Why Obstruct Justice? To Re-elect Bush of Course.

For anyone still scratching their head wondering why Scooter would lie...

What the 'Shield' Covered Up
WashingtonPost.com
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005; Page A25

Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?

In his impressive presentation of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed the wish that witnesses had testified when subpoenas were issued in August 2004, and "we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005."

Note the significance of the two dates: October 2004, before President Bush was reelected, and October 2005, after the president was reelected. Those dates make clear why Libby threw sand in the eyes of prosecutors, in the special counsel's apt metaphor, and helped drag out the investigation.

As long as Bush still faced the voters, the White House wanted Americans to think that officials such as Libby, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney had nothing to do with the leak campaign to discredit its arch-critic on Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

And Libby, the good soldier, pursued a brilliant strategy to slow the inquiry down. As long as he was claiming that journalists were responsible for spreading around the name and past CIA employment of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, Libby knew that at least some news organizations would resist having reporters testify. The journalistic "shield" was converted into a shield for the Bush administration's coverup.

Bush and his disciples would like everyone to assume that Libby was some kind of lone operator who, for this one time in his life, abandoned his usual caution. They pray that Libby will be the only official facing legal charges and that political interest in the case will dissipate.

You can tell the president worries that this won't work, because yesterday he did what he usually does when he's in trouble: He sought to divide the country and set up a bruising ideological fight. He did so by nominating a staunchly conservative judge to the Supreme Court.

So true. Divide and scare actually. What did Bush do the day after his Halloween announcement of the civil libertarian's worst boogey man to the Supreme Court? BIRD FLU PANDEMIC IS HERE! Rawr! Rawr!

Pay no attention to the criminal investigation of my Vice President. Tom Noe who? DeLay what? De Plame? De Plame? It truly is Fantasy Island sometimes in that DC media bubble. I can't believe they took the bait and have been talking about chickens on the news all day. Chickens indeed.

Don't forget Frist.

As I saw on Teh SiTuAtiOn RoOm w/ Kommandant Blitzer..

Jack: Couldn't the republicans find somebody to show the new supreme court nominee around besides the guy who is under investigation by the SEC and the justice department. I mean Bill Frist has a rather large cloud hanging over his head based on--alleged insider trading deals..

In my personal opinion the Bird Flu hoo-hah-spend-the-rent-money-on-paper-masks-and-tylenol is a move to stop Bush being caught with his bunny pants around his ankles in the event of a *real* threat.

After New Orleans they're jittery about being unprepared for disasters. These fiscal conservatives (with a very small c) are doing what they know how to do... spend money like its going out of fashion.

Vote Democrat! Because Big Government is smaller than a Republican Smell Government

Oh, and it's really only a matter of time before Rove gets indicted too.

*does the implosion dance quietly*

While I agree that lying and twisting the truth is bad (ie., politicians are bad), it is also a perversion of the truth to make it sound like James Bond was outed. Plame's friends and family members knew what she was, her cocktail party buds knew it, only us commoners were not told.

Seems to me there is a lot of political mileage being squeezed out of this non-issue. Only fair, though, as the Rep. side played it off until after the elections. Now, the other side gets to play a while.

Politics as normal. The sport is boring once you realize it is a sport, and is totally controlled.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
While I agree that lying and twisting the truth is bad (ie., politicians are bad), it is also a perversion of the truth to make it sound like James Bond was outed. Plame's friends and family members knew what she was, her cocktail party buds knew it, only us commoners were not told.

Seems to me there is a lot of political mileage being squeezed out of this non-issue. Only fair, though, as the Rep. side played it off until after the elections. Now, the other side gets to play a while.

Politics as normal. The sport is boring once you realize it is a sport, and is totally controlled.

It *IS* an issue though Thomas. She was afforded all the protection of a CIA Field Agent because of the topics she worked on. Whilst it's nice to say that her cocktail party buddies knew what she was its also prudent to remember that they did not know the details.

It was a politically motivated revenge attack on her because of her husband.

Your are being assumptive, Nerd. Not that you might not be right, but you are being assumptive. Furthermore, if it was not a secrert that she was what she was, then it was not a secret. I've had relatives who have had less-secretive jobs and were MUCH tighter with their security. Shewas in no danger, she was not covert and she was not James Bond. This is all political, nothing more, nothing less. To the point where all of this should be moved to PTS, in my opinion. Mind you, I'm not going to do that as conspiracies come in different flavors and this is, by definition, a conspiracy, regardless of it being political in nature.
In many aspects, politics and conspiracies seem to go hand in hand, don't they? And, at the same time, fraud and deceit seem to be the norm at every level and every turn. This is my point. Neither side of this slapping match is innocent.

Hey RANT, Bush can't run for a third term. Unless they somehow come up with a way to declare martial law around the 2008 election, or they manage to repeal the 22nd Amendment.

I'd be willing to bet, though, that Hillary might actually get (s)elected in '08. I'm not sure who's scarier--Hillary or Dubya....

It work for the Republicans once

It worked twice

But at the third time the people woke up from their lethargy and no even the Bird Flu scare is going to stop the spin.

Corruption and more corruption, that is what's all about.

Funny how things change and yet still remain the same. In 2000 all of the talk was about Clinton using some obscure Executive Order and suspending the election in order to remain in power. Now it's supposed to be Bush who is going to pull something to give himself a third term.

Who thinks this stuff up? If the operators on both sides were as good as they are being made out to be, we should be electing the President of the World instead of the President of the US. It is impossible to keep a true secret in a democracy unless all of the people in on it agree that it is the right thing to do. Even the Manhatten Project had leaks. It was just lucky that the enemy didn't believe it.

Originally posted by Amethyst
I'd be willing to bet, though, that Hillary might actually get
(s)elected in '08. I'm not sure who's scarier--Hillary or Dubya.

Hillary will be elected. She'll be just as crooked and spooky as
all the other politicians across all party lines.

As far as Valerie Plame goes .... her husband 'outted' her years ago.
He chatted her up being CIA to everyone. It was DC's worst kept
secret. She hadn't been undercover in over 5 years either, so I
don't know how anyone can say that she had her cover violated.

Her radical left wing hubby is using this to further his own political
ideas and ambitions. If he really wanted to protect her identy,
he would have kept his mouth shut about her 'job'. He's just an
opportunist.

Amethyst and JIMC5499,

Neither the article nor this topic is speculating on a Bush third term.

It's about the expressed frustrations of an investigator that was on the White House leak case years ago, but stonewalled for the sake of Bush's re-election in 2004.

Imagine today's poll numbers last October instead of this one.

The reason Scooter lied and threw the scent was to take one for the team and help keep the spotlight off the administration until after the election. In other words, not just to deceive Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury, but the American people.


[edit on 3-11-2005 by RANT]

Originally posted by FlyersFan
As far as Valerie Plame goes .... her husband 'outted' her years ago.
He chatted her up being CIA to everyone. It was DC's worst kept
secret. She hadn't been undercover in over 5 years either, so I
don't know how anyone can say that she had her cover violated.

Her radical left wing hubby is using this to further his own political
ideas and ambitions. If he really wanted to protect her identy,
he would have kept his mouth shut about her 'job'. He's just an
opportunist.

Just want to comment again I'm really enjoy the right wing interpretation of law lately.

It's only a crime if effective. No such thing as attempted murder. And if Cheney had robbed an empty armoured car, that's no crime either. THERE WASN'T EVEN ANY MONEY IN THERE!

The message sent was as good a dead fish wrapped in newspaper or a late night phone call that we know where you live. Across this country for months and even years, I've read and observed even the most conservative opine from actual patriots that get that.

Why the insistence by some to trivialize potential criminal intent is beyond me. But the furthered hostility and smear towards one Joe Wilson does one thing for certain. It perfectly shows the mindset of those in the White House that set out to get him and his family. Nice job wingnuts.

[edit on 3-11-2005 by RANT]

Hey, RANT, I didn't even read the article, I just went by the title of your thread.

Personally I think Libby's their sacrificial goat. "Oh--there's corruption in this administration? Well, we'll nail this guy and things will be just peachy keen and you can all go back to sleep now."

That's just my thinking.