Patrick Fitzgerald for … Something
In his press conference today, Patrick Fitzgerald noted that Scooter Libby had come to the Plame investigation with a compelling story.
Fitzgerald tells a pretty compelling one, too.
He was a perfect figure for television on Friday afternoon. Well, he was perfect once I switched away from CNN, which was doing one of those split-screen crazy quilts that start giving me a headache, to a channel that was content to fill most of the screen with Fitzgerald talking.
He came across as a straight talker. As someone who was obsessed with fact, and with the law, and with doing what he had been instructed to do.
I realize that could all be a cagey performance, although most accounts I have read about Fitzgerald have been admiring. I admit that Libby has proclaimed his innocence, and that the guys in the White House are pushing the presumption-of-innocence line, and that he could yet beat these five raps in court. But all those things also applied to O.J. Simpson, and I still think he was guilty of something.
But for here, I'm going to stick to what I saw on TV. And what I saw was a guy I liked. A guy who managed to strike several notes of idealism while describing a trail of wrongdoing. Nothing sneering, nothing smirky. That I might think about voting for him for something.
Then I reminded myself that I had no idea of what Fitzgerald's political positions are. That I liked him because of what I saw on television. So if I voted for him, it would have to be in the TV world.
Maybe he could run for office on "The West Wing" or "Commander in Chief" …
