Robert Parry: Last Plamegate Worry for Bush-Cheney

[Fridays Child]

Last Plamegate Worry for Bush-Cheney

It’s a well-worn talking point for George W. Bush’s supporters to say there was no underlying crime beneath former White House aide I. Lewis Libby’s conviction for obstructing justice, a debatable point itself. But the evidence is clear there was a larger cover-up conspiracy – and it could still unravel.

The problem for prosecutors has been that the cover-up conspiracy involves the top two executive officers of the U.S. government, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, meaning that the standards of proof required and concerns over the nation’s well-being if charges were brought have risen to near prohibitive levels.

Which is why the question of whether Libby will be sent off to jail to start serving his 20-month sentence before his appeals are exhausted is so consequential. While many Libby supporters are confident that President Bush will pardon Libby before leaving office, it is less clear that Bush will act before Election 2008.

That means if U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton orders Libby to start his jail term in July while his appeals proceed – as it now appears the judge will – Bush will be faced with the prospect of Libby serving more than half his sentence before November 2008 and a risk that Libby finally might cooperate with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

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[poverlay]

1. That would be nice, but Libby's a true believer and I don't see him giving up because he's going to

jail.

[Mr Rabble]

2. Libby isnt going to talk.

30 months might be a tough stretch, but Libby is likely to keep his mouth shut and become a hero to the wing-nuts ala Ollie North.

Keep in mind, he isnt going to gen-pop due to his connections anyway, so it could be far, far worse.

[H2O Man]

8. I think you are right.

I think he'll stick it out, and come out without saying a word. It's a significant stretch of time, but Libby seems like he has made a firm decision not to talk.

[Redbear]

3. I think Bush pardons Libby within the next 10 days.

I agree Libby is a true believer, but George and Dick can't take that chance.

[malaise]

5. He wouldn't dare

If I were speculating I'd say someone close to the case would more likely 'disappear'.

[malaise]

4. Maybe Libby will have a July 4th weekend heart attack

like Ken Lay and end up scattered among those aspen (or somewhere else on the planet). No pardon is trouble for Rove, Bush and Cheney.

[KoKo]

6. A little more from the article Nail's It!

Second, the evidence is overwhelming that the administration conducted a cover-up of the Plamegate facts, relying not only on their own false statements about the leak itself but enlisting foot soldiers in the Washington press corps and among Republicans in Congress to continue smearing Wilson to this day and thus confuse the American public.

From the start, Bush and Cheney appear to have sensed that they could make the cover-up work if they transformed it into a political spat. To a great extent, they have been proven correct in that assumption.

Now, their last remaining Plamegate concern is that “Scooter” Libby might calculate that he stands a better chance of reducing his time in jail if he tells the whole story rather than trust that his loyal silence will be rewarded by a pardon from a thankful President Bush.

The next move in this four-year-old chess match between those who want to hide the truth and those who want to expose it rests with Judge Watson and whether he sends Libby off to jail now rather than later.

[Fridays Child]

7. Everything is smoke and mirrors with these people.

It may be true that Cheney has not so much as said boo to Libby, since his indictment but I can see how they might want the public to believe that they're estranged. They're probably the best of friends and will take up publicly, right where they left off, just as soon as Bush pardons Libby. But if that won't be happening until after November of next year, as some have suggested, I only hope that the judge throws Libby in jail, now or as soon as it's legally permitted.

The guy needs to pay.

[sofa king]

9. I used to say his ass will never touch concrete....

...But since I've seen Jack Abramoff mosey into Club Fed I've begun to think otherwise.

We're dealing with murderous sociopaths here--and history will prove me exactly right on that score, I promise. But I'd forgotten that at least two of the murderous sociopaths--Cheney and Rove--are on the outside and always will be. I think Abramoff and Libby know that far better than we do.

Jail actually puts Abramoff and Libby in a far more convenient place for Rove and Cheney than freedom ever could, because if they talk in jail, Dick and Karl will know about it, and shortly thereafter a family member will be threatened, or a second home will blow up somewhere, or someone will get the shiv, and the rat won't be able to do a thing about it.

Nope, those guys--and Gonzales, too, if there's time enough to convict him--are in for the full pull, and they'll happily do their time without ever speaking a word about their volumes of crimes.

Because if they talk, ever, they're dead.

[jazzjunkysue]

11. True. As delusional as Jack was, he's inside, but he's also singing like Caruso.

The standard move when the control of the media or prosecutor fails is to give up an unimportant crumb, just enough to get one's face off the TV or out of the gillotine.

If Libby goes in and asks to negotiate with Fitz, he'll likely do it with some small item that is not directly connected to this case, and he'll do it with Cheney's blessing.

It will be some small thing about something else, in a case that's not already underway. It will be something that can't possibly see the light of day until after they're all out of office and the smaller stuff is abandoned.

These scoundrels will do anything and say anything to get their way.

But I think B* may like these boys on ice, No access to reporters, less reporting on their families, less room for more to leak out.

They still have much to protect.

[sofa king]

12. I don't think Jack is singing the right tunes, though.

Like you said, I think he's talking all about stuff that will never actually be prosecuted. He's certainly not talking about the 9/11 terrorists on his casino boat, or his relationship with Mossad, or how he put up the money to support that army of lawyers in Florida in 2000, or his financial ties to terrorist groups in the Philippines and South African white supremacists.

Those are the songs they're hoping we'll never learn.

[jazzjunkysue]

10. Ahhhhhh. The golden oldies. “Out West, where you vacation, the aspens

will already be turning,” Libby wrote. “They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.”

This is a great thumb-nail, down and dirty explanation of the entire mess, and the likely implications.

Send it to anyone who wants to figure it all out in 10 minutes or less.

[Terri S]

13. in a way I feel like this is unfortunate too..but before the arrows start flying...

Libby deserves his sentence and more, but a part of me is saying...here we go again, some small fry is taking the fall, and the real criminals are going free. It happened with Abu Graib, it happens all the time. Whether he goes to jail or is pardoned, the real criminals are skating free. There's some sense of justice in his being convicted, but not REAL justice. If real justice occured, Cheney would have been the one imprisoned.

I wonder if it is just naive idealism to ever espect real justice to happen in this behind-the-looking-glass world.