Libby: I'm just too important to tell the truth

The Baltimore Sun gets it just about right.

WASHINGTON // As chief of staff to one of the most powerful figures on Earth, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was immersed in some of the most sensitive and weighty matters affecting the nation.

Now Libby is seeking to use the profundity of his former responsibilities as a mitigating factor as he prepares for a criminal trial in the unmasking of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby contends that any alleged lack of truth-telling was inadvertent, the product of his own preoccupation with life-and-death matters of state.

It's a provocative strategy that some experts say could rub a jury the wrong way by suggesting that he is above the law…

Now, where do you suppose he would get an idea like that?