Comparing Rita and Libby

The blogosphere has been been working quite hard to draw comparisons between the cases of Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Victor Rita. A public defender finds "striking similarities" between the two cases. Washington Monthy calls it all an "apples to apples comparison." The Huffington Post finds the similarities "fascinating." Doug Berman more modestly says Libby's case "resembles in various ways" the Rita case. Of course, the finding of similarities between the two is supposed to toss one into the inevitable conclusion that Rita's 33 month sentence should also be commuted by President Bush, or Bush is truly playing favorites.

Frankly, I have always been somewhat suspicious of Rita and Libby comparisons that I have seen because none of them were really head-turning. Indeed, their most notable characteristic is how unimpressive they are. They just never left me thinking to myself, "Wow! That is really something." About the most one ever finds in the comparisons is that the two men were charged with similar crimes and received similar sentences. After that, well, it always seems to kind of fall off quickly... "he served in the military with honor," etc. I mean, nothing wrong with that. But that sort of thing looks much better at the back end of a much longer list of truly striking parallels. Here are some differences that seem relevant to me, and several other bloggers out there:

Libby: Convicted on 4 counts
Rita: Convicted on 5 counts

Libby: Acquitted on one count
Rita: Found guilty on all counts

Libby: Department of Probation recommended no prison time
Rita: Recommendation of 33 to 41 months

Libby: Sentenced to 3o months in prison
Rita: Sentenced to 33 months in prison

Libby: No criminal record.
Rita: Previous conviction. 1986. 5 years probation

Libby: No underlying crime
Rita: An underlying crime and additional indictments

Libby: An argument that the investigation and prosecution were political from the get-go
Rita: No such concerns