It still has little to do with Scooter

Howard Fineman agrees:
Libby verdict really about Iraq War and Cheney
Question now arises: What - and whom - was Libby lying to protect?

WASHINGTON — The ramifications of the stunning, vehement verdict in the Scooter Libby trial - that he lied, repeatedly, big time - aren't really about Scooter Libby at all. They are about how and why we went to war in Iraq, and about how Vice President Dick Cheney got us there. Loyalty is everything to President George W. Bush, and I don’t expect him to march into Cheney’s office to demand a resignation. But the veep is a liability as never before, and even Bush has to know that.

For those on the right who say it's unfair and really doesn't matter, it does - in fact it's "stunning".

Expect the Democrats and their anti-war allies to do something that they have not quite had the specific legal justification to do until now: use the “L word”. They will conflate two things – lying about evidence for war and lying to Patrick Fitzgerald – but no matter. They will use the Libby verdict to pump up the volume.

But the biggest burden will fall on Cheney himself. His own Hobbesian view of the world – that life is nasty, brutish and short – is becoming all too personal. He had to be relieved that Prosecutor Fitzgerald described his investigation as “inactive.” That would seem to mean that Cheney is in no legal jeopardy.

But if we have the “L word” can the I word be far behind?