Thank you Sean Hannity

Yea, you read that right. I’d like to thank Hannity for performing a valuable public service by having Harriet Grant (above, right), the wife of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on his radio show last Friday. Why? Because her appearance on Hannity’s show shattered to pieces what little sympathy I had for her husband.

I’ve heard of people maintaining innocence, and even a loyal spouse doing the same. One expects nothing different during a highly publicized trial like the Libby case, where her husband's freedom is at stake. But Grant took playing the victim to a whole new level last Friday, describing how her two children didn’t understand "why daddy is going to jail" and how she cried "for two days."

How about explaining to the kids how daddy helped to spread unlawful facts about an undercover agent that helps keep our country safe from the bad men?

Of course, Hannity, the master manipulator, played her appearance to the hilt, hanging on her every word while milking the perception that he’s one of the few voices in the media not railroading the Libby family.

Honestly, I was sick to my stomach listening to it. To hear Hannity and Libby’s wife tell it, Scooter just got caught up in events; Libby did nothing wrong or intentional.

Anyone who has done any reading on this administration knows it plays for keeps and that no one, from Bush and Cheney to their loyal soldiers, are too innocent to be above spreading a smear to settle a political score. And that’s exactly what the Valerie Plame case is all about – exacting revenge on former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for his harsh words on the administration Iraq policy and eventual war.

I don’t know every single fact in the case, nor will I ever know everything. But, I know enough to know that Libby was a willing participant, not an innocent bystander.

For Libby’s wife to even insinuate that Libby was a victim of circumstances and caught up in events is absurd. He could have blown the whistle, quit, put up a fight, etc. I’m yet to read evidence that Libby was anything more than a partisan political operative. How could he not be described that way, having served as Cheney’s chief of staff for over five years? An even passive follower of U.S. politics knows that Cheney is one of the most powerful, partisan vice presidents in history.

What’s more, lost in the case is that Libby lied. He wasn’t convicted of outing Plame – those charges could have and should be filed against his superiors, Cheney and even Rove. (Perhaps they will be.)

When are people going to learn that it’s the lie that gets you? The outing of Plame, outrageous and illegal in its own right, is one thing. It’s quite another to willfully lie to the justice department and a grand jury investigating that matter, whether Libby played a role in the incident or not. Covering up for the responsible people is just as bad as the act itself, in my eyes.

A few things about lying to a grand jury, too: I’m already tired of hearing about the Libby/Clinton comparisons. First of all, Clinton lied about a private, personal matter that he never should have been questioned about in the first place. But, I’m not interested in reliving political rubbish from the 1990s.

Libby apologists keep bringing up Clinton, but when Libby chose to lie to a grand jury, it was about the intentional outing of a CIA agent. The Plame case is about federal agents’ lives being put in danger. Clinton’s dishonestly doesn’t even approach that.

Another word on Hannity

For a college drop-out, Hannity’s wise in one regard – he’ll probably never “pull a Coulter” by calling John Edwards a faggot, or saying the 9-11 widows enjoy their deaths. His uses his voice inflection and tone to make his intolerant points.

My favorite example is when Hannity (above) and others on Fox News mention Barack Obama – they’ll say Barack HUSSEIN Obama, obnoxiously stressing "Hussein." When critics point this out, they simply shrug and say, "That’s his name, isn’t it?"

Fox and its hosts’ agenda for smearing Democrats isn’t fooling anyone, except the sheep who have to listen to partisan hacks like Hannity to discover what political views they are supposed to have.