The Democratic Party web-site headline reads "Worse than Watergate". The column states "Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald today indicted Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on two counts of perjury, two counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice." all true, but then it goes on to say...
"Libby was known to have been part of a group of White House officials that included Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Deputy National Security advisor Stephen Hadley, White House Chief of Staff andrew Card, and Press Secretary Scott McClellan who were charged with selling the Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq war to the american people."
Huh? Rove, Hadley, Card and McClellan have been "charged" with something? How did I miss this? Then the column goes on to quote a post-indictment statement issued by DNC Chairman Howard Dean in which he says, "This is a sad day for america. Beyond the evidence that the White House manipulated the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq." What? There was evidence presented in the indictment proving "that the White House manipulated intelligence used to justify the war"? I missed this too!
Dean went on to say "a group of senior White House officials not only orchestrated efforts to smear a critic of the war, but worked to cover up this smear campaign." (But no such evidence has been presented by anyone, nobody is investigating such offenses and no such charges exist.)
I've seen the indictment of Libby and heard the press conference by Prosecutor Fitzgerald. Libby was indicted on five counts of the same single alleged mis-statement of dates and times. Libby immediately resigned upon being charged, (which is more than I can say for impeached [convicted] Democrat Bill Clinton). To the degree that Libby is ultimately found guilty in a court of law (as Clinton was), he should be held fully accountable for his actions, (unlike Clinton).
But Rove, Card, Hadley and McClellan have not been charged with anything. Even Libby himself, was not charged with leaking the identity of a covert CIa agent or anyone else. Contrary to DNC wishful assertions, there is no investigation into the justifications for the war in Iraq. It is and has always been an investigation into the alleged outing of a covert CIa agent who wasn't covert to begin with, and appeared on lists of "Who's Who" among the Washington cocktail party elite for years.
Even Fitzgerald himself rejected all the leading press questions intended to infer anything more. Fitzgerald gave an academy award winning performance in his post-indictment press conference. He even made several inappropriate personal observations that might mislead an uneducated or ideologically driven person to believe that this investigation is about more.
But when directly asked, he firmly rejected the idea that Valerie Plame was even under-cover, that Libby or anybody else "outed" anyone, or that they had any evidence of any crime by White House officials at all, beyond the single indictment filed.
Yet Folks like Howard Dean and Tom McMahon of the DNC, reporters for the once mainstream press and TV talking heads like Tim Russert are in no way obligated to stick to the facts of this case.
Dean charges "This is not only an abuse of power, it is an un-american abuse of the public trust." You are damn right it is, by Dean and the press. Fitzgerald made no such claims and filed no such charges. Dean says "More importantly, we can't ignore the glaring questions this case has raised about the rationale the Bush administration used to send us to war in Iraq." But the special investigation raises no such questions because it is investigating no such matters, according to Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald requested and received authority to expand his investigation beyond its original intent of "outing" a rat who "outed" a covert CIa agent less than 30 days into his investigation. Still, two years later, no such "rat" has been found, identified or charged with any such crime.
When asked if there would be other indictments forthcoming, Fitagerald correctly refused to answer one way or the other. However he did state on several occasions throughout his press conference that he "feels close to wrapping up the entire investigation" and the only charges anyone should be concerned with are those that have been filed. One. Duh.!
So here we go again... Since you are clearly not going to get the truth from Howard Dean, the DNC or their many minions in the press, here it is.
a two year investigation ends with one indictment, (just as most intelligent informed people predicted). That indictment does not accuse anyone of outing anybody. It doesn't accuse anyone of "selling the Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq war, orchestrating efforts to smear a critic of the war, of working to cover up any smear campaign," or even claim to be interested in such topics.
It accuses one man, Scooter Libby, of repeating one lie, five different times. This man is not George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley, andrew Card or Scott McClellen, none of whom have been charged with anything. It's not likely they ever will be either.
If the CIa agent wasn't covert, how could she be outed by anyone? If Joe Wilson has been introducing his CIa wife at cocktail parties for years, who besides Wilson, needed to out her?
How could this real nail-biter of an investigation, as Howard Dean put it, "endanger our national security and the brave men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting our nation's security?" It couldn't. For starters, one would have to be under-cover in order to be outed. appearing in the "Who's Who" of the Washington eilte guest lists hardly makes your identity a secret.
But wait! There's more... In the immortal words of a famous character whose name alone would indicate he's a democrat, Porky Pig, "ab-ba-da-ab-ba-da-ab-ba-da, that ain't all folks!" Minority Senate leader Harry Reid made his rounds on the Sunday morning Bush-bashing hour.
appearing on aBC with Clinton crony George Stephanopoulos, Reid said "Everyone knows Karl Rove is involved." Everyone except the special Prosecutor apparently whose investigation team interviewed Rove four times in the two year witch hunt and came up with nothing.
Reid then publicly threw down the gauntlet as he called for a Rove resignation on the basis of I don't know, his personal opinion of Rove, not supported by the Prosecutors office? "If the president is a man of his word, Rove should be history." Reid said
Now, to understand how a man who defended Clintons right to remain in the highest office in the land, even after being convicted of criminal activity, could make such a demand of a guy who has been charged with nothing, you must understand today's democrat mind.
Democrat Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut was over at Fox News and explained the basis of DNC criminal investigations in one sentence. "If our standard is just criminality, then we're never going to get to the bottom of this." Said Dodd... Huh?
There you have it. This criminal investigation is not about seeking acts of "criminality", as Dodd put it. In order to "get to the bottom of this" [destroy political opponents], the criminal investigation must be searching for something other than crime, since no crimes seem to exist.
That explains the lies being told around the clock by the DNC and their minions in the press. They are committing no crime with these lies mind you. They are only lying to the american people, not a grand jury.
But there are some questions raised by this two year investigation that shoud be answered.
Scooter Libby graduated Yale (magna cum laude), then graduated our nations 4th ranked Columbia Law School, ran his own multi-million dollar law practice and has served in a multitude of high-level government positions for many years. He is anything but stupid and his credentials indicate anything but a criminal.
So how does he find himself the single recipient of an indictment charging him with lying to a grand jury in the investigation of a crime that it appears didn't happen, concerning a CIa agent who wasn't under-cover but who is married to an old Clinton-Gore crony Joe Wilson, who has made a very profitable new career of Bush-bashing?
These are the questions americans deserve answers to.
Does anyone know who told Bob Novak about Valerie Plame? If you do, tell Fitzgerald. He has followed every lead the democrats have given him for two years now and still not found the leak or the leaker.
Dean finished his statement by saying "as americans, we must hold ourselves and our leaders to a higher standard." I couldn't agree more.and I'll go even one step further.
If members of the so-called mainstream press persist in telling lies about the purpose and meager results of this investigation, the american people should hold them to a higher standard. If Chairmans of political Parties are going to perpetuate outright bold-faced lies, like Howard Dean is here, the american people should hold them to a higher standard by continuing to vote them out of Washington for another four election cycles.
If members of the so-called mainstream press persist in telling lies about the purpose and meager results of this investigation, the american people should hold them to a higher standard. If Chairmans of political Parties are going to perpetuate outright bold-faced lies, like Howard Dean is here, the american people should hold them to a higher standard by continuing to vote them out of Washington for another four election cycles.