It happened yesterday in a coffee shop

Yestersay I had a brief, polite conversation with a fellow in a coffee shop. I’d never met him but he saw me reading a paper that headlined Scooter Libby’s indictment.

“That’s awful what he did,” the fellow said. “I hope he gets jail time.”

“We’ll see,” I replied.

“You don’t think he deserves to go to jail?”

“Well, he hasn’t been found guilty of anything. Innocent until proven guilty, right?”

Reader, I’ll bet you have a pretty good idea of what the fellow said next.

“Are you a conservative?”

I started to explain I wasn’t but the look on the fellow’s face convinced me it would be better to move on and say I bet we could both agree the weather was great.

We did, and he was on his way while I returned to my newspaper.

I doubt it occurred to him that what I said about Libby is what most Americans are taught to say about anyone who’s been indicted but not convicted.

But he thought that made me a conservative. Hmm.