David Addington set to replace Libby

[sabra]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/359961p-306665c.html

Spares selected if aides indicted

WASHINGTON - The White House was lining up replacements for two top aides yesterday in case they are indicted in the CIA leak investigation, sources said.
The term for the grand jury probing the unmasking of CIA spy Valerie Plame expires today, setting the stage for a decision in the two-year investigation.

The White House was on edge as President Bush's political guru, Karl Rove, and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, awaited word whether they will be indicted for leaking Plame's name to reporters.

A source familiar with Bush's worst-case plans said he would likely tap ex-GOP Chairman Ed Gillespie to replace Rove if he is indicted.

...

If Libby is indicted, Cheney counsel David Addington will replace him as chief of staff, sources close to the Cheney's office say. Addington is another longtime Cheney aide who worked for him at the Pentagon.

[rfranklin]

1. He can join Cheney in retirement.

Rot in hell, Dick.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5202977#5202977

[sabra]

4. thanks

[Hubert Flottz]

3. He's worse than Libby!

He cooked up the torture deal.

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. True, and even in this crazy Admiinistration, he stands out as a paranoid

nutcase. He's also involved in the leak.

But he is super-secretive, to an insane degree. Cheney can count on him for personal loyalty and absolute silence.

[Nothing Without Hope]

6. Here's info on Addington's history and character from Murray Waas:

http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2005/10/i-have-brand-new-national-journal.html
by Murray Wass
Thursday, October 27, 2005

(snip)

Cheney has tried to increase executive power with a series of bold actions -- some so audacious that even conservatives on the Supreme Court sympathetic to Cheney's view have rejected them as overreaching. The vice president's point man in this is longtime aide David Addington, who serves as Cheney's top lawyer.

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.

Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy. He was instrumental in the series of fights with the Sept. 11 commission and its requests for information...

(snip)

Even in a White House known for its dedication to conservative philosophy, Addington is known as an ideologue, an adherent of an obscure philosophy called the unitary executive theory that favors an extraordinarily powerful president.

(snip)