Cheney: I'm not a crook, just a liar

[cynatnite]

It's CYA vs. CIA in Cheneyville today. The VP sent out a "secured undisclosed source" to regurgitate the latest spin to Bloomberg News, which is that while Cheney did tell Scooter about Valerie Plame he committed no indictable crime. Says a "Senior Republican with ties to Cheney":

The disclosure doesn't indicate that the vice president did anything wrong ...The person declined to make a similar statement about Libby ... (and) sought to portray Cheney as uninvolved in any violation of a 1982 law forbidding the revelation of a covert intelligence agent's identity. The official noted that both Cheney and Libby had the security clearances necessary to discuss Plame's identity.

There's his defense in a nutshell. Sure, Cheney lied like a sonofabitch on Meet the Press, but telling lies on Russert's show isn't a crime. If it were, DC would become a ghost town. (Hmmm ...)

So Cheney's new posture can be summed up as "I Am Not a Crook: A Liar, Yes. But Not a Crook."

http://nightlight.typepad.com/nightlight/2005/10/see_dick_run_im.html

[Skidmore]

1. So now he's lying about being a crook?

Man has no shame.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Cheney v. Scooter: the dumbos are turning against each other.