooter Libby to mete out the information. Libby is meticulous and noted for his decorum, not at all the vindictive revenge seeker that Cheney is.

Libby dishes out the information to a few select reporters.

Fast forward: the special prosecutor comes to play. Cheney knows the gig is up and Libby tries to throw off the charge of "leaking" by falling on the sword and giving false testimony, thus protecting the VP.

Fast forward some more: During his trial Libby finally gives in to protect his own hide and admits the VP was the leak. Cheney is forced to give over documents after a vicious executive privilege suit. Documents reveal the extent of forgeries and lying that came about to get us into the Iraq war, leading to more special prosecutors and eventually leading to President Bush's impeachment.

UPDATE: After a couple of posts I got a response from a lefty on Daily Kos:

that's about it. You did leave out the part about the "leaking" being a crime. We on the left also think the whole "twisting intelligence to get us into Iraq" thing kinda sucks, especially since it turns out that everything the administration ignored in the run-up to Iraq keeps coming back to bite us on the collective American ass (I want to really focus on that image).

Also, it wasn't "just" Cheney and/or Libby involved here, nor even just the upper layers of the Bush administration, but an "unholy alliance" of "special" ideological and business interests that should not have such direct influence over the governance of our putative democracy. That tends to get us a bit worked up, too. (Neocons and Evangelicals and Energy Companies, oh my! and also major civilian defense contractors, especially those starting with the letter "H" and ending with "burton").

Seriously, though, I appreciate your efforts to get another perspective. Since I'm neither a Democrat nor a typical American lefty, I may not be qualified to help here, but I thought I'd try. I like to think of politics as a loop (or probably a fractal) rather than a straight line spectrum running from left to right. That way I can picture myself as living politically at that point where left and right converge directly across from/opposed to the political "moderate." Sort of a revolutionary techno-Luddite.

At any rate, my greatest Pollyanna fantasy of Fitzmas is that the seriousness of the issues around the scandal might actually bring all of us out of our ideological hiding holes and force us to work toward some consensus of what we want our country to be. I mean, honestly, it can't be just a "left thing" to think that our President shouldn't lie us into war unnecessarily?
see here

Bottom line: know your enemy.