A day with Patrick Fitzgerald

What a privilege to have a press pass to the Libby/CIA trial.

Since my father was the city prosecutor, I have a great respect for the law and its deliberative approach to discerning the truth. I tend to favor the prosecution because of this, which makes me not the ideal jury candidate :)

I arrived at Prettyman Courthouse at 8am with only a couple of other people there at that early hour. Have since learned not to give any details about fellow journalists, it's not the accepted etiquette. They can get in trouble if their employers learn that they have been discussing things with other people, i.e., giving away product for free I guess.

But to speak in generalities, the media people were just great. There were differences of opinion yet everyone worked in an atmosphere of congeniality. I compare it to a gathering of ambassadors: you encounter representatives of rival nations, yet you share the same profession, so you have something in common.

I met many people including the Post's Dan Froomkin, who lives up to his reputation as one who is interested in the true story. He disagrees with people but cordially. Have we lost the ability to disagree without being disagreeable? Some of my fellow bloggers would do well to learn from his example of kindness.

For the record David Shuster is very cool. A great guy. The kind of person you are glad you met, the neighbor you hope to have, the man you want your daughter to marry. Integrity plus. Whatever it is he has gone thru, he is the better man for it. And we are the lucky beneficiaries.

Some mainstream media people that I met today are orbiting their own very tiny planets. I will withhold their names to protect the guilty. It wasn't so much a nose in the air---which I understand, they are STARS after all---as an inability to see beyond their existing small worlds. You want to do that, great go be The Little Prince. But spare us your 'wisdom' about matters of war and peace, because you are reading from recycled paper.

Patrick Fitzgerald is a human being. Let me start with that. He clearly hungers for the truth, and for justice. He leans towards the person speaking. He stares into the future. He hurts when things do not go the way of Good. It is a privilege to be on the same planet as such a person, and to speak to him however briefly is my happiness. I said Thank You to him, but I will not describe his reply because I don't want to make him into some kind of an idol, which is forbidden by both Old and New Testaments. But testimony today shows that important people are lying about important matters. I identify with some of them, they remind me of people I went to school with. They are only trying to do their job, and protect their bosses and their administration. Yet while I identify with them, I try to remember that their policies are responsible for the unnecessary deaths of many Americans and many people in the middle East. Judge not, says God; He will judge. I rest my case. I throw this situation His way and beg Him to bless our efforts at obtaining real justice.