On Friday, many Democrats and reporters were disappointed that Karl Rove was not indicted. But they shouldn’t worry too much, because the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby will make for good partisan blood sport — although in years to come, Libby’s case might yet offer cheer to Republicans.
Last Thursday, ABC News’ Ted Koppel spoke of the “expectation” that Rove would be indicted, and the following day The New Republic’s Jason Zengerle described special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s failure to bring in an indictment of Rove as a “letdown.” But reacting quickly to the news, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York flailed at Libby, declaring the alleged actions of Vice President Dick Cheney’s now-former chief of staff to be “reprehensible.” Clinton must be careful, however, because Libby’s past legal career is closely intertwined with her husband’s presidency. During the 1980s and 1990s, Libby was a lawyer for Marc Rich.
And if you don’t remember Marc Rich, you will be reminded of him soon enough. He’s the American financier who skipped out of the United States in 1983, one step ahead of a $48-million tax bill and a 51-count indictment for various skullduggeries, including trading with Iran amid the American hostage crisis. As Rich’s lawyer over the next two decades, Libby collected, by his own estimate, some $2 million in fees.
Wait, there’s more. In January 2001, outgoing President Clinton gave Rich a pardon. Interestingly, Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, donated more than $1 million to Democratic causes around then, including $70,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Libby denied having anything to do with the pardon effort, but admitted he had called Rich on Jan. 22, 2001 — which is to say, after he started working for Cheney — to congratulate him on his getting off. And Libby’s powerful presence inside the White House — his title was assistant to George W. Bush as well chief of staff to Cheney — might help explain why the incoming Bush administration failed to pursue obvious threads of corruption trailing out of President Clinton’s pardon of Rich and other dubious figures.
For his part, Rich shows no signs of behaving better. Still wheeling and dealing out of Switzerland, he is a featured nogoodnik in the new UN report on Saddam Hussein and the UN’s corrupt Oil for Food program. Which is to say, investigators might wish to look into any continuing Libby-Rich links.
But some people in the journalistic world will rightly fear too much investigation of Libby. The New York Times’ Judith Miller, for example, has long had a strangely close connection with Libby — so close Miller went to jail for three months rather than testify about her conversations with him before Fitzgerald’s grand jury. In September, Libby wrote a letter to Miller in jail, part of which reads, “Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.” Was this an affectionate note? Or was Libby sending some sort of coded message to Miller?
In fact, Miller’s boss at The Times worried aloud about Miller’s “entanglement” with Libby. Entangled in what? In some personal relationship? Or an ideological relationship, as they agreed to trumpet phony evidence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction?
Any such revelations probably would damage the Bush-Cheney White House, as well as The Times.
Down the road, however, as we look to the next presidential election, the political leaves might turn brighter for the GOP. How so? Because the federal prosecutor who went after Marc Rich, back in 1983, was one Rudolph Giuliani.
Now suppose Giuliani ends up with the Republican presidential nomination, squaring off against Hillary Rodham Clinton. In their nationally televised debate, Libby would be a mere footnote. But Rich would be an important topic, because neither Bill nor Hillary has ever fully explained his pardon.
So Libby’s case provides a lesson in how Washington, D.C., works. To use his image, when people are so connected in sneaky ways, if one “tree” starts to turn, an entire cluster might fall.
