Today, however, is not the time to analyze or to debate. And it is certainly not a day to celebrate. Today is a sad day for America. When an indictment is delivered at the front door of the White House, the Office of the President is defiled. No citizen can take pleasure from that.

(Via Buzzflash.)

With Atrios's introduction:

Certainly it's nice to see the wheels of justice actually turning in the right direction for once, and it is cause for celebration, but Sen. Kennedy reminds us what this is about:

Today is an ominous day for the country, signifying a new low since Watergate in terms of openness and honesty in our government. This is far more than an indictment of an individual. In effect it’s an indictment of the vicious and devious tactics used by the Administration to justify a war we never should have fought. It’s an indictment of the lengths Administration officials were willing to go to cover up their failed intelligence, their distortion on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and their serious blunders on the war. It is an indictment of their vindictive efforts to discredit anyone who challenge their misrepresentations.

If there's any cause for celebration, it's that the Bush Administration has not yet succeeded in completely shutting down legal accountability for their unprecedented and monstrous deeds - but they're still trying. CNN has had GOP hack Joe DiGenova on all morning, and he's just been spewing veiled threats right and left - there's no "substantive" crime, Libby can't be convicted unless reporters testify and they'd better realize that they shouldn't, the CIA should be indicted for not protecting Valerie Wilson - the normal bullshit about how it's everyone else's fault except the people, like Libby, who lied to the country and then lied to investigators and under oath who were trying to figure it out.

Tom DeLay calls this the "criminalization of conservative politics." Since "conservative politics" in DeLay's era has meant "lie to get what you want, and if caught, lie about the lies, and if that's caught, lie about lying about the lies," DeLay is probably right, with one important caveat. If you lie to investigators or under oath, it's a felony. Conservative politics, as DeLay and his corrupt bunch have been conducting it, is criminal when the lies come under oath or to agents of the Federal Government.

Or, as I told Mom about what the GOP is calling the piddly little charge of lying to investigators, "If it's good enough to convict Martha Stewart, it's good enough for Scooter Libby."