Day: October 25, 2005

Even Plame’s Neighbors Didn’t Know She was CIA

Trish

Reuters:

Marc Lefkowitz, who lives across the street from Plame, told Reuters two FBI agents asked him on Monday if he knew about Plame’s CIA work before her identity was leaked to the press in 2003. Lefkowitz said he told them: “I didn’t know.”

Two lawyers involved in the case said such questioning could indicate that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald intended to charge administration officials for the leak itself, in addition to possible charges for easier-to-prove crimes like perjury and obstruction of justice…

Lefkowitz said Monday was the first time he had been questioned by the FBI in connection with his neighbor. The agents told him they were talking to other neighbors as well…

White House officials were anxiously awaiting the outcome [of the investigation] since any indicted officials are expected to resign immediately. If there are indictments, Bush is likely to make a public statement to try to reassure Americans he is committed to honesty and integrity in government.

Indicting ‘Mr. X’

Jon Ponder

Think Progress:

CBS’ JOHN ROBERTS: Lawyers familiar with the case think Wednesday is when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will make known his decision, and that there will be indictments. Supporters say Rove and the vice president’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, are in legal jeopardy. But they insisted today the two are secondary players, that it was an unidentified Mr. X who actually gave the name of CIA agent V alerie Plame to reporters. Fitzgerald knows who Mr. X is, they say, and if he isn’t indicted, there’s no way Rove or Libby should be. But charges may not focus on the leak at all. Obstruction of justice or perjury are real possibilities. Did Rove or Libby change statements made under oath? Did they deliberately leave critical facts out of their testimony or did they honestly forget? Some Republicans urged Rove to step down if indicted. Not a happy prospect for president Bush.

BREAKING: Indictments Tomorrow

Jon Ponder

If there is only one indictment, Bush will have dodged a bullet:

An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN:

  • One to five indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.
  • The targets of indictment have already received their letters.
  • The indictments will be sealed indictments and “filed” tomorrow.
  • A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

The shoe is dropping.

Raw Story has a slightly different version:

Fitzgerald will seek at least two indictments, the sources say. They note that it remains to be seen whether the grand jury will approve the charges.

Those familiar with the case state that Fitzgerald may not seek indictments that assert officials leaked Plame’s name illegally. Rather, they say that he will focus charges in the arena of lying to investigators. The sources said, however, they wouldn’t rule out charges of conspiracy.

Excerpts from Al Franken’s New Book, The Truth (with Jokes)

Jon Ponder

Here’s a preview of Al Franken’s new book, The Truth (with Jokes):

Iraq: They told us that when we invaded, we’d be greeted with sweets and flowers. They left out the crucial modifier: “exploding.”

Gay marriage: George W. Bush wants to amend our Constitution to make it illegal for gays to marry. But evidently, he has no problem with terrorists getting married. America can’t afford a president who is soft on terrorist marriage. Because unlike gays, terrorists can breed.

Bill Frist diagnosing Terri Schiavo from 800 miles away: The FristCam Act of 2005 would place a video camera in every one of America’s Intensive Care Units. The FristCams would pan the ICUs, and the Senate Majority Leader would give each patient a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.

Bush’s 9/11 bait and switch: Bin Laden must have been furious. Here he had gone to all this trouble to murder thousands of Americans, and Saddam—Saddam, the infidel!—was getting all the credit! Who was the head of al Qaeda?! Who was funding al Qaeda?! Somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border there was a very angry terrorist mastermind.

Moral values: From what I understand, if you cut out all the passages in the Bible where Jesus talks about the poor, about helping out the least among us, you’d have the perfect container to smuggle Rush Limbaugh’s drugs in.

The Social Security “crisis”: The number Bush kept using, $11 trillion, represented the total shortfall from now until the year Infinity. If you think about it, $11 trillion over Infinity years is nothing. Over the first 11 trillion years, that’s just one dollar a year. Easy. After that, it’s over. You’re done. WAl Franken’s book, The Truth (with jokes) comes out today.hat, exactly, is the problem?

Capitol Buzz: McCain Approached for VP

Jon Ponder

Another rumor from the Washington Note:

Steve, just heard from trusted friend that McCain was approached about serving as VP if Cheney has “health problems” or otherwise steps down.

Beyond that, speculation that Miers will step down to be replaced by a Bork-like sub (even better, Bork himself…). In other words, Cheney takes a bullet, a titanic battle over SCOTUS ensued to change the subject. You didn’t hear this from me, but feel free to pass on such unsubstantiated rumors.

Not Buying Bush’s Bellicosity

Jon Ponder

Lacking authority: Within the last hour, the cablers went live for a speech by President Bush in which he urged the United Nations to hold Syria accountable for aiding terrorists and for the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.

His speechifying – the loud, almost shouting, staccato delivery – is like a caricature of Capt. James T. Kirk.

On substance: An investigation by the U.N. confirmed that Hariri’s murder was engineered inside the Syrian government. How – or whether – Syria experiences consequences from this is an open question.

On style: Worst. Speech. Ever. Does he even bother to read the text beforehand? He comes off as being completely unprepared. His speechifying – the loud, almost shouting, staccato delivery – is like a caricature of Capt. James T. Kirk. Has he never watched a replay of himself giving a speech? Does he have any idea how unpleasant that is to listen to?

Obviously, by sounding tough on Syria, Team Bush hopes to reignite some of their long lost swagger. Problem is, if you’re going to swagger, you’d better produce results. They have only produced a crisis.

We are landlords in the Middle East, thanks to Mr. Bush. When neighboring governments have their political rivals rubbed out, we can’t afford to treat it like business as usual. With Bush team in charge, however, we could very well end up igniting a second front in the terror wars.

As I listened to the president, I realized that we are experiencing a crisis of leadership. The credibility of the man who serves as the Leader of the Free World is damaged beyond repair, both at home and abroad. We can no longer trust him, or his message.

Great crises often bring out great leaders. We can only hope that this crisis produces a great leader sooner than later.

Rosa Parks, RIP

Jon Ponder

“Her name is a code word against totalitarian governments. There are really three names that have really resonated in the shanty towns of Third World countries around the world. They are Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Bob Marley. They are more loved by poor people than any other historical figures in recent memory.”

— Douglas Brinkley, speaking about the Civil Rights hero who died in her sleep yesterday at age 92.

Does Bush Have the Intellectual Capacity to ‘Compartmentlize’ Bad News?

Jon Ponder

Incompetent: One thing that has been made abundantly clear in the first five years of the Bush presidency is that Mr. Bush is not a multi-tasker. Instead, like many people who are accustomed to wealth and privilege, he is an inflexible and incurious autocrat who surrounds himself with cronies who work tirelessly to keep reality at bay from their Dear Leader.

Reality has a way of seeping in, however, and now, relatively early in his second term, President Bush is facing real scandals – all of them of his own making. His team is telling the Washington Post that, like presidents Clinton and President Reagan, both of whom faced scandals in their second terms – Mr. Bush will also compartmentalize his troubles and continue to do his job:

Dismissing all the “background noise,” Bush said, “the American people expect me to do my job, and I’m going to.”

“I think I’ve heard that one before,” Mark Fabiani, a former Clinton White House lawyer, said with a laugh yesterday. “But it comes down to the person. Anybody can deliver the line. The question is: Can you compartmentalize these issues so they don’t consume you? And I think Bush’s job is more difficult than Clinton’s because the questions here go right to the heart of the presidency.”

Mr. Fabiani’s point is key: the scandals of the Bush presidency – from lying about the reasons for war to nominating an obvious stooge to the Supreme court to the poor response of his government to the hurricane in the Gulf Coast – are derived from Mr. Bush’s policies (or lack thereof).

Increasingly, what “the American expect” Mr. Bush to do is follow the example of another second term president – Mr. Nixon – and resign.