Take all the mushroom cloud clips from Greenwald’s “The Truth About Iraq” and add the 16 words, and ask all the Congresspeople who approved the war, if they would have voted for without these warnings.

Those 16 words that Joe Wilson resisted, capped a systemic campaign that Cheney engineered, to guarantee his no-bid, book-cooking, military-industrial pals would get their trillion-dollar war.

SO this isn’t just a matter of plugging a leak in a rogue administration’s shrinking inflatable lifeboat, although that would make a great cartoon.

The Trial of Scooter Libby is the really the keyway to a bigger, MASSIVE door of blood-sweat-and-tears-level guilt; blood for the death and crippling of thousands of American soldiers; sweat for a trillion dollars of hard earned tax money: and tears for the mothers, brothers, fathers and wives, the sisters and the friends, of every fallen hero.

Two points that I have missed in this particular conversation but are particularly relevant:

1) I feel that the reason that Fitz never indicted any of the Bush Administration people that disclosed Plame’s name is, as Emptywheel terms it “Instadeclassification”, i.e. the theory that Addington testified to that if the President or the Vice President says something is declassified than it is. Glenn Greenwald and Jack Balkin can have a field day about this horsehockey – but the fact of the matter remains that Fitz probably could not have won a trial if he had indicted any of the leakers.

2) My second point is semi-related. The standard in a civil matter is much less stringent. I will be very interested to see if the government decides to settle with Wilson and Plame in their civil law suit. For the lay people, think OJ Simpson. While it is pretty clear to anyone with a brain that OJ was guilty, the DA could not prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil standard, being much lower, allowed the family to “win” that case. (I say “win” because they of course have never actually collected a judgment).

It is absolutely 100 percent clear from the testimony in the Libby case that this leak destroyed Ms. Plame’s career and that Cheney and his ilk, as Scarecrow has made crystal clear, did so maliciously. (for you litigator types out there, I don’t know the tort laws in this particular field, but I would be shocked if this case does not meet all of the relevant benchmarks)

Bottom line – we can all wish for Cheney, et al to get indicted, it’s not going to happen. The great irony of the Clinton Wars is, however, that Cheney is going find it very difficult to quash the Wilson’s subpoena. A Cheney deposition would certainly make fascinating reading….

I never in a zillion years would’ve thought of something so direct as the ‘pulling’ of the WTC towers on 9/11 as a direct benefit to Halliburton by eliminating their asbestos ‘problem’ and the related direct benefit to Richard “Dick” Cheney. Wow!

THE DIANE REHMS SHOW IS FOCUSED ON THE LHBBY TRIAL RIGHT NOW….1800-4338850…DRSHOW@WAMU.ORG

SORRY I PUT THIS ON THE LAST THREAD…IF NOT TODAY SEND IN A QUESTION OR PHONE CALL TOMORROW DURING THE FRIDAY ROUND UP

My country has been increasingly hard to recognize in recent years, and I’ve become correspondingly cynical. But I still somehow believed that when the curtains were pulled back on abuses like Cheney’s that no amount of raw political muscle, partisan discipline and working of the unseen levers of power could save the power of the abuser.

The prospect that any American could be beyond accountability for such abuse of power is disturbing. The prospect that Dick Cheney may be operating with such impunity is horrifying.