Valerie Plame

Where is St. Patrick now that we need him?

One of the legendary saint's big claims to fame -- other than eventually becoming the nominal excuse for what a friend of mine once called "Mardi Gras for red-haired people with freckles," of course -- is that he is said to have chased all the snakes out of Ireland way back when.

Too bad he's not around today, because we could sure use somebody to chase all the snakes out of Washington. Our own national Babylon-on-the-Potomac is heavily over-infested with them these days, too.

Snakes to the left of us, snakes to the right of us. You can't cross the Mall in D.C. anymore without stepping over (or, preferably, on) some scaly serpent. You can't hit a K Street lobbyist with a wad of hundreds without staring some spineless viper right in the eyes.

And if you happen to work for the VP's office or the DOJ, well, you'll have to look straight up just to watch one of those nasty aspies slither on by over your head. The place really is crawling with snakes, especially after the last six years or so. Those nine guys in the black robes couldn't figure out how to count votes, but they were still adders anyway.

Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes? We hate snakes.

Well ... ok ... Libby was found not-guilty on account of making false statements to the FBI; but he was convicted on 4 others and stands to be in jail for up to 30 years :

Jury convicts Libby on four charges - Politics - MSNBC.com:

Libby faced two counts of perjury, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said he discussed Plame's name with reporters and, fearing prosecution, made up a story to make those discussions seem innocuous.

Libby's defense team said he learned about Plame from Cheney, forgot about it, then learned it again a month later from newsman Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press”. Anything he told reporters about Plame, Libby said, was just chatter and rumors, not official government information.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that was a lie. But Libby's defense team had argued that it would be unfair to convict Libby in a case where so many witnesses changed their stories or had memory problems.

“We think we made an appropriate decision, and we have no regrets,” Fitzgerald told reporters after the verdict was announced.

Dick Cheney though, is still at-large; alebit with a blood clot in his leg waiting to explode.

Snippet of trial documents found at FindLaw.com

I have never been so disinterested in a "big news trial" as I am with the Scooter Libby trial. I'm sorry but, as corrupt as the man is, he is taking the fall for Dick Cheny and Karl Rove. I want to see Dick Cheney's ass on that defendant's seat, not a man with the nickname of a popular children's vehicle.

So, enlighten me. What's hot and what's not about the Libby trial?