NYT: For Bush, Effect of Investigation of C.I.A. Leak Case Is Uncertain

[Pirate Smile]

By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: July 24, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 23 - His former secretary of state, most of his closest aides and a parade of other senior officials have testified to a grand jury. His political strategist has emerged as a central figure in the case, as has his vice president's chief of staff. His spokesman has taken a pounding for making public statements about the matter that now appear not to be accurate.

For all that, it is still not clear what the investigation into the leak of a C.I.A. operative's identity will mean for President Bush. So far the disclosures about the involvement of Karl Rove, among others, have not exacted any substantial political price from the administration. And nobody has suggested that the investigation directly implicates the president.

Yet Mr. Bush has yet to address some uncomfortable questions that he may not be able to evade indefinitely.

For starters, did Mr. Bush know in the fall of 2003, when he was telling the public that no one wanted to get to the bottom of the case more than he did, that Mr. Rove, his longtime strategist and senior adviser, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, had touched on the C.I.A. officer's identity in conversations with journalists before the officer's name became public? If not, when did they tell him, and what would the delay say in particular about his relationship with Mr. Rove, whose career and Mr. Bush's have been intertwined for decades?

more at

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/politics/24bush.html?

[Cha]

1. Yeah, rove keeps bush in the dark

like a stinky mushroom.

[SpiralHawk]

2. What did Bush know, and when did he know it? Or is he a know-nothing?

Or did Bush order it after Karl and Big Dick dreamed up the idea of Treason for Political Gain?

[peacetalksforall]

9. If it's about revenge, then both Bush and Cheney know. The marrow

of their bones consists of revenge. Yer ether witus or ginstus.

[lovuian]

3. Heres the great statement!!!

Mr. Bush has yet to address some uncomfortable questions that he may not be able to evade indefinitely.

How long can they say this is a Ongoing Investigation!!!

[pfitz59]

4. Nothing sticks to Teflon George!

No matter how hot the fire! The guy is a practiced liar without a conscience. I'm sure he sleeps soundly..... Plame-gate is a non-issue in the "georg-i-verse".

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. Reagan was truly teflon coated, despite what the press

or the Dem majority said; only Iran-Contra was able to even slightly tarnish him with the general public. Bush 41 seemed to suffer more from that scandal than Reagan, but not enough to overcome the Rove's mentor, Atwater's machine.
Bush, on the other hand, doesn't seem truly teflon coated to me; as the press coverage of Rove's treason heats up, along with the continuing war coverage, his approval ratings are in the toilet. IF the MSM begins to do it's job, and sticks with it, and IF the Dems, under Dean's leadership, don't give an inch, Bush will indeed go down, and leave office in disgrace.
He is not invulnerable,
But those are two very big, uncertain "IF's"

[Fovea]

5. Where does the buck stop?

In the days of Harry Truman, we knew exactly where.

In the days of Bush**, there is no stopping the buck, it is coated with oil and is passed so quickly it may eventually ignite.

[Ksec]

6. Bush has been behind this the whole time

Id bet my right nut on it.

[Starfury]

8. I love *'s picture in the article - a bit red in the face?

More:

The special prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has kept a tight curtain of secrecy around his investigation. But he spent more than an hour in the Oval Office on June 24, 2004, interviewing Mr. Bush about the case. Mr. Bush was not under oath, but he had his personal lawyer for the case, James E. Sharp, with him.

Neither the White House nor the Justice Department has said what Mr. Bush was asked about, but prosecutors do not lightly seek to put questions directly to any president, suggesting that there was some information that Mr. Fitzgerald felt he could get only from Mr. Bush.

Allan J. Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University in Washington, said the lesson of recent history, for example in the Iran-contra case under President Ronald Reagan, is that presidents tend to know more than it might first appear about what is going on within the White House.

"My presumption in presidential politics is that the president always knows," Mr. Lichtman said. "But there are degrees of knowing. Reagan said, keep the contras together body and soul. Did he know exactly what Oliver North was doing? No, it doesn't mean he knew what every subordinate is doing."

[Pirate Smile]

10. My presumption in presidential politics is that the president always knows

"My presumption in presidential politics is that the president always knows," Mr. Lichtman said.

I like that line.

Bush gets away with way too much because people assume he is clueless.

That presumption needs to get flipped.

He is responsible for everything that has gone on in his Administration and in his name.