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According to GOP-pushed media logic, someone who steals three of your hubcaps, strips your car down of all the valuable parts, take the license plate and steals your registration should not be charged for all of those crimes because someone else took the first hubcap a little earlier in the day.
Um...yeah. Try again. You lie repeatedly to a federal investigator, you pay the penalty, and no amount of after-the-fact ass-covering obfuscation gets around the fact that Libby lied, repeatedly. If he didn't need to do so because he and those around him did nothing wrong, then why did he lie on multiple occasions? And why did a federal grand jury find it troubling enough to indict him on five felony counts for doing so?
It seems to me that someone is pushing awfully hard to keep Dick Cheney and Judy Miller and all the rest of Scooter's peeps from having to testify publicly under oath.
(H/T to a smart person who came up with the hubcap analogy -- I think it's a great way to explain something that ought to be obvious to people who are being deliberately obtuse while trying to cover their complicit media asses. I'm talking to you Fred Hiatt and Bill Keller.)
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FITZ!
It seems to me that someone is pushing awfully hard to keep Dick Cheney and Judy Miller and all the rest of Scooter’s peeps from having to testify publicly under oath.
Maybe they can get Congress to pass a retroactive law.
C-Span talking about bribes and no bid contracts right now.
Waaah! He started it!
But they did it too…
But this is distracting the Bush White House! In wartime! They’re spending so much money! Patrick Fitzgerald is a partisan! AAAAAAAAAAAA! Shiny things!
God, it’s exhausting, isn’t it?
scooter wins a round in court:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....t/cia_leak
That’s really a big question, isn’t it? If he didn’t do anything wrong, why lie about it?
The simple answer is that lying is pretty much a reflexive action with these people. They don’t see these as lies - for them, it is the truth that exists within the alternate universe in which they live.
Look at Cheney, for crying out loud - he is STILL making the same claims he has been making since Day One, in spite of the Senate Intel Cmte Reports. For HIM, the truth is what he says it is, what he creates in order to get where he wants to go.
Group psychosis - don’t be sucked in.
Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed but I’m feeling like there’s gonna be a whole lot of money and time and energy spent on nailing this guy, only to have The Anti-C, I mean Bush, pardon him. So what’s the point? I know, I know…truth, justice and the American way but WE ALREADY KNOW THE TRUTH.
I’m just sayin’….
Christy,
you write “If he didn’t need to do so because he and those around did nothing wrong, then why did he lie on multiple occasions?” You’re forgetting, he didn’t lie–he’s just easily confused, is a very busy man, was thinking about the war on terror, blah blah blah.
I wonder if he realizes — after repeating the same falsehoods to the grand jury and investigators five times — just how dumb he looks. I suppose he does and doesn’t care.
From CHS, previous post: This is a real person who is fed up with the problems that he sees every single day not being fixed, and who has decided that he has an obligation to stand up and do something to make things better. A real, honest-to-goodness human being who cares about his community and his country.
That’s why we want YOU to run for office, Christy!
Lot of fdl people within driving distance of WV. Plus the fundraising would be phenomenal.
Christy Hardin Smith in ‘08. Think about it.
so just exactly how bad is the greymail decision by the judge?
This is OT back to the last thread, you’re movin’ fast this morning, Christy…must be that effort keeping up with the Peanut….
Re: “A vote is an emotion, looking for a reason.”
Based on the crucible of personal experience I’d say there’s one emotion that trumps fear [and the fearmongers] and that is hope.
That’s what sustains people thru crisis…I’ll bet that’s what kept McCain going thru torture.
We need to show people Dems and liberals and progressives are their source of hope. Lamont and Walz and some others are breaking thru the status quo marketing mediocrity and doing that.
I have a birthday coming up in about a month. My wish list includes a couple of Fitz indictments for, let’s see, Stephen Hadley, Ari Fleischer, and, of course, unka Karl.
And for good measure, one (or ten) for Vice President Richard B. Cheney, who, lest we’ve forgotten, got drunk, shot a man in the face inducing a heart attack, and then covered it up.
Kos has got a couple of good posts this morning. Some idiot booker called him about Hugo Chavez and he smacked her down. Good for him.
Letters ready to take downstairs to the mailbox in the building lobby - there’s a stamp machine there, plus I need to get some batteries for my weather station. Two senators, my congress-critter (from whom I seldom hear, and its website requires going through an opinion poll that gets updated about once a session) and one to Pelosi, because she’s focusing on Chavez and not the election. I’ll let someone else do Reid and co.
On the hubcap analogy: maybe the first hubcap fell off going down the highway - but that’s still not an excuse for not charging the guy who stripped the car!
Walking down the street, you see a fight in progress, one of the two guys gets knocked down, he’s unconscious. The other guy leaves him there. It’s OK to take the unconscious guy’s wallet, the other guy’s the one that beat him up, right?
Prairie Sunshine @
12
“We need to show people Dems and liberals and progressives are their source of hope.”
That’s a great line, Prairie.
I wonder how many people realize that Democrats, very liberal ones, are the reason they’re still around in the first place?
Where would a lot of people be today without: WIC, Welfare, Social Security, SSI, and many other programs that keep people alive?
That would be some ad. “This family died out in the Great Depression. That family froze in their homes….”
Prairie Sunshine @ 12
I’m just lurking but I wanted to add that I have a very good friend who was in a POW camp for 2 years during the Viet Nam war He was exceedingly tortured. He a and few friends finally escaped. It took them 3 months to reach Cambodia.
He came back to the States to heal and THEN went back to Namf for another course because he was so ANGRY. I’ll have to ask him if hope was included with anger. His is avery loving man with many talent including loyality to his family friends and community.
Remind us again, Christy: what’s the lovely prize that Irving could recieve for five felony counts of lying to federal investigators?
I know there’s an all-expenses-paid vacation in that prize package, but how long is the trip?
There’s also the loss of voting priviledges (permanent in some states), suspension and/or revocation of various professional licenses, and an end to that neato security clearance to look at all that nifty super-secret spy stuff.
Anything else?
Is my #14 still in jail? Or has it been rendered to Bulgaria?
bdu, I’ll raise you one:
[Thingwarbler, it hits too close to home for many of us community members. Sort of a Post Traumatic Syndrome thing.]
thingwarbler and others. Please do not use the rape analogy. It hits some too close to home.
Excellent analogy, Christy.
Once the Scooter trial gets some traction in the public consciousness, I’m hoping that “the hubcap analogy” will become as familiar as “the Pottery Barn rule.”
Impeachment Happens- the truth may well have to wait for the civil suit.
This crew, hanging on to their distorted world view as reality proves them wrong again and again, as they facilitate the deaths of millions of innocent people, actively or through inaction, and make the futures of our children and grandchildren bleak; they are the ones for whom the concept of hell was invented.
I am still trying to figure out why Martha Stewart was in fact prosecuted, but they think Libby’s indictment is prosecutorial misconduct?
Another analogy to proffer for us seasoned participants. Remember the plate spinner on the Ed Sullivan Show dashing around the stage keeping those plates all spinning on those slender poles?
These guys can’t spin their plates. Just their lies.
And hey, the Bush Friday morning press grabber to finesse the weekend news cycle is over… have the Dems even bothered to come up with something to get attention at all?
Huh, what’s that you say? They’re over in the corner cowering saying waaaaah, why does Bushie get all the air time…
Here’s a clue…because he can. He also Does.
Gore and Hardin-Smith in ‘08! Just dreaming of the perfect ticket.
OT/EPU Because I don’t find Tim Walz–MN on FDL BlueAmerica, I have put him on my BlueAmerica page and encourage people to donate there:
http://www.actblue.com/page/egregious
Coach of state champs, teacher of the year, many years in the military. A lot to like here.
Can also be accessed at the link under my commenter name.
OT - Full Robert Kennedy Rolling Stone article “Will the Next Election Be Hacked?”
OT: Constant lurker, occasional poster. Sorry to bust in, but this is more than interesting. Mel Sembler has jointed Lieberman’s campaign. http://tinyurl.com/zr55x That link goes to Yahoo news. Sembler is a Republican. But he is oh so much more. Next is a link to an article by John Gorenfeld (he who keeps track the Rev Moon so we don’t have to). http://alternet.org/story/27725/
Sir Sembler’s last gig was on Libby’s defense fund team. It just gets interestinger and interesinger, doesn’t it?
Old School at 11 — I have no idea. Every time I try to pull up PACER to get the text of the decision, my damned laptop shuts down on me this morning. (I’m having issues with it today, and have likely just used it to death the last several months of nonstop work on it.) If anyone can pull the decision off PACER and send it to me, it would be much, much appreciated. You’ll pardon me if I want to read the full decision myself and not just rely on the AP’s interpretation. *g*
Christy, send me the linky
What a great image!
This would make a great ad. - An image of a car being stripped in quicktime, and then a voice over and some one saying “The republican party is ripping you off”, a moving bullet could roll out the names of members of congress implicated in the Abramoff scandal. “Have You had Enough” is jingling in the background
It’s complex because it speaks to more than one issue. It calls the replublicans on their shit without being judgemental. So, in a way it’s neutral. It’s clever without being snooty or preachy. It’s fun and catchy.
I wish I had the money to produce and market it. Damn.
Christy have you tried cleaning out your cache of both offline temp files and cookies? I know its a pain in the ass to re-enter all those cookie-triggering registrations at sites, but I’ve found that I have to do that regularly.
Username @ 25
She got prosecuted because her lawyer arrogantly refused any deals, with an attitude of “dare you to come after us.”
Twisted at 33 — I wish I could, but I can’t even get that far. Stooopid computer today. Arrrrgh.
Any chance to edit thingwarbler at 21? I find this disturbing.
OldSchool @ 11
Yes, yes, please, Christy. How bad does this look? This headline really shook me up and baffled me at the same time:
MSNBC’s coverage of this is so odd that I don’t know what to make of it.
Twisted, maybe the great worm michelloborous ate the comment; it’s not behind the blue curtain.
Username @ 25
I can tell you that conservatives were ticked off about Martha Stewart’s conviction, too. They are, at least, not inconsistent there. Rich people are allowed to lie to lowly investigators.
SharonW — hmm. Interesting. I think somebody’s in a full-blown panic if they are pushing that approach.
Who’s Joel Seidman? He’s listed as the journo on that MSNBC bit, but his title is shown as “producer”.
Mouthpiece? Useful tool? Legitimate journo?
OT: to the last thread: There must be some easy way to link all the hasty, yet hugely important votes that have been thrust on US right before an election. Do most voters really approve of partisan gamesmanship when the bill/action in question is about something as serious as war or the Constitution?
The approval for Iraq came right before the 02 elections. Terror alerts completely stopped after the 04 elections…until 3 months before this election. Now we have the torture bill and the possible attack on Iran. Who in their right mind doesn’t see an attack 2 weeks before a huge election as massively suspicious? The Fundies seem to realize that the gay-marriage inititatives only appear on the agenda right before an election, and if they can get it, anyone can. Thoughts…?
post the case file and i’ll get it
Bill Clinton on OLBERMANN today.
Wow, it turns out that Armitage was a wild man. He not only outed a CIA agent but he threatened to bomb Pakistan. Thank God, we still have statesmen like George “You’re either with us or with the terrorists” Bush and Dick “Truth? You can’t handle the truth” Cheney to expose nefarious characters like Armitage. These are men who have the courage to take responsibility for their actions and give it to others. God bless America!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 32
Ah, you replied before I was done writing my question.
Hey, do you have any type of Ad/Spyware removal tool? I’ve often times found that to be the main culprit of not being able to access sites or frequent shut-downs, a slow down in computer speed and other mishaps. One of the first things I do for others at work who are suffering from such problems is to run such a program.
You can get a great freebie one at ZDNet called Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition by Lavasoft. Be careful that you specifically get that one exactly as named as there are imitators using similar sounding names.
Dale at 23 — wish I could take credit for the analogy, but someone else came up with it — I’m just passing it along because I thought it was an exceptional illustration of the fundamental falsehood of the arguments on this. The first hubcap stealer commits a crime, and ought to face a penalty for it. The next folks that strip the car down? Well, they don’t get a pass just because someone else may have gotten a piece of it first. Period.
There is no exception written into the law to excuse the criminal who gets there second and, in this particular case, Scooter has no one to blame but himself for the lies that came tra la-ing out of his own mouth. Acceptance of responsibility can be a bitch.
OT– Can someone here explain this answer to me from today’s wapo chat?
Well, now, isn’t this special?
WASHINGTON - A prominent Republican who chairs I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s legal defense fund co-hosted a fundraiser Wednesday for Sen. Joe Lieberman, who is running for re-election as an independent after losing the Democratic primary.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....cut_senate
Christy - is this the link you were looking for? http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/op.....2006-a.pdf
broken record alert
it is time we carried the fight to Libby’s supporters.
angie,
Armitage meet bus, courtesy of Dick and George . . . and Karl.
Stephen at 50 — oh, you are an awesome, awesome man! That wasn’t uploaded on the DC Circuit website when I looked for it this morning. Bless you for checking later than I did! Woo hoo — now I can do some reading for you guys. Won’t likely get an article for you until tomorrow, but I can at least get an impression on where things stand based on an actual document instead of interpretive analysis and spin. Bless you!
I’ve realized as the day is moving on that I’m truly losing hope. The Democrats are talking about running on the economy, there are rumblings of pre-emptive attacks on Iran, we’ve got articles showing clear cut vote tampering in GA, and our Congress is actually discussing the positive points of torture.
I know, I’ll get over it, but Jesus I need some good news from somewhere!
I was watching a Battlestar Galactica episode the other day and the president’s political advisor said something like, “In my experience, people vote their hopes, not their fears.”
Problem is, where is the “hope” coming from? Is Gore the only one who knows what it will take to drag this country into the 21st century? Are the Democrats really so stupid that they can’t see the 1000’s of us BEGGING for a message of hope? Can’t they see us screaming at the top of our lungs for someone to stand up to this corrupt administration?
Where is the hope? Until that can be answered, we’re pretty screwed I fear.
Sorry to be OT, but it’s just been one of those mornings.
Please allow me to second the awesome, awesome man part about SP,CPA.
I found this on Raw Story:
http://rjr10036.typepad.com/pr.....blica.html
I don’t have the House bill number. What is the most expeditious way to find out who drafted this amendment to the defense budget bill?
Christy and Mommybrain - thank you very much for the compliments!
Mommybrain @ 56
WAY! Thank you, Stephen Parrish.
Zergle — You need something to make you feel better. I got a link to a YouTube of a Weird Al video yesterday that just cracked me up. (In the “this is so damn stupid, but I cannot stop laughing” sort of way.) Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw
Be forewarned, when I watched this last night, I was tired and really punchy — so it may not be quite as funny as I remember it. That said, if you are in the mood for nerd humor, and a few well-placed Star Trek references, this will give you a chuckle or five.
Oh, and it occured to me reading through the reactions to the Tim Walz ad video in the prior post — one of the Democratic groups in my area did voter registration drives at some fo the high school football games in past years that were really successful. High school football is HUGE here in WV — and I thought I would pass that along as an idea for DFA groups or local Democratic party groups in other areas. You have to do registration for all parties obviously — that’s only fair — but it is a fantastic opportunity to do some voter education and to reach out to a whole portion of the electorate that isn’t necessarily voting. Thought I would give it a mention for everyone.
Stephen, I think that’s HR 5122, which I found here:
Wapo link to letter in protest of HR 5122
I’m not worried about the Libby decision. The judge is continuing to work toward making this case difficult to appeal. See, we allowed all those documents you asked for.
For any individual document requested, the prosecution can go through and blackout any parts that would truly threaten national security. Of course the defense is trying to find out what does Fitzpatrick KNOW, and that might be helped some by this decision.
Correct me if I’m wrong here folks, but I think the decision is about documents that the prosecution already has. Not a question of having to ask the administration for secret stuff, and them saying, no ’cause it’s secret. Need to read thru the case to check this assumption.
Simply put Christy…you are an absolute angel. I needed that sooooooooooooooo bad.
I’m still down about the state of affairs, but at least I’ve got my smirk on. :-)
meta @
62
No, I think this is wrong/ The WaPo links to old information. I’ll keep checking.
Christy, execellent as always, thank you for all your work on this.
meta - thank you for your compliment and for finding the House bill number I was looking for. I saw a link to that bill on www.house.gov, but didn’t have a chance to delve further into that bill. Let’s hope that we can find out who drafted the aforementioned amendment.
meta - I saw your 9:53 am comment after I posted my comment at 9:55.
Prairie Sunshine, egregious and anyone else offended: sorry, didn’t mean to upset.
Mods, thx for pulling the offending comment.
/t
egregious @ 36
She got prosecuted because her lawyer came in and said “I used to be your boss’s boss’s boss” and tried to go over the line assitant’s head, mouthed off the the FBI agents and told her in front of AUSA’s and agents that she didn’t have to take crap from them.
So, this woman listened to her lawyer and refused to tell the truth. The AUSA gave her about a zillion chances to correct her story and she refused to do it.
If you are a prosecutor what can you do in the face of outright defiance? It’s like the Lynn Stewart problem. Everybody in town felt terrible about her being prosecuted, but what else can you do when someone just spits in the eye of the law?
Christy: Is your fan overheating, thus causing it to shut down? You might want to raise the rear of your laptop so it vents better.
Prairie Sunshine @ 12
Yes - that was a Dean slogan and still very much holds true today - HOPE NOT FEAR
Speaking of the Libby decision, has anyone else noticed the spin that a lot of the media seems to be putting on it regarding the “opening” it gives Fitzgerald to drop the case?
As if Fitzgerald is just waiting on the right excuse to let Scooter Libby off scott free for charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Like anyone would believe that.
Is this spin in the media designed to pressure Fitzgerald to drop the charges against Libby? Is it even aimed at Fitzgerald at all?
If not, what would be the objective (and I’m sure there is one) behind the coverage of the Walton decision spinning it as a “golden opportunity” for Fitzgerald to walk away from this case.
It seems weird because who is supposed to believe that Fitzgerald is only continuing his case against Libby against his own judgment out of some feeling of “obligation”. Look forward to hearing thoughts on this.
I am certain I must be missing something because this spin doesn’t seem likely to be effective at influencing either Fitzgerald OR public opinion…
I meant is the laptop overheating? Is the fan going non-stop?
October surprise: another possibility.
Since the right is demonizing leftist bloggers, they might stage a catastrophic internet disaster and then blame it on us.
Most people don’t know what bloggers are capable of. Maybe they will think we ARE capable of messing up the internet for X time.
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 67
Hmm, according to the link provided here for the blog, they got this from a New York Times article that doesn’t seem to support the blog’s portrayal (unless I’ve totally missed something).
The sponsor for the amendment is Duncan Hunter.
Stephen, is this the bill you’re referring to? There’s a few things that have happened over the last few months.
This URL looks like it might not work. I’ll try it anyway….
Here’s the article I was discussing above:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14941062/
And here’s the title (emphasis added):
“Fitzgerald given way out of Libby CIA leak case
Judge says he can dismiss case if classified secrets will be revealed”
And here’s the opening lines:
“The judge in the CIA leak case ruled Thursday that if Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald feels that admitting certain classified documents at the upcoming trial of I Lewis “Scooter” Libby can jeopardize national security, Fitzgerald can then move to dismiss the perjury charges against Libby.”
Yeah, SharonW, that’s the link I saw, too. Thanks!
and if scooter, torture, lieberman, and george allen aren’t enough to make you open a vein, go on over to Billmon and Pen & Sword to read about the inevitability of war with Iran.
SharonW @ 39
I haven’t read the decision yet either, but my understanding of it’s practical effect is that it creates a ton more work for Team Fitz who will now have to slog through goddess knows how many days of closed door hearings arguing over every single page (maybe even every single sentence) of a truckload of probably irrlevant crap that Team Irving is going to insist they need as part of their greymail.
They are just trying to wear him down and cause him to give up out of discouragement.
At the very same time, in what looks suspiciously like a coordinated attack, Clarice Feldman (yes, THAT Clarice) has filed the most logic impaired full of baloney complaint against our tall hero, with the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility.
Why? More time suck and “make work” for Fitz. Yesterday, some wingnut website (which I refuse to link to cause they don’t deserve the boost in click through traffic) posted a notice to all their readers–yup all 3 of ‘em–to email their letters of support for the Clarice Complaint.
Later, that Bolg was “updated” to tell the couple/three readers not to send it to their own Congresscritters, but to send all the letters to Sensenbrenner.
Who wants to bet me that Sensenbrenner is the designated flying monkey to go after FITZ? I’m offering odds? Any takers?
Christy at 60- Man, Zergle wasn’t the only on who needed a good belly laugh. LOL, I need me more Weird Al!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw
Thingwarbler @60 - you are gracious. Thank you.
The scary thing about that evangelical military amendment is that there was once a time when we would have said, no, that’s obviously unconstitutional, the Supreme Court will never let it stand.
We can no longer be sure of that.
looseheadprop - I agree and have discussed a bit of your question above at 73.
The evangelical amendment may also be a right wing voter turnout bomb. Its sponsors may not think it’s going to pass, but want to get a lot of Democrats on record as voting against it, which will be fresh meat for the wingnuts.
thingwarbler @ 69
I forgive you. The analogy was a good one but the subject matter, written in detail as it was, is too hurtful for a lot of people here.
Russ Feingold’s Current Pick a Progressive Patriot Standings:
Sherrod brown 15.9%
Ned Lamont 10.2%
Jim Webb 10.1%
Pete Ashdown 9.7%
Amy Kluobuchar 8.4%
Voting goes until Monday at midnight. If you want to participate, you can vote here
dab from CT at 73 Yes - that was a Dean slogan and still very much holds true today - HOPE NOT FEAR.
Hope versus fear…personally I’m good with ANGER.
lhp at 81 — my guess: this may be Sensenbrenner’s price to pay for putting himself in the Rovian penalty box for the shitstorm Sensenbrenner created earlier in the year over immigration. Is it me, though, or doesn’t all of this extraneous pushing and elbow-throwing just make a committed rugby player want to dig in and beat the living shit out of the other side?
I don’t think the ruling is anything to be surprised about or a big deal. The big deal will be what happens in the relevancy determinations, IMO. So far, Walton has been pretty tight on that, but the far flung theory is partly intended to crack the relevancy door as wide as they can get it, so we’ll just have to see.
What you have is two issues for the classified info out there. First (per Judge Walton, and correctly IMO) is the issue of: is any of that classified info that has already been produced through discovery relevant to Libby’s defense. Second is, of the info that might be relevant to the defense, is there any that Gov will refuse to allow to be used at trial due to its sensitive nature.
Gov had wanted, in essence, to reorder the arguments and say, look - here are the things we do not want used and for those things, Libby needs to show “more than” relevancy - if he doesn’t show “more than” relevancy, it is ok to exclude the docs and still make him go forward with his defense. IMO - that’s a bad argument and Walton ruled correctly.
OTOH, it’s argument that the Spec Pros pretty much had to make, pro forma, to protect it on review and to keep the issue of alignment of parties from becoming an adversarial issue at this stage. Bc of how the appointment has been handled - all in house and not as Indep COunsel - Fitzgerald is in an odd situation. Let’s say CIA or WH or OVP counsel looks at some piece of info that Libby wants to use and says: Nope, we can’t let him use that, we’ll have to drop the case (the greymail situation).
If you had an Indep Counsel, they could fight that some - may not win, but they could definitely fight it. Here, the Spec Pros is in-house with the AG’s office and early on there were some rulings/discussions that indicated the judge was going to treat the Gov agencies and OVP, WH, etc. as “aligned” with the Spec Pros (puts them all on the ’same side’ iow) for purposes of being bound by actions.
This treats those agencies/exec parties and the Spec Pros as being somewhat bound together and bound by the same positions. So if CIA says - nope, won’t turn over - then the Spec Pros would be bound by that decision (in effect, simplifying). Fitzgerald did not let this slide by and made a point of asking tha the judge reconsider the alignment portion of an earlier ruling (this is where the statements were made, for example, about how “yes, there were a lot of documents produced and turned over, but it is bc the SPec Pros office was handing out subpeona’s, not bc the Spec Pros and agencies/offices were aligned and Spec. Pros had constructive control over those offices)
Even though the Spec Pros has been diligent and ahead of the curve on leaving himself able to argue with Gov on these points, I don’t see it happening or happening successfully if they pull out a red flag. This is one of the many reasons that, IMO, inhousing was a really bad idea and I was very angry when it happened. Congress was on such a cusp of ALMOST being ready to appoint an Indep Counsel, if just a flicker had come out publically then that there were suspicions WH or OVP officials may have made false statements IMO we would have had an Indep Counsel and the power and dynamics in this situation would be completely different. But gone is gone. Like the liberty of the people we purchased for bounties and shipped off to Gitmo.
So the issue is really going to fall into Walton’s lap, IMO. How Libby makes his play for his argument and what Walton will buy as being relevant will be the game to watch. The Spec Pros can make pitches, but the Judge is the much more important player in this scenario and relevancy is not a “bright line” test that can be easily applied to something like the “I forgot” defense.
IMO, fwiw and whatever comes out of this in the end, Walton writes some very good opinions. Thank the lord for small favors the band of slavery and torture and kidnap embracing lawyers in the AG’s office can’t put together anything as coherent.
OT, but I finally got a chance to read the whole GQ article, and I noticed yet another lie in the Gerstein press release. And it’s not only lying, but lying about lying!
Actual GQ quote:
So Cain is saying Joe’s press liaison lied about how accessible he was to the press. And Dangerstein claims Cain is the one who said that, and then makes a big point about it not being true!
I just had to share. What a twit!
lhp at 81 Who wants to bet me that Sensenbrenner is the designated flying monkey to go after FITZ? I’m offering odds? Any takers?
Wow…hard to believe someone from Wisconsin could be in charge of trying to take down a critical federal investigation. Maybe they WANT someone sort of normal to lead the charge, so it doesn’t look like the usual winger actions.
Yoohoo, fdl people from Wisconsin??
I do know one pol from Wisconsin, will check in and see what I can find out.
Good on ya, t-warbler.
but what else can you do when someone just spits in the eye of the law?
Apparently you can cover up for their crimnal acts by claiming its a state secret if they violate the law, then you can misrepresent (aka as lying) to the American people and ot the court, court and then you can draft up some legislation making the crimes legal and then you can just go kidnap, or buy as slaves, a bunch of innocent people and stick them in an overseas hellhole for years with no habeas and no right to ever have any trial of any kind, and that’ll pretty much make it “All OK”.
It’s just not every lawyer thinks to do that or has the full force and authority of the United States of American behind them when their “client” breaks the law.
meta @ 87,
Thanks for that link. We need a Democrat in the Senate so much here in Ohio, and Sherrod’s great.
Mary @ 90,
honey, you bring new meaning to the words ‘reading comprehension’.
God Bless you.
angie @ 49
I think the point is supposed to be that Armitage is an independent type, and not in with the Cheney-Rove-Rumsfeld cabal (since he worked for Powell, that’s plausible.) So if he’s going along with the “it was my fault,” Weisman thinks it’s not just because he’s been told to take the fall, since he’s not the type to just be a good soldier when he’s told to.
Armitage definitely seems to be supporting this story line, so Weisman seems to be right that the questioner’s theory about it being part of the battle between the Cheney crowd and the Powell/State crowd doesn’t hold water.
However, even though Armitage may have fought them on foreign policy, that doesn’t mean he’s not in line with them in other ways (his is a longtime think-tank conservative, after all.) The “two factions fighting” is just another oversimplified media narrative.
I think they probably said “this could be really bad for the administration and conservatives in general. You’ve already been cleared by Fitzgerald, so you’re not going to jail, but if you take responsibility it’ll help us increase pressure on Fitz, and maybe we can sweep the whole thing under the rug.”
egregious — Sensenbrenner definitely needs to be FIRED and replaced, he’s earned it so many damned ways to Sunday. He’s being opposed by Brian Kennedy (D) in WI-05.
Anybody got the stats on the WI-05 race?
*xyz @ 73
I don’t know, but think it may be a couple of things, attack him (Fitz) personally, point out he has a whole truckload of additional really tedious work ahead of him and dangle an out in front of him in the hopes that on a bad day, when he is feeling tired he will give in?
Morons
Or, is this in an attempt to once a agian try the “overzealous, out of control, ego maniacal” prosecutor slander?
Morons
They just keep on measuring him by their own pathetic standards. They expect him to react the way they would, like a spinless wimp with no character.
Who was said that” Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it” ?
Our boy Fitz has lots more character yet to reveal
meanwhile, one of the other hubcap thiefs has resurfaced:
US had threatened to bomb Pak. back to the stone age: Musharraf
New York, Sept. 22 (PTI): The United States had threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age” if it did not cooperate in the war against terror after the September 11 attacks on America, President Pervez Musharraf has said in a startling disclosure.
“The threat came from the then Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was delivered to his intelligence director,” Musharraf said in an interview to CBS news. “The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,’” recalled Musharraf. It was insulting, he said adding “I think it was a very rude remark.”
While the White House and the State Department declined to comment on Musharraf’s remarks, Armitage told CNN that he never threatened to bomb Pakistan. Maintaining that he would never say such a thing and did not have the authority to do it, he said he did give a tough message to Pakistan — “either with us or against us”. He wondered how his message was recounted by Musharraf differently.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/.....221658.htm
Christy Hardin Smith @ 89
Fitz is not a “beat the living shit out of the other side” kinda guy. He is more that sort of patient sorrowful parent “this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you” kinda guy.
He doesn’t do things cause he is mad. He does things because it is his duty to do them and because he believes it is the right thing to do. Calmly, rationaly, without a lot of frou frou.
He is so diffe