The verdict is in, it’s official. The fall guy for the administration, ol’ Scooter Libby, has been found guilty in four of the five charges against him.

Libby was convicted of one count of obstruction, two counts of perjury and one count of lying to the FBI about how he learned Plame’s identity and whom he told. Prosecutors said he learned about Plame from Cheney and others, discussed her name with reporters and, fearing prosecution, made up a story to make those discussions seem innocuous.

The thing is, I don’t think any of us lefties are going to get a heck of a lot of satisfaction out of this result. Most of us only paid attention to the trial to see who else in the upper tier of the administration was going to get fingered. And, most importantly, none of the charges here actually involve the leaking of Plame’s identity. It’s like if someone got convicted of perjury after the OJ trial but OJ stays out of prison.

Of course, I’m not alone in this.

[Denis] Collins, a former Washington Post reporter, said jurors wanted to hear from others involved in the case, including Bush political adviser Karl Rove, who was one of two sources for the original leak. Defense attorneys originally said both Libby and Cheney would be witnesses, and Rove was on the potential witness list.

“I will say there was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury. It was said a number of times, ‘What are we doing with this guy here? Where’s Rove? Where are these other guys?”’ Collins said. “I’m not saying we didn’t think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was — as Mr. Wells put it, he was the fall guy.”

And that’s the core of the issue. Libby was guilty, to be sure, but the whole trial is reminiscent of the Moussaoui business. It’s a distraction, misdirection from the main issue. A White House official leaks the name of a CIA official, yet the guy he told takes the fall. The inherent idiocy of this situation should be apparent.

Well, as Fitzgerald said, it’s over now. Truthfully, I don’t want to see Libby get run up the river. I think he should get the deserved sentence, but this is not a case of burning Libby in effigy for all of the other officials we couldn’t get. Ah well.