Washington on precipice as CIA leak storm set to break

[rodeodance]

The eleventh hour.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051023/wl_afp/usjusticepolitics_051023202032;_ylt=Aja5iiDh_IkASqJhXOKyYqKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-
Washington on precipice as CIA leak storm set to break

Sun Oct 23, 4:22 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Rife with rumors, Washington is braced for a political earthquake over an intricate CIA leak scandal, with a special prosecutor apparently narrowing in on key aides to
President George W. Bush and the office of Vice President
Dick Cheney.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has spent 22 months investigating whether senior White House aides committed a crime by blowing the cover of spy Valerie Plame to avenge her husband Joseph Wilson's fierce criticism in 2003 of the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.

.....

"Reading the tea leaves, it looks like something more is going on now," said Katy Harriger, a law professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, who has written two books on previous presidential investigations.

"There is some speculation that it might be that Cheney is in the sights as well and that is very big," she told AFP, noting that Fitzgerald may have moved away from the original scope of the inquiry and be mulling wider charges such as conspiracy or perjury.

Bush critics are salivating, because they at last see hope that the White House will pay for what they see as lies and half truths told to grease the path to war.

[donheld]

1. "What they see as lies and half truths told to grease the path to war."

That this is a surprise to anyone baffles and disgusts me.

[rodeodance]

2. yes, me also!

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

29. Please note my user name.

We desperately need a return to the fairness doctrine.

[annabanana]

3. OH yeah!

Rating that puppy UP!

[H2O Man]

4. You own

your lies.

[leftchick]

5. Good morning Mr. Waterman...

It is going to be a wonderful week for a change isn't it? I may even tune in to faux news and see how they spin this just for the fun of it.

[H2O Man]

8. It will be

a historic week. I, too, will watch a bit of Fox for a giggle.

[kohodog]

13. What's a little perjury among friends?

They're already spinning away I'm sure. They're hoping to tell everyone that there was no underlying crime so lying to a GJ is nothing that should matter. Gee, they didn't sound like that when Clinton was being impeached.

These people have truly lost their way, as have their followers.

[Orsino]

19. A sad week for America...

...but a bit cathartic, I hope, as with a diagnosis of cancer. Horrifying to learn of the rot that infects us, but reassuring that some mechanisms to treat it still exist.

And, yeah, some big belly laughs.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

30. In that case, W owns a treasure of bullshit.

I hope it hits the fan this week and ends up all over him.

[Peace Patriot]

6. A fairly tantalizing article. "Washington is rife with rumors..."

We'll see.

[grytpype]

7. Cheney is surely a co-conspirator, but can Fitz catch him?

God, I hope so!

[hippiegranny]

24. Bushie too...

... but he'll probably be spared. As long as it completely kneecaps him and any other wicked plans he was programmed to carry out, that will be fine with me.

[grytpype]

25. Yeah, I'll settle for Bush being crippled.

I don't need to see Bush in jail (yet), just fix it so he can't do much more harm.

[ginnyinWI]

33. yep

I think the best punishment * could have is to have to stay IN office. He's always escaped previous screw-ups by quitting. Let him be the "dead chicken hung around the necks" of GOP voters until they are cured of voting for incompetent people, as Molly Ivins said.

[Hekate]

9. Popcorn's in the nuker; Schadenfreude Dance is cued on the CD

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Hekate

[Eurobabe]

10. Got the Taittinger in the fridge

and the glasses on the counter.

[bluestateguy]

11. Sorry. I just can't be optimistic anymore

I'd love to be wrong, and maybe I am, but there have just been too many door slams over the last 5 years (and promises from certain DUers, you know who you are, that the latest scandal of the week guarantees that "Bush is toast"), to be hopeful.

[cassiepriam]

16. Yes, the repugs hold all the cards. BUT if anyone could do this it is Fitz

He has the personality and talent to connect all the dots, and build a case, as well as to outsmart the con artists. And sooner or later, because so many people were involved in wrong doing, someone had to sing. These people care only for themselves, they would do anything to save their own skins. Also, the repugs pissed off a lot of people on the way to the top. Might be more than one person who wants to burn them. Lastly I am sure the crooks got sloppy for the very reason you mention. They got away with every thing, why be careful? Sloppiness may be a part their downfall. Hubris.

[tex-wyo-dem]

34. I understand your pessimism, and have to admit that I've been...

in that boat right along with you for the most part.

The optimism I hold on this is that past indiscretions, crimes and blatant incompetence has been whitewashed and ignored by a complacent and conspiring media, not to mention an entire political party in lock step marching right behind their beloved leader.

Now: 1.) I see a story that is potentially so explosive that it can not possibly be ignored, spun or whitewashed by the media, 2.) * is now officially a very unpopular pResident and 3.) the Rethug party is showing signs of serious disarray.

I can only hope that truth will finally prevail this time.

[meganmonkey]

12. I sort of wish I could block all this out until the indictments

are announced. I'm going a little loopy!

:crazy:

[MADem]

14. The Legacy of the Monkeyking

He wanted to be like Reagan, and he ended up like Nixon--but without the foreign policy talent....

[lostnfound]

15. "Bush critics are salivating"

would they ever write "Clinton critics are salivating"?

I'm not salivating. I'm hopeful that justice will be done.

[C_U_L8R]

17. Strike Up The Band...

It's Frog March Time.


hahahhahahaha

(and yes we are salivating.... for justice)

[Cults4Bush]

18. Your lies become you, bushco... oh yes they do.

Abu Ghraib is your emotional discharge if only it were justice on a swift horse as well.

[1932]

20. Notice how people's reaction to leak investigation is NOT:

"Impossible! There is no way Cheney and Bush would have done something like this!"

Nobody I've read or talked to thinks that an abuse of power and jeopardizing lives and national security in order to score political points is so out of character with this administration that it's impossible to imagine these allegations being true.

I think even with Monica Lewinsky -- even after going through the Gennifer Flowers thing -- some people thought the allegations were not possible. There's no such resistance on even a small scale with the Plame investigation.

The media and the public isn't acting like they'd be shocked if anyone were indicted. They're wondering how high it will go, and this reaching the highest levels is, for most people, utterly conceivable.

[No Exit]

27. What a good point. Also notice

how the Hollywood crime glitterati (the talking heads who discuss the latest crimes on cable news) have already convicted a 16-year-old in the slaying of Daniel Horowitz's wife (even though the kid has just been arrested), yet the repukes such as Kay Bailey Hutchinson are scrupulously reminding us that an indictment is not a finding of guilty.

[1932]

28. For one you have to accelerate the narrative arc for the sake of good

entertainment. For the other you have to interrupt the logical arc for the sake of political survival.

[No Exit]

31. Well, I hope when the play is written, that it ends up with these words:

"The S.S. George W. Bush went down today... there were no survivors."

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. More editorializing: "intricate CIA leak scandal"

It's neither "intricate" nor "complex" nor "complicated." The new meme that this is some inscrutable piece of arcana is nothing but another attempt to minimize and deflect from its obvious criminality. The AP editors should be ashamed of themselves for letting that shifty editorializing into their news pieces.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. "Moved away from the original scope"

Fitz is authorized to follow the investigation where it leads. That is his mandate, as explicitly stated in his recently published document. There is no "original scope" - the scope of the investigation was left OPEN at its origin...by design.

[tonekat]

23. New rule!

It's to be referred to as "...the failed Bush administration..." Repeat as needed. I hope to soon see things in print such as "...Karl Rove, speaking from his cell in Federal prison, today said..."

[No Exit]

26. I want the planets to spin out of their orbits. I want

cats to fly and birds to walk. I want the sun to rise in the west and go down in the east. I want snow to fall upwards. I want Osama Bin Laden to stand up, wearing a suit and tie, and declare that he is running for Congress from the great state of Alabama.

I want Dick Cheney arrested. I want them all arrested and detained at Abu Ghraib.

[snappyturtle]

32. That's the most.....

colorful "storyline" I've read in a long time! Thanks. Maybe Southpark could do something wonderful with your imagery!:applause: