Letter: Brooks’ column just a conservative rant

Friday, July 6, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

As an avid reader of the Las Vegas Sun, I have enjoyed a newspaper that does not have a "conservative" slant, but rather a more balanced point of view. So it was with some irritation that I read the column by The New York Times' David Brooks that appeared in the Sun's July 4 edition.

Brooks' characterization of the outing of a CIA operative during a time of war as political theater was just another howling conservative downplaying the seriousness of what "Scooter" Libby did.

Libby obstructed justice. He lied to a special prosecutor in such a way as to throw sand into the eyes of the investigation. Patrick Fitzgerald did a poor job by not indicting former State Department official Richard Armitage, as well as anyone else involved in the horrendous act of outing a covert CIA operative. By the way, she was indeed a covert operative who was working on weapons of mass destruction, a point that the conservatives refuse to acknowledge. In any case, Fitzgerald's investigation was consciously obstructed by the lies of Libby.

If one of Vice President Al Gore's advisers had leaked information that exposed a covert CIA agent during a time of war, the conservatives would have been squealing like a bunch of terrified pigs. They would have characterized this whole affair as treason . Imagine the outrage once that person had been convicted in a court of law. Then imagine how they would have exploded if Bill Clinton then commuted the sentence .

The hypocrisy of the conservatives is astounding .

Back in the day, conservatives were really hard - core when it came to demanding stiff sentences , and they would castigate any judge who was soft. Conservatives used to stand for law and order.

I am just disappointed that the only newspaper in Las Vegas that I read has allowed this trash to be printed. I get enough of this nasty and misleading diatribe from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Tony Chester, Las Vegas