The Fall Guy

It looks like we know who the sacrificial lamb is going to be in the CIA leak investigation. Rove, during his last appearance before the grand jury told them he thinks it could be Libby that informed him of Plames identity.

At this point, with all fingers point to Rove and Libby after a second White House aide flips and cooperates with the special prosecutor, who better to go, Rove or Libby? We have seen what happens to the Bush White House without Rove around. They counldn't hit the broad side side of a barn with a shot gun.

Second Cheney aide cooperating in leak probe, those close to case say

Since Bush would probably issue blanket pardons anyway, Libby would be an obvious choice to take the fall for Cheney and Rove since he has long since stated he would rather be living in Greece, writing novels.

Rove Told Jury Libby May Have Been His Source In Leak Case

There is still the lingering question of when did Rove actually tell the president. Initially, it was said he kept it from the president. The latest reports have the president knowing for at least two years. Bush testified that Rove assured him that he was not involved. Did Bush lie under oath?

Personally, I think they should all just claim it was DeLay since he is such an embarassment to the GOP anyway. Kill two birds with one stone. Keep Rove and Libby, drop the real baggage.

Cheney Rebuked By Powell Aide

In comments, made at the New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, claimed that Cheney's "secret" policy decisions were detrimental to the US's safety and its standing in international affairs.

‘Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy’
By Edward Alden in Washington

Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.

In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

“Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences.”

Mr Wilkerson said such secret decision-making was responsible for mistakes such as the long refusal to engage with North Korea or to back European efforts on Iran.

It also resulted in bitter battles in the administration among those excluded from the decisions.

“If you're not prepared to stop the feuding elements in the bureaucracy as they carry out your decisions, you are courting disaster. And I would say that we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran.”

(Full Story)

Additional quotes from the full text of the transcript of the speech:

But the case that I saw for 4 plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberration, bastardizations, [inaudible], changes to the national security [inaudible] process. What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense and [inaudible] on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made. And then when the bureaucracy was presented with those decisions and carried them out, it was presented in such a disjointed incredible way that the bureaucracy often didn’t know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out.

But if you want to read how the Cheney Rumsfeld cabal flummoxed the process, read that book [assasin's gate]. And, of course, there are other names in there, Under Secretary of Defense Douglas [inaudible], whom most of you probably know Tommy Frank said was stupidest blankety blank man in the world. He was. Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.

Book'em Jimmie

Tom DeLay has to show up in Texas for booking as ordered by the overseeing judge in the case.

DeLay Ordered to Texas for Booking

In related news, DeLay's attorney admits that he has no evidence of impropriety by Earle in the grand jury proceedings and his subpoena of grand jury records is just a phishing exercise.

DeLay's lawyer lacking evidence of DA misconduct

Poor Out - Tax Cuts In

The GOP unveiled its agenda today in there budget cuts proposals. On the chopping blocks is $50 billion to pay for Medicare, Medicaid, and college loans. Is this to help offset the costs of Katrina?

No

It is to make way for their $70 billion in tax cuts, thus putting the US an additional $35 billion in the hole.

So, to pay for their $70 billion in tax cuts, they are actually cutting programs that are actually helping Katrina victims. Here is a novel idea. Instead of cutting the programs that will help Katrina victims, let cut out the tax break we just gave to an oil industry that is already making record profits.

Nice agenda guys.

House Republicans struggle to find spending cuts
By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans struggled on Wednesday to gain support for another round of domestic spending cuts, leaving uncertain the fate of legislation that was to have been debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday...

Blunt was referring a bill that Republican leaders had hoped to pass in the House on Thursday to cut mandatory federal programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and student loans, by $50 billion over the next five years, instead of the previously planned $35 billion...

Rep. Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) of Maryland, a leading Democrat, also said that Republicans have another motivation for pushing a new round of spending cuts.

"What they have proposed will not offset Katrina. It will offset their tax cuts," Hoyer said.

The Republican budget blueprint calls for $70 billion in tax cuts over five years, which would add about $35 billion to the U.S. debt unless more spending reductions are passed.

(Full Story)

Integrety, Honesty, Credibility... Hmpft!

How is it that the president gets dismayed by the decreasing number of Americans who find him to be honest and forthright when he knows for two years that Karl Rove was involved in discussing Valerie Plame with reporters but continued to deny that his administration had anything to do with the affair. Is he really that blind? Is he really that oblivious that if you lie to the American people, they just don't stop believing you, they stop believing in you.

Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."

Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President's rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world.

(Full Story)

Rumor Mill

There are rumors, and I reiterate rumors, that Cheney will step aside in the event that his office is implicated in the role of outing Valerie Plame.

parked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"It's certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario," said a Bush insider. "And if that should happen," added the official, "there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP."

While I don't believe the hype, if something like this does go down and this is a brilliant Machiavellian move, just remember that I called this scenario first in November of 2004 (ok, ok, not this exact scenario, but pretty damn close).

White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly

Breaking News on the Plame Investigation

I just read this off of Raw Story (H/T Anonymous Liberal). Apparently one of Dick Cheney's aides has flipped and is now cooperating with the special prosecutor investigation who in the White House leaked the CIA information.

A senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney is cooperating with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, sources close to the investigation say...

John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from the offices of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, John Bolton, was named as a target of Fitzgerald’s probe. They say he was told in recent weeks that he could face imminent indictment for his role in leaking Plame-Wilson’s name to reporters unless he cooperated with the investigation.

Others close to the probe say that if Hannah is cooperating with the special prosecutor then he was likely going to be charged as a co-conspirator and may have cut a deal.

This confirms the suspicion that Fitzgerald has been zeroing in on Dick Cheney's office over the last couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see how far this goes up the ladder. A mid-level employee like Hannah doesn't leak information like this without getting marching orders from higher up. We know that at least Libby was involved. Now we have to see if includes Cheney also.

Hmm... I wonder if Club Gitmo has any extra room?

My Offical Opposition to Harriet Miers

Not that it really matters at all. It is not like anyone really listens to me, but I am officially throwing my hat into the "anti-Miers" ring. She has now publicly stated that she does not support the right to privacy or the right for people to use contraception.

Yesterday Miers met with Arlen Specter, the pro-choice Republican Senator from Pennsylvania. Afterwards, Specter announced that Miers believed that there was a right to privacy in the constitution and that she agreed with the courts decision in Griswald v. Connecticut that dealt with the right to use contraception. Prior to Griswald, it was illegal for married couple to use contraception. The court ruled that there is a right to privacy that extends to the bedroom, and the state could not prohibit the use of contraception.

Well, if it had ended there, all would have been good. I completely agree with Griswald. There was no contraceptives in our founding fathers times, but reading the rest of the constitution, it is pretty apparent that they would have never let the state be that intrusive in our lives. I don't understand how anyone can actually support a constitutional right of the state to enter our bedrooms.

But, it did not stop there. After Specter announced what he thought she had told him in the meeting, she specifically called back to correct him. She, in fact, has no position on Griswald or the right to privacy. Even John Roberts publicly stated that he agreed with the decision in Griswald and that there is an inherent right to privacy in the constitution.

After Sen. Specter commented on that to the news media, Ms. Miers called him to say that he misunderstood her and that she had not taken a position on Griswold or the privacy issue. Sen. Specter accepts Ms. Miers' statement that he misunderstood what she said.

If she cannot support the right to use contraception. If she cannot support the right to privacy. If she cannot say that she will keep the government from violating our most basic freedoms, she has no reason to be on that bench. We don't even need to go into the issue of abortion if she can't publicly say we have the right determine our use of contraception.

Interpretations Differ After Talks With Miers

Update: I guess this answers the question about abortion, also.

Miers Backed Ban on Most Abortions in '89

Yup, I'm definitely anti-Miers. I immensely dislike abortion, but it is a decision to be made with your family, your doctor, and your priest. Not people like Tom DeLay.

Very Interesting Revelation on DeLay's Indictment

Looks like Tommy boy will say anything, and I mean anything, even if he contradicts himself. All along, DeLay has been claiming that Earle indicted DeLay for the sole purpose of making DeLay step down as the Republican leader in the house.

Turns out DeLay's charges, are again, baseless.

Earle offered DeLay a plea bargain before the indictment was handed down. Earle offered to let DeLay plead guilty to a misdemeanor so DeLay would not have to step down as the GOP leader. But, DeLay refused, therefore Earle had to go forward with the felony indictments that forced DeLay from his seat.

So much for the contention that Earle only brought the indictment to force him to step down. Is it just me, or do politicians talk to much for heir own good sometimes?

Plea deals are a very common occurrence in criminal prosecutions. It is actually rare that cases go to trial. The scary thing about DeLay is, even if he is guilty as hell, he probably honestly believes he has done nothing wrong. That is just the type of guy he is.

DeLay Offered Deal Before Indictment

Uh-Oh!

The Harriet Miers nomination long ago turn a turn off of "Smooth Confirmation Lane" onto "Dead Man's Curve," and may be heading over the cliff to join poor jonnie and his motorcycle.

As you may recall James Dobson claimed to know things that he shouldn't know about the Miers nomination via Karl "the leak" Rove.

"When you know some of the things that I know--that I probably shouldn't know--you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."

But wait, there is more. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, on the day of Bush's announcement of Harriet Miers nomination, James Dobson and other wingnuts were on a conference call that included two sitting Texas judges that assured the evangelical crowd that they knew that Harriet Miers would vote to overturn Roe v Wade.

Mr. Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the nomination. One of the people on the call took extensive notes, which I have obtained. According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers's close friends--both sitting judges--said during the call that she would vote to overturn Roe.

The question now is: Who were those judges? How do they know her stance? And what will this do to any possible Democratic support she may have garnered over the last two weeks?

Judgment Call

DeLay Continues to Jury Tamper

For anyone who continues to defend Tom DeLay as an innocent victim, you have lost all credibility. If DeLay's tactics of running attack ads on Ronnie Earle and Swift Boating him on the internet does not convince you that this man has utter contempt the law, then you are willfully blind.

No one, and I mean no one has gone this far in showing just how far they are willing to go to retain power at any and all costs. No politician has ever run attack ads in an attempt to subvert political inquiries. Imagine if Regan, Clinton, Frist, Trafican had done what DeLay has done. Imagine if Clinton started running attack ads on Ken Starr. Ken Starr was obviously partisan, but even Clinton is a far better man than Tom DeLay.

The sad thing is that his own party is defending him when he should be being hung up by his thumbs. He is a shame and an embarrassment to Republicans of un-paralleled proportions. It is sad that the Republican party has fallen so far.

DeLay Uses Website to Attack Prosecutor
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Stung by his recent indictment in Texas, Tom Delay is trying to turn his legal woes into a financial boon for his re-election. The former House majority leader is using his congressional campaign to distribute to voters derogatory information about the prosecutor who brought the charges against him and to solicit donations for his re-election.

"Help Tom fight back," reads one of the solicitations on the http://www.TomDelay.com Web site that voters are being directed to as part of an Internet-based campaign funded by DeLay's re-election committee.

Contributors, voters and others who sign up can get regular e-mails and an electronic "toolkit" from DeLay's campaign with the latest disparaging information his legal team has dug up on Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle.

"Join thousands of conservatives across the country in the fight against liberal DA Ronnie Earle," recipients are told.
(Full Story)

And for those of you who don't believe this is jury tampering, Bayer was cited for doing something very similar in 2003.

The trial was temporarily halted after it became known that Bayer had approved and sent a mass mailing about the case to over 2100 Corpus Christi residents…some of whom were on the prospective jury panel….while jury selection in the case was under way. The letter was apparently timed to coincide with the selection of the jury for the case.

Quote of the Day

I think this 2000 campaign quote from George Bush is quite fitting considering Karl Rove's fourth appearance before the grand jury is today.

"In my administration," Bush told voters in Pittsburgh in October 2000, "we will ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves."

Scandals Take Toll On Bush's 2nd Term