Scooter Libby - Government Public Service and Political Career

Government Public Service and Political Career

In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, according to his official U.S. State Department biography, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985, he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.

During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992–1993. In 1992, he also served as legal advisor for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.

Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans" — its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997). He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".

Further information: Project for the New American Century#"Fundamental propositions" and Project for the New American Century#Rebuilding America's Defenses

After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination. He was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."

Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001–2003). At various points in his career, Libby has also held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal advisor to the United States House of Representatives, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.

Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli-Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004. Former British Foreign Secretary (2001–2006), current Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw said of Libby: "It's a toss-up whether is working for the Israelis or the Americans on any given day." In their highly controversial and widely contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).

Further information: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

On June 5, 2007, after Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Libby, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) Washington, D.C. bureau chief Ron Kampeas observed that former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician and writer Natan Sharansky was one of many "Jews pleading leniency for Libby - without success", and that Arye Genger, who served as a liaison between Sharon and the Bush administration, credited Libby with trying to reduce civilian casualties among Israelis and Palestinians during the second intifada. According to the JTA, "Libby is Jewish, and a significant portion of those who had pleaded with the judge for a lenient sentence are leaders in Washington's Middle East policy community."