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I've read a lot of theories about what Scooter Libby meant when he wrote "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work -- and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers" to Judith Miller.
I think Libby was attempting to wax poetic, so a little pseudo-literary criticism seems appropriate. I would guess that when Libby wrote that, he was expressing his anxiety about the future. Libby realizes that he is about to lose his fight to cover up his malicious attacks on Wilson. He senses that it is futile to continue to struggle. He is saying that he might as well face the inevitable: that he will be called to answer for what he did.
In poetry and literature, autumn and the turning of the leaves are used to symbolize the approach of an end even death. Autumn is a beautiful, but sad time of year. The aspens evoke the Russian winters, the cold, the majestic, silent and very lonely beauty of forests in a severe climate.
Libby points out that the aspen leaves turn in clusters. Similarly, the reporters in whom Libby and others in the White House confided, have, as a group, "turned in" those who first told them about Plame. Libby's remark about the roots may refer to Fitzgerald's apparent focus not just on Libby, but to a cluster of conspirators who are connected by their roots, that is, by their common goals, methodologies, acts and crimes. Libby is telling Judith Miller that there is no point in her continuing to refuse to cooperate with the prosecutor. His fate is as inevitable as the turning of the leaves in autumn.
Libby is not young. He knows the price he may pay. He will not easily recover from a serious attack on his reputation. His career is being seriously damaged even if he is not indicted or convicted.
I do not know Libby, but, if he is inclined to depression, this letter suggests that he might be headed toward it if he is not already suffering from it. He may suspect that someone is going to be blamed and it's either going to be him or Rove. He may believe that he will lose the contest. I would not put it past Bush to double cross Cheney's man to save his own Rove. Anger or disgust at knowing Libby is being left to hang in the wind could explain Cheney's silence and absence since at least August if not earlier. Maybe there's a riff in the White House. Maybe Cheney has been betrayed.
Anyway, someone suggested that these lines in Libby's letter are anagrams. That's as good a guess as any. So, in the same spirit, this is my reading of the aspen leaves.
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