Conason: Fitzgerald is no Ken Starr

[CatWoman]

The same pundits who are absurdly smearing Fitzgerald as a partisan zealot were notably silent during the Whitewater disgrace.

By Joe Conason

With the mounting anticipation that Bush administration officials will be indicted in the CIA leak investigation, we have arrived at the stage that was always inevitable: a wave of preemptive attacks on special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and his expected prosecutions.

While the attackers have various motives, their arguments tend to share the same specious themes: that the special counsel has "run amok"; that he is pursuing the "criminalization of politics"; that no crimes were committed except possibly in covering up administration misbehavior, which supposedly are not crimes worth prosecuting; and that Fitzgerald is somehow comparable to Kenneth W. Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel whose gross abuse of his office led to its abolition.

To anyone familiar with the most basic facts about Fitzgerald's prosecution, the quarreling with him and his methods simply sounds stupid. Do the Republican partisans who claim that he is running a "political" investigation realize that John Ashcroft's deputy appointed him? Do those same Republicans remember that the president endorsed his appointment and the purposes of the investigation? Do they know that the original demand for an investigation came from former CIA director George Tenet?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/10/21/miller_times/

[freethought]

1. Speaking of George Tenet

there was speculation that he might spill his guts. This was only "scuttlebut" from some less-than-reliable sources. I am wondering if he going to turn on * , not wanting to take the all of the blame for the Iraq fiasco.

[CatWoman]

2. George "I helped Bush get his war on, and all I got was this lousy Medal

of Freedom" Tenet.

[Cha]

3. weisberg is so Busted!

"The comparisons between Fitzgerald and Starr sound especially bizarre coming from pundits who failed to criticize the Whitewater prosecution back when their dissent might have mattered. In Slate, for instance, Jacob Weisberg accuses Fitzgerald of "Ken Starr-style foolishness" that may lead to "creative crap charges" -- presumably meaning indictments for perjury, conspiracy or obstruction of justice. And New York Times columnist John Tierney retrospectively criticizes the weakness of Starr's case against Bill Clinton.

My recollection is that Weisberg -- and others like him who now complain so bitterly about Fitzgerald -- voiced few criticisms of Starr or the Whitewater investigation. My additional recollection is that many of these same writers felt we simply must learn the "truth" about the ancient Arkansas land deal, even though it had nothing whatsoever to do with Clinton's presidency, national security or weapons of mass destruction, and therefore Starr's unpleasant methods, such as indicting various people on "creative crap charges" that had nothing to do with Whitewater, had to be accepted."

What's weisberg's swarmy agenda?

[cantstandbush]

4. His swarmy agenda is called PNAC. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

5. About time for Laura to dish with Katie on "Today" to announce

THERE'S A VAST LEFT WING CONSPIRACY OUT TO GET THE PRESIDENT!!!

[Mme. Defarge]

6. George Tenet

"Do they know that the original demand for an investigation came from former CIA director George Tenet?"

I was not aware of this, but am not all that surprised.