Live Blogging the Libby Trial

You will find the best coverage of the Scooter Libby trial on a blog.  Firedoglake.com is live blogging this extravaganza as I write. What does this mean? One of the Firedoglake team is sitting in the media room of the courtroom with a laptop and wireless connection and typing away as testimony is given. Mr. Libby, charged with lying to a grand jury, is on the stand with Tim Russert of Meet the Press scheduled up next. Russert is expected to drive the final nail into Libby's defense. Firedoglake is a blog started by Jane Hamsher, an activist movie producer. A Hollywood type, one might say, except she lives in Oregon. Ariana Huffington of Huffingtonpost.com arranged for the press pass. Firedoglake put out a call for funds from their readers (full disclosure: I contributed $25), Jane rented an apartment and several members of the Firedoglake team arranged to spend a week or two in DC covering the trial. In the blog world there are some considered experts on the Victoria Plame Affair. One of them is Marcy Wheeler, a citizen from Ann Arbor who knows so much about it she wrote a book, just published, called Anatomy of Deceit.
I'm halfway through and it's a very clear exposition of the case and demonstrates, as has the trial, that Patrick Fitzgerald, the Federal Prosecutor, should have been more aggressive in his charges. These people, led by VP Cheney, outed a CIA agent for political purposes—they wanted to destroy the credibility of Plame's husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, who had called bullshit on President Bush's lie about Saddam Hussein's alleged attempt to get uranium from Africa. It's a sordid story of abuse of power and one we should all being paying much attention to. The bloggers for Firedoglake aren't lightweights. Marcy Wheeler has a Ph'd studying citizen journalism in the times of heavy propaganda. Christy Hardin Smith, who covered the first week of the trial before having to return home to take care of her child is a former prosecutor. Jerrilyn Merritt is another attorney who has written extensively about the Plame Affair and Libby and VP Cheney's role. Jane Hamsher had surgery just three weeks ago for breast cancer but is in the courtroom this week looking bright and perky in a black beret. You can watch Jane and a guy named Swopa here. One of the real problems with the Libby trial is that so much of the mainstream media is carrying a heavy load of baggage having carried water for the Administration in the run up to the Iraq War and in the outing of Valerie Plame. Marcy Wheeler has written down the first half of the story in her book. The rest of the story is playing out in a Washington DC courtroom and the bloggers are on the job reporting what it means.