The five counts against Scooter Libby is a high five for those of us who have been saying (ad nauseum, ad infinitum) that the heart of Plamegate has always been the way this administration did everything in its power to cover up the lies and deceptions it used to lead us into a reckless and unnecessary war.
2 counts of perjury. 2 counts of making false statements. 1 count of obstruction of justice. These charges will keep the focus squarely on the cover up and will allow the American people to finally get a look into the nuts and bolts of how the White House Iraq Group marketed the war.
The lies that led us to war -- and the lies used to cover up those lies -- are about to go prime time. Stockpiles of WMD, Niger yellowcake, aluminum tubes, smoking guns that are mushroom clouds, unmanned drones, chemical weapons ready to launch in 45 minutes, "slam dunk" intel. These will all at long last get the through public going-over they never got.
As David Gergen -- as reliable a source of the convention wisdom as you can find -- put it last night: "If there are indictments, it will not only be people close to the president, the vice president of the United States, but they will raise questions about whether criminal acts were perpetrated to help get the country into war."
Libby's indictment, far from the culmination of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation, is just the beginning.
Stay tuned...