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Rove Exposed - Bush Impeachment

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18:39 / 13.06.06

Quelle surprise.

I'd like to meet the man who's prepared to take out Rove. Doesn't matter if Bush is on his arse, or even out of office - Rove is just untouchable. Just think of who he'd take with him; the pressure on any prosecutor would be unbelievable. But at least the threat of impeachment cramped his style a bit; if he's now back in the saddle you can just see the religious right who've been so vocally anti-Bush since Rove has been out of the picture (for "going soft" on them) being corralled back into supporting the Republicans.

Bad news for Hilary, that's for sure.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

19:36 / 13.06.06

GAH! FUCK! AAARRGGHH!

The Republicans aren't tough on crime after all, it seems.

I really shouldn't have expected anything else, I guess, but there goes the only hope of nailing these fucks. Gah. Need wine. Now.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

15:58 / 17.06.06

I wish I could say that the reason they aren't going after Rove is because they are looking to get Cheney, but everything I've read is that there just isn't a lot of evidence the prosecutor is able to get his hands on. The Bush people are famously protective of secrets, and have courts who will back them that since We Are At War (tm), the President and his peopleare able to classify anything they feel like classifying.

The reason Clinton was so easy to nail was because his people would give out information to just about anyone, while the Bush people routinely destroy their notes, classify things, and go out of their way to do things face-to-face so that they all have deniability. This was made pretty clear when Bush said he doesn't send e-mail because he doesn't want anything getting out. Libby's lawyet is fighting to get Libby's e-mails to defend him, and the White House is claiming tht they don't have any of them...and I believe them, as I woudl venture to guess that they destroy as many records as they can on a daily basis.

Still, the Libby trial will be interesting to see what they were able to get out of the White House.

19:10 / 13.07.06

Valerie Plame is filing suit against Rove, Cheney, Libby, 10 others:

The lawsuit accuses Cheney, Libby, Rove and 10 unnamed administration officials or political operatives of putting the Wilsons and their children's lives at risk by exposing Plame.

"This lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of ... (Plame), whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer and who risked her life for her country," the Wilsons' lawyers said in the lawsuit.

Libby is the only administration official charged in connection with the leak investigation. He faces trial in January on perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges, accused of lying to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about when he learned Plame's identity and what he subsequently told reporters.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald told Rove's lawyer last month that he had decided not to seek criminal charges against Rove.

Standard of evidence is lower in civil trial than criminal.

Watch this.

Oh, and there's a Joseph & Valerie Wilson Legal Support Website now.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

06:55 / 14.07.06

This is going to be interesting. Already the left wing bloggers and radio people are bringing up the fact that the way Clinton was dragged to Impeachment was because of a civil suit, since all they had to do was catch him in a lie.

This could get interesting, especially if the Democrats gain control of the House or Senate, becaue it could turn into "Revenge for Clinton" REAL fast, especially the way Republicans have been using the trappings of power against them.

01:35 / 08.09.06

Top!

Don't we look silly.

04:12 / 08.09.06

Simple incompetence?

Hmm.

04:25 / 08.09.06

"I made a terrible mistake, not maliciously, but I made a terrible mistake," former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in a telephone interview from his home Thursday night.

He said he did not realize Plame's job was covert.

"I did what I did," Armitage said. "I embarrassed my president, my secretary, my department, my family and I embarrassed the Wilsons. And for that I'm very sorry."

...so that's that then?

09:11 / 08.09.06

I highly, highly doubt that Armitage revealed anything with malicious intent.

17:03 / 27.01.07

I'm afraid the title & abstract of this thread are now hideously out of date, but I figure this is still the place to follow the story....

Ex Cheney Aide Spills the Beans About Media Manipulation.

No one served up spicier morsels than Cheney's former top press assistant. Cathie Martin described the craft of media manipulation — under oath and in blunter terms than politicians like to hear in public.

The uses of leaks and exclusives. When to let one's name be used and when to hide in anonymity. Which news medium was seen as more susceptible to control and what timing was most propitious. All candidly described. Even the rating of certain journalists as friends to favor and critics to shun — a faint echo of the enemies list drawn up in Richard Nixon's White House more than 30 years ago.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

22:30 / 06.02.07

I don't know about anyone else, but I adore the Scooter Libby trial, and lots of interesting things are happening in it.

Should we talk about it here and amend the thread title and abstract, or does it belong in a seperate thread.

I must say, seeing Ari Fleischer again brought a tear to my eye. *Sigh*... The good old days...

00:22 / 07.02.07

I must say, seeing Ari Fleischer again brought a tear to my eye. *Sigh*... The good old days...
You sound like John Stewart.
I dunno, though, that Tony Snow is pretty fucking funny, too.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

00:30 / 07.02.07

Yeah, it's really surreal that they just said "fuck it" and got a guy straight from Fox News.

McClellan was good, too, though, all sweaty, doughy and weaselly. He was so inarticulate, too, and the way his eyes darted all over the room as he "couldn't comment on that at this time..." Good times.

But Ari was the first, and maybe I'm looking through rose-tinted glasses, but I still think he was the best. When I heard he was going to testify, and that he wanted immunity before he would, I just... I admit it, I almost cried.

God, I wish it was televised.

10:11 / 07.02.07

Where's a good place to read about the ongoing trial?

Jake, Colossus of Clout

13:31 / 07.02.07

The Huffington Post has all the latest gory details, up to the minute. that's where I've been following it.

16:49 / 06.03.07

Libby just got CONVICTED.

So he takes the fall for Cheney and Cheney gets off scot-free, it looks like...right?

19:45 / 06.03.07

I wonder if Bush is going to pardon Libby, or whether he will be hung out to dry permanently.

23:05 / 06.03.07

The possibility of a pardon likely depends on the sentence given. I think that while this thing goes through appeals Bush will stay out of it, but you never know. If he does pardon, it might be as soon as Libby is sentenced, if it seems harsh (that would be his justification, don't you think?), but he probably wouldn't pardon him until the next president is elected, if Libby is still in at that time.
There was a commentator today on NPR (from someone who worked with Libby and Cheney in the past)who stated as though it was a given that Libby was covering up and taking the fall for the White House, not Cheney.
More fun shapes of the truth will be extruded by the Play-doh Fun Factory of time, inevitably.

14:03 / 25.04.07

Kucinich introduces articles of impeachment against Cheney.

04:11 / 01.05.07

Nice try dude, but I don't think anyone's really down with that in Congress. From Kucinich's press conference.

QUESTION: Congressman, at this point do you have any other -- any fellow members support this?

KUCINICH: At this very moment, the resolution is being transmitted to members of Congress. Because this resolution is so weighty in its import, it's going to be important for members of Congress to have sufficient time to study the articles. This is unlike any other type of legislation or resolution. This is not something that you can ask anyone to make a snap judgment on. It took me a while to come to this point. And I would expect that members of Congress, given the opportunity to review these articles, will be able to come to a conclusion consistent with their own concerns and the concerns of their constituents.

QUESTION: But at this point, you stand alone, at this point?

KUCINICH: At this point, I believe that I stand with millions of Americans who have expressed concern through their state legislatures, through petitions to Congress, through contact with their members of Congress, that something has to be done to reclaim our country's goodness, to reclaim a government which the American people want to be honest, want to be just.

And so I do not stand alone. I have multitudes of people backing this.

QUESTION: Congressman, Speaker Pelosi has said on more than one occasion she's not interested in impeachment.

Have you had conversations with her on this, or some exchange, in your mind...

KUCINICH: No, I have not discussed this with Speaker Pelosi.

QUESTION: Pelosi says it's not going anywhere.

(CROSSTALK)

KUCINICH: Have you talked to her today?

QUESTION: Yes, I did.

KUCINICH: Then I would say I have not talked to her. And as much as I admire the speaker, as much as I voted to support her, I feel that it's my obligation as a member of Congress to introduce these articles of impeachment. And I believe the American people will be the final arbiters as to whether or not these articles should go forward.

Even if it is just publicity for his presidential campaign, I gotta give the man props for doing this, but I think most of congress is just happy to kind of wait out the administration and then get one of their own in office.

18:38 / 23.06.08

So, now Kucinich has done the same for the president, and will likely keep doing it over and over again.

Meanwhile, an impressive array of lawyers are taking a different tack - pursuing a war crimes prosecution instead. Includes Dean Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

19:42 / 17.07.08

As Pelosi quietly admits one of Kucinich's articles to head to the Judiciary Committee (or was it more than one?), an interesting tidbit bubbles out of an Congressional Quarterly:

No matter how the eventual hearing is framed, Kucinich said he would like to be joined at the witness table by a foreign official he would not name.

“I’ve been contacted by representatives of a U.S. ally who are seeking an opportunity to appear before the Judiciary Committee,” he said in an interview.

“Legislative leaders of a foreign capital” have a “new angle that I haven’t thought of before but is relevant,” he said. “This interest in whether we’ve been told the truth has extended to other countries.”

Kucinich would not provide further detail.

So... do you think we're talking, like, Canada here, or Moravia?

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