Posted on 10/24/2005 1:16:10 PM PDT by churchillbuff
As the White House and Republicans brace for possible indictments in the CIA leak probe, defenders have launched a not-so-subtle campaign against the prosecutor handling the case. "He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things," one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was tapped nearly two years ago to find out whether anyone in the White House broke a federal law by blowing the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame after her husband, Joseph Wilson, debunked administration claims about Saddam Hussein's nuclear activities.
President Bush recently praised Fitzgerald on NBC's "Today" show, saying: "The special prosecutor is conducting a very serious investigation. He's doing it in a very dignified way, by the way, and we'll see what he says."
But now friends of the White House have started whispering that the Brooklyn-raised prosecutor is overzealous after it became clear that Bush political mastermind Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, are in Fitzgerald's cross hairs.
Such hints surfaced publicly for the first time yesterday when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), armed with comments that sources said were "shaped" by the White House, suggested Fitzgerald might nail someone on a "technicality" because they forgot something or misspoke.
"I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment ... it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime, and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste," Hutchison said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Fitzgerald was first tasked with finding the Plame leaker, but his mandate expanded to include counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, intimidation of witnesses or destruction of evidence, should anyone undermine his probe.
There were several reports yesterday that Fitzgerald could warn people they've been indicted as soon as today, and that the grand jury could be called in for an unusual session tomorrow, but his office declined to comment.
I said it before, I'll say it again, whether he realizes it or not, Fitzgerald is doing Al Qaeda's bidding by going after the individuals that have architected a policy that has made us all safer, and has liberated 40 million people.
Again, I would hope that if there is indictments, they are followed immediately by pardons so that these people can get back to work.
Rush was pushing this line today, too. Essentially, perjury is no big deal. Well then, why doesn't Sen. Hutchison introduce a bill that repeals the prohibition on perjury, or the criminal sanctions for perjury?
When Clinton committed perjury, I thought it was a very big deal. He got and deserved impeachment. He should have been convicted and ousted by the Senate. I'm not going to now turn around and adopt the Carville claim that perjury is no big deal. Any conservative who uses that line now (but who condemned Clinton back then) is a hypocrite.
>"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things,"
!
The longest lasting troll on FR.
That's almost exactly what Carvill et al said about Ken Starr. Almost an exact quote.
It's clear what this is by The New York Daily News: they're trying to bait Fitzgerald, claiming their "sources in the White House" are trashing him, hoping this will piss off Fitzgerald to get the indictments they want to see.
I wonder if THEY (Daily News, MSM, etc.) have suspicions now that the story they WANTED to tell might not be happening??
"Ken Starr can tell Fitzgerald what it's like to be a prosecutor who gets slimed by people in the government or their political allies."
But this time the MSM will be rushing to his defense instead joining in the character assassination.
I've been here a long time, yes. I was here rooting for the impeachment of Clinton. You came later -- after Clinton was gone. You've got a lot of gall to call me a troll.
"Fitzgerald is doing Al Qaeda's bidding..."
BWAHAHAAHAAAHAAAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!
Who said this quote from the article?
Not even remotely true, but you hate the President, so run with it. It's all you do here anyway.
The obvious difference, of course, being that when the left seeks to "slime" someone the effort is given legitimacy by the MSM, whereas when Republicans do it the story is all about the nasty effort to attack the messenger whose just doing his job.
Honestly, at this point I just wish, one way or another, the investigation would end. Lets get some damn results out there.
Note that the quote is not attributed. Who, exactly, is this White House "ally?"
NY Daily News is more of a tabloid than anything else.
Good analysis.
They don't have to talk about the White House -- they could have mentioned Hannity today. He was putting out a bunch of negative stuff on Fitzgerald. When Starr was being attacked, Hannity and I were in agreement that Carvillian smearing of the prosecutor was wrong. I wish Hannity would stick to those principles and not adopt a new face now.
What matters to our country is that this minor legal probe not be turned into a rallying cry that the war in Iraq is illegitimate. Nothing could be further from the truth. Joe Wilson is an established liar and left wing kook who was used in a thankfully failed effort to undermine the war. But are republicans up to the task of explaining this to the American public? Probably not.
This is exactly what I was asking...
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