There are rumors on the internet that indictments in the Valerie Plame CIA agent outing are coming soon under the Espionage Act rather than the lesser charges under federal intelligence statutes and that Bush's advisor Karl Rove is the target.
Could this be the beginning of impeachment?
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
I wonder if Bush will fire the leaker like he said he would now that we all know it's his little ghoul Rove. A man that eerily resembles a child molester that would stalk Boy Scouts on Jamboree. Watching this administration crumble is refreshing and encouraging. I always knew the Republicans would wreck their own train.
I'm beginning to suspect that Rove is on the way out of the White House, anyway. Won't he have to separate himself to run the 2008 presidential campaign for whomsoever they pick as the heir apparent?
Impeachment? No way. Bush will claim he didn't know anything about it and people will buy it. Never have I seen "I'm clueless!" used as an excuse so often and successfully.
Remember, Bush claimed he didn't know Ken Lay, even though Ken had lent Bush his private plane for the 2000 campaign and there were photos of the two together.
Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Injustice... Even after all the water under this administration's bridge, I'm still amazed at the breadth of weaseliness.
Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Injustice... Even after all the water under this administration's bridge, I'm still amazed at the breadth of weaseliness.
Great link.
You may need a microscope to see 'em, but the press corps seems to have grown a set of balls. For now.
(I did notice Canuck J.D. Roberts leading the charge... )
You know what comes to mind as I watch the .wmv of the session? Ron Zeigler's undying masterpiece from the Watergate press conference: "This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative."
You know, when you started this thread, Warren, I thought, "No. They're so good at getting away with stuff, this'll be just one more thing." But I spent a bunch of time reading up on it today, and my goodness, there is just so much to this story. Who knew the White House press corps suffers from so much cognitive dissonance that they're actually outraged that a White House press secretary lied to them? They've absolutely savaged McClellan two days in a row, and they even tried to question Bush directly about it this morning with the poor Singaporean prime minister in tow.
Some out there are saying this goes well beyond the outing of Valerie Plame, the crimes include the release of confidential files to the press and to Ahmed Chalabi, prosecutable under the Espionage Act of 1917 rather than the Intelligence Act which prescribes a 10 year sentence for revealing the identity of a covert intelligence operative. The Espionage Act is much more severe, including the two year sentence for merely hiding a violator of the act, which would be McClellan's crime and maybe Bush's minimum involvement.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
I realized I didn't answer the question in the thread title, "Is Karl Rove going down?" I can't speak for this exact moment, but rumor has it that Karl Rove regularly goes down on other men.
You're probably right, Abdul. I have read hundreds of hopeful "Is this finally it?" threads regarding the Bush administration over the past two years and none of them have panned out.
Someone on another forum said Bush could take a crap on the presidential podium on national television and most of his supporters would deny it ever happened. It's true.
Some out there are saying this goes well beyond the outing of Valerie Plame, the crimes include the release of confidential files to the press and to Ahmed Chalabi, prosecutable under the Espionage Act of 1917 rather than the Intelligence Act which prescribes a 10 year sentence for revealing the identity of a covert intelligence operative. The Espionage Act is much more severe, including the two year sentence for merely hiding a violator of the act, which would be McClellan's crime and maybe Bush's minimum involvement.
Oo, interesting. I hadn't heard this. Do you have a link to a story, by any chance?
This is as good a place as any for a comment about the current presidency.
I've been reading Exception to the Rulers by Amy Goodman and there is a quotation of a comment made by David M Rubenstein in a rare public appearance on April 23, 2003. It seems the Carlyle Group wants to downplay it's political connections
"When we were putting our board together, somebody came up to me and said, 'Look, there is this guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. Needs some good board positions. Could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth.'
"We put him on the board and he spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones...I kind of said to him after about three years, 'You know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.' He said, 'Well, I think I'm getting out of this business anyway and I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.' And I said, 'Thanks.' Didn't think I'd ever see him again.
"His name is George W. Bush. He became president of the United States. So, you know, if you said to me, 'Name twenty-five million people who would maybe be president of the United States,' he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know."
-Democracy Now! broadcast of Rubenstein's speech, July 3, 2003
Well, I've read a whole lot about this all week, and at this point I have to say I'm cautiously optimistic. Karl Rove is going down if he's indicted for something; otherwise, no. Bush will never fire him, and he'll never resign (unless, I suppose, in case of indictment). As to whether he'll be indicted ... that's an interesting question that obviously we can't answer yet, since Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald is playing his cards pretty close to his chest, and despite there being quite a few relatively discreet leaks from his investigation, we're far from knowing what all he's got and what he's trying to get. (godfry ... what are you thinking? He'll run the 2008 Republican presidential campaign from the White House. Duh. That is, he might shed the title of Deputy Chief of Staff, but not leave.)
I'd really like a link to your source(s) too, Warren, because at this point my read is that the Espionage Act coming into play is unlikely, as opposed to perjury or obstruction of justice--or 18 USC 641, noted by the incredibly intelligent and well-informed John Dean. Man, there have been some really good stories on all this this week; the press briefings from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, of course, as well as the text of the press questions from the Cabinet meeting, and I was fascinated by the Times' account of Cooper's last-minute waiver.
ETA: I just discovered that there was a press gaggle yesterday, in which reporters continued to hassle McClellan. Seems to me some of the non-Rove questions were kind of biting, too, considering Senator Shelby is Republican, etc.
Is Karl Rove Going Down?
Re: Is Karl Rove Going Down?
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