Libby should get "as much time as Patrick Leahy, who did the same thing,

[CTyankee]

but Leahy cost lives."

That was a freeper quoted in today's New Haven Register in answer to a phone-in "Sound off". The question of the day was: "How much jail time should Scooter Libby get?"

WTF? What exactly did Patrick Leahy do?

[rodeodance]

1. geesh! I have NO idea as to whe he would be referring to!!

[salin]

2. probably talked about one of the illegal bushco spying programs?

but did so AFTER the NYT broke the story? Just guessing.

[Jawja]

4. Hunh??

Leahy committed perjury and obstruction of justice? When??

[salin]

9. of course not. But a couple of times when the NYT leaked

illegal behavior of bush (like the nsa fisaless electronic survellience) he spoke out on the issue and the wingnutjobs screamed that the Times and anyone else who uttered words about the story were guilty of treason. Just guessing that the ridiculous comparison is related to one of those rwingnut rants.

[CTyankee]

6. I faintly remember a minor dust up about that

Here, folks, just another "talking point" the RW nuts are trying out on the public. Trying desperately to see if something sticks.

[lisa58]

3. I don't know what they could be referring to either n/t

[EstimatedProphet]

5. He was convicted of being a Liberal without a license

[nuxvomica]

7. It may be for publicly discussing secret CIA prisons in Europe

That's just a guess, though. I can't think of how that could've cost any lives. There's a big difference between talking about a program and connecting the dots to specific undercover resources, as occurred in the Plame case.

[salin]

10. and not to mention that this story was broken... in the press

not by Leahy. I was guessing it was tied to the nsa spying story. I agree it has to be in reference to one of those stories that the wingnuts screamed about - not about the admins illegal behavior but calling out critics who spoke on the issues.

[Lint Head]

8. Typical

It's typical. Re-Pubic-Rats make shit up! It's called lying.

:dem:

[maine_raptor]

11. Just another confused freeper.

I think what he/she/it might be referring to was the disclosure that the NSA had been listening in on OBL's cell phone calls (this came shortly after 9/11).

However IIRC the senator in question was not Leahy, but Hatch.

[DefenseLawyer]

12. Well duh

We all remember when Senator Leahy was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice and convicted after a lengthy high profile trial. It was in all the papers, here on Bizarro World anyway.

[razorman]

13. If I remember correctly,

Leahy was forced to step down from the Senate Intelligence Committee after leaking classified info to the NY Times during the Iran-Contra scandal. It was a long time ago, so it is understandable that many here would not know about it. Before their time.

[maine_raptor]

14. You might be right. I had forgotten that.

Hard to tell from such a pity quote in the OP.

If that's the case, then someone ought to do a voice-print of the call and check it against Ollie's.

[nuxvomica]

15. That's probably it

from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Leahy
In 1987, Leahy resigned from his position as Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after an investigation into an alleged leak to a reporter regarding information. the information released by Leahy was not classified and it was determined there was no ethical or criminal violation.

The wingnut probably assumes everyone thinks of that at the mention of Leahy's name.

[CTyankee]

16. Thanks! I always know I can count on DUers to find these things out.

We need to know how to defend ourselves against insane RW attacks.

[spanone]

17. Shut Up...Leahy was not CONVICTED! of anything.