Scooter Libby

Someday I hope we'll get to tell our kids what the hell this meant:

"You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover — Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work — and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers. With admiration, Scooter Libby."


(The link is to a really great Sydney Schanberg essay in the Village Voice that includes a link to a PDF of the Libby letter...but, no, he doesn't know either...fwiw, Swopa's got the common sense view...and my money.)

Comments

kid oakland said…
I think the parts of Scooter's letter where he tries to "guide" her testimony are the key parts:

-what we talked about in July
-I did not discuss Plame etc. etc.

But this aspens in clusters crap....

that's rich. You couldn't make that up for a million years...it's just really bizarre.
kid oakland said…
lol.

Now it links to another piece of yours, which, imo, also has some nice deductive sleuthing....

cheers.
&y said…
For what it's worth (not much) Scooter's missive did prompt me to read up on aspen trees:

All the aspens (including White Poplar) typically grow in large colonies derived from a single seedling, and spreading by means of root suckers; new stems in the colony may appear at up to 30-40 m from the parent tree. Each tree only lives for 40-150 years above ground, but the root system of the colony is long-lived, in some cases for many thousands of years, sending up new trunks as the older trunks die off above ground.

That was news to me, so I guess I learned something. That part about "many thousands of years" kinda wigs me out. How long have we had neocons so far? And does all this imply that Judith Miller is a "root sucker?"

---------------

It occurs to me, the letter could be turned into a lame-ass, semi-scanning blues (imagine a harmonica's "waa wa-wa-wa waah" at the end of each line):

You were jailed in the summer
And now it's fall
You'll have stories to cover
Bombs and threats bio-logical

Out where you vacation
Way out in the west
The aspens are turning
'Cause the roots, they connect

Come back to work, Judy
Not later but sooner
Remembering you in my prayers
With admiration, Scooter

With apologies to all those who sing and appreciate the blues.
Matt said…
LOL. Reading your lyrics reminded me of Death Letter Blues by Son House.

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