Bush’s Brain Indicted?!
Jason Leopold of Truth Out has the details of the story that has yet to break in mainstream media, that a Karl Rove indictment in imminent and that Rove has already notified President Bush that he will resign as soon as Patrick Fitzgerald announces the charges.
This has been a long time coming, to say the least, and an announcement of indictments against Karl Rove will be one more blow to the Bush administration’s credibility (that they have any left to lose is mystifying) and with Rove occupied defending himself against criminal charges, hopefully he will be too busy to meddle in the mid-term elections. Republicans may view this as “just another indictment” and not a big deal, but hopefully Middle America will view it differently.
This is an administration that is rotten at its core, and the lies peddled to justify an invasion of Iraq were hatched at the highest levels of our government and Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and President Bush used the power of their offices to cover up those lies and it seems clear that they committed crimes in the process. Libby and Rove will pay a price, hopefully Cheney and Bush will as well.
At the end of the day, this whole case into the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to the press is really about the Iraq war. Lying our country into an immoral war that has claimed the lives of thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands Iraqi civilians (not to mention billions of dollars and any moral authority we had as a nation) is the true crime, but the cover-up is what will bring them down. Libby and Rove are a start, but Cheney and Bush must follow. Patrick Fitzgerald has taken care of the former, the latter are up to us.
posted by The (liberal)Girl Next Door @ 6:17 PM
11 Comments:
The rumor mill is speculating that Fitz is going after Cheney, too... with the possibility that Rove is giving evidence against him. Not that I'm one to go around spreading rumors or anything...
GeoCrackr--I'm reading those rumors too and it's always been my speculation that that was the case (Fitzgerald has made a career out of going for the guy at the top). I'm pretty sure that the worst that Fitzgerald can do to Cheney and/or Bush is include them as unindicted co-conspirators, but that doesn't take them out of office. We will still need to do the heavy lifting and either force resignations or force the House to impeach and the Senate to convict.
The Turd Blossom Special has just derailed...
Based upon the explanation below I'm not sure what the implications are for anyone involved in Fitz's investigation, but I can envision some nice Dem campaign talking points from the phrase:
"..these individuals, although not themselves charged with crimes, were part of a criminal conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States."
In fact, it sounds like a good thumbnail description of a large portion of the Bush Admin's activities to date!
Unindicted Co-Conspirators:
"Being named as unindicted co-conspirators has no bearing on whether or not these individuals will be charged with criminal offenses in the future. If the U.S. Government can establish that they were part of a conspiracy, then any statements they made in the course of and in the furtherance of the aims of the conspiracy can be used as evidence against the charged defendants.
"This not only operates as an exception to the hearsay rule but allows statements made by co-conspirators to be used as evidence against a defendant even though the defendant him/herself was not party to the conversations. The law governing statements by co-conspirators is contained in the Federal Rule of Evidence 801 (d) (2) (E).
"The reason these individuals are not themselves charged with criminal offenses is irrelevant. There can be any number of reasons, including a lapse of the statute of limitations. However, in identifying them as unindicted co-conspirators, the United States is taking the position that these individuals, although not themselves charged with crimes, were part of a criminal conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States."
If Fitz is going after Cheney he can indict him if the evidence is there. The only person in the country who can't be indicted (while in office!!) is the President.
At this point I find it hard to accept that Cheney was not involved. Nor do I accept the notion that Bush was not aware and gave his approval of the plan to "out" an undercover CIA agent as political revenge.
People want to kill me when I say this, but I actually kind of admire Rove. He ran a wildly succesful republican convention in the face of about a billion protesters (and in the face of reality). There are so many people who try to do what he does in terms of rallying the troops.
Honestly, I think he's innocent. I think scooter was the one who really KNEW that wilsons wife was legally off limits and didn't care. Rove I think was just doing his standard dirty politics. Maybe I'm dellusional.
Anonymous~
Speaking for myself, I prefer you live to see
a fuller airng of Karl's
filthy laundery. I also think your delusional state will improve with more information, and perhaps a little medication and bed rest!
By the time Fitzgerald finishes his press conference, the networks and the bloggs will have layed out a full summary of the worst of Karl's depredations against simple decency. That should make it apparent that Karl has been prepping for appearances before a grand jury, plea bargains, indictments and possible incarceration most of his adult life.
Defenders will say 'just politics' and 'where's the crime?'. They will devalue the meaning of perjury in direct proportion to the manner in which they extolled its significance during the Clinton years.
With the exception of personal, mortal, physical combat, I know of no persuasive justification for 'the end justifies the means' rationale for all kinds of horrors, political and otherwise. I further believe that our desensitization to the actions of creatures like Rove is larely responsible for their existence.
Hence the need for
'trappers'and 'hunters' like
Fitzgerald to corral nefarious critters!
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6141
"Rove is more than a master manipulator of the news media. He’s a stealthy smear artist who does whatever he can get away with. And Rove has gotten away with plenty. That’s how George W. Bush became governor of Texas ... and president of the United States.
Campaigns have always strived to win, but the top strategist behind the Bush-Cheney ticket is something else. Just ask some Texas politicians -- like former Gov. Mark White and former Gov. Ann Richards. Or ask former Sen. Max Cleland.
The evidence is strong that Rove bugged his own office at a key moment in the 1986 gubernatorial campaign and then spun the Texas media to point the finger at Gov. White. Eight years later, Gov. Richards found herself subjected to below-the-radar whisper campaigns. The Rove-style line of attack was much more flagrant in 2002 when the successful GOP candidate in Georgia ran TV commercials depicting the wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran Cleland as a soul-mate of Osama bin Laden.
A couple of decades ago, Lee Atwater was a mentor to Karl Rove. And it could not have escaped Rove’s attention that Atwater helped to craft the Willie Horton commercial -- utilizing lies about Michael Dukakis’ record as governor of Massachusetts, appealing to racism and providing a boost to victory for George H.W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election.
Since then, it has become clear that Rove believes in nothing more than winning."
well that's why I said "kind of". He definately uses dirty tricks but as far as straight up sabatoge of national security? I just can't see it. Micahel ledeen people like that yes. hardcore mussolini-type intellectual people. richard perle
Anonymous~
First of all, not knowing the clandestine status of a CIA agent and the extent their 'network' of front companies and contacts might be rolled up, is NO excuse for the leaks.
I supect Rove, Libby, Cheney and Bush may have been willfully ignorant, which to my mind is much worse.
That Plame was working on counterproliferation, including Iranian activities, is as tragic as it is ironic.
Also, notwithstanding the fanciful nature of the Gore
skit on SNL, would not Gore have lended a more receptive ear to Richard Clark's warnings on terrorism? (If Clark was kept on by Bush, he certainly would have been kept on by Gore) There's the real damage to our national security!
"And Rove has gotten away with plenty. That’s how George W. Bush became governor of Texas ... and president of the United States."
And thus the "influence" of the Ledeen's, Perle's, Rumsfeld's, Cheney's ad nausea.
I'm positive Gore would have listened to Clarke. and that he would have been a far better president in virtually every way.
and I agree that ignorance of plames status was no excuse, hence the likely indictment. I'm just saying I think he's more of a common crook than an actual Satan.
Anonymous~
"More of a common crook than an actual Satan."
Soooo, you're helping Karl with the wording on his new business cards?!
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