Weird Justice in the name of Justice

Remember Inspector Jacques Clouseau? He was the bungling French police detective played by Peter Sellers in the ‘Pink Panther’ movies whose approach to solving crimes was very unorthodox to say the least. Well, there is a sequel that played out during the past few years and ended recently right here in America that matches the bungling of the famous Inspector Clouseau. The case is as follows:

An alleged crime is committed in a mansion and brought to the attention of the nation and the world by members of the diligent news media and an individual who claims to have been wronged. Somebody has allegedly intentionally released a tightly guarded secret of national proportions and the police chief decides to have a special taskmaster handle this case. Enter Inspector Jacques Clouseau’s current day cousin Jules: He is given unlimited powers to investigate this alleged crime and find the guilty party. He starts by making a list of all the people who work in and around the mansion and others who could help him break this case, including members of the media who first brought this case to the attention of the people. He then begins interviews with these individuals and he finds out within days that the alleged crime is not really a crime and he also finds out who released this so called “tightly guarded secret”.

So, you would think, this brings the matter to an end and the inspector writes a final report and presents it to the public. But no, Inspector Jules Clouseau keeps on investigating the matter because he wants to make sure while he is on the job no other crimes have been committed. With that, he continues to interview all the previously identified individuals. This includes all the mansion personnel right down to the domestic personnel, i.e., the butler, the cook, the gardeners, the housemaids and so on. Thorough as he is, the Inspector subpoenas them all and once they have answered all his questions, he compares the testimony of them against each other.

Low and behold, he finds out that the butler’s assistant’s testimony does not match the one given by one of the maids. According to the maid, the butler’s assistant never gave her the key to the pantry to get some bread out of the place, yet, the butler’s assistant had stated that he had done so when he was interviewed by the Inspector. Conclusion: The butler’s assistant must have lied and he therefore gets arrested and accused of lying to a police detective. A major offense in the eyes of the Inspector and he therefore brings charges against the “criminal” butler’s assistant. A jury trial commences and the jury finds the man guilty of perjury and he is now awaiting sentencing. He could face several years in prison. Time will tell. Yet, Inspector Jules Clouseau maintains his firm belief that there is still a cloud over the mansion as well as the chief butler.

By now you probably have a smile on your face and think that we have deviated here on this blog for the first time by writing this humorous story. You might also ask: Why are they writing this and what is the reason for it. Allow us to explain:

If you substitute ‘White House’ for mansion; ‘Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’ for Inspector Jules Clouseau’; and ‘Lewis Scooter Libby’ for butler’s assistant; you get the drift because this is what happened in the pursuit of justice when the name of Valerie Plame was mentioned in a July 2003 newspaper article by columnist Robert Novak. All hell broke loose and the White House was charged with a crime having allegedly leaked the name of a covert CIA agent to the media in an attempt to get even with her husband Joe Wilson. The President stated that ‘if anybody who works in the White House has committed this alleged crime, they will no longer be allowed to continue to work there.’ Then Attorney General John Ashcroft wanted to make sure that the investigation was handled independently, he suggested to appoint a Special Prosecutor for this investigation to remain untainted This is how the ball got rolling…..and three and a half years later, we have a guilty party, ergo, Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, the former Chief of Staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

It is definitely not easy to understand the little nuances of what the verdict was all about when a jury in Washington D.C. found Lewis “Scooter” Libby, guilty on four counts of obstructing justice and lying before a Grand Jury and to federal prosecutors. Not that we here at ‘Back to Common Sense’ condone these offenses, we definitely do not! But when one considers it from the perspective of the original purpose of this entire matter, it is truly baffling. Millions of taxpayer’s dollars were spent on pursuing a case that was solved rather early on by the Special Prosecutor. He, Patrick Fitzgerald knew early on that first of all, leaking the name of Valerie Plame was NOT a crime and secondly, the person who had done this was Richard Armitage, Colin Powell’s deputy at the State Department. Fitzgerald learned very early on that there was no conspiracy on the part of the White House to smear an alleged political opponent by exposing his wife’s name to the public and yet he kept right on pursuing a case that was resolved! In fact, Fitzgerald firmly believes that “there is a cloud over the White House”.