Posted on 11/04/2005 4:16:03 AM PST by Hadean
Democrats are lamenting the fact that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald wasn't able to indict Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Leakgate charges a month before last year's presidential election - a move that Fitzgerald acknowleged was his original plan last Friday.
"I wish the truth had come out one year ago," said Bob Shrum - campaign manager to presidential loser John Kerry - on MSNBC's "Hardball" Thursday night. "Because as Patrick Fitzgerald said, he would have indicted in October of 2004, and you wouldn`t have a [second] Bush administration."
Announcing the Libby indictment on Friday, Fitzgerald made it clear that he wanted to spring his Leakgate October Surprise a year earlier - at the eleventh hour of the 2004 presidential campaign:
"I would have wished nothing better that, when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004, [that] witnesses testified then, and we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005," he told reporters.
Instead, the top Leakgate prober blamed the New York Times and other media outlets for not cooperating in an expeditious manner, which delayed his investigation beyond the presidential election. Four days before the 1992 presidential election, a similar scenario played out - when Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh indicted Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in the Iran-Contra case.
Before news of Weinberger's indictment, polls showed that President Bush 41's reelection campaign had narrowed the gap with challenger Bill Clinton to one point.
But the indictment stopped Bush's momentum dead in its tracks, and he lost election, 43 to 37 percent.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Yes, the new media (which a number of members of Congress and the old media wish to sensor and regulate) does indeed lift the skirts and drop the pants of those with very dirty undergarments. That's the rub. Watching a gang of liars investigate and prosecute their fellow liars. Let's sweep the dirt and rubbish away and start over again.
Bush still would have won. Kerry was a dud.
Fitzgerald admitted this?
If so, he should be sanctioned and given his walking papers from any government job. Then he should be charged criminally.
Using an official government position in order to effect the outcome of an election is a crime.
Mark
WOW!...Good Catch...Now, Lets' hear the LMSM defend this Libby "Indictment"...the RATs' excuse, "We had to indict someone...If not Rove, then who?"
You just know people at the Times are crying when they read that line.
Some journalists are less than truthful in their articles/broadcasts. Why should we believe they would tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to a grand jury?
Exactly, and the Left keeps spinning off into ever-more-bizarre conspiracy theories and moonbat propositions rather than admit this basic, simple fact.
I never thought Ken Starr was any ball of fire either.
If he were only interested in finishing the investigation in an expeditious manner, why did he keep on fishing once he found that no crime had been committed? He should have made that finding the first week! Instead, he kept investigating and investigating until the investigation *created* a crime. That does not seem impartial to me.
Tin foil hat on...obut this really appears like an organized coup attempt...especially throwing in the 1992 indictment on Cap. Ya think we actually owe the NY Times a thank you nod for 'not cooperating?'
This thing reeks to high heaven.
Interesting reading *ping*
FITZGERALD: Let me just say this: No one wanted to have a dispute with the New York Times or anyone else. We can't talk generally about witnesses. There's much said in the public record.
FITZGERALD: I would have wished nothing better that, when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004, witnesses testified then, and we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005. No one would have went to jail.
I didn't have a vested interest in litigating it. I was not looking for a First Amendment showdown. I also have to say my job was to find out what happened here, make reasoned judgments about what testimony was necessary, and then pursue it.
And we couldn't walk away from that. I could have not have told you a year ago that we think that there may be evidence that a crime is being committed here of obstruction, that there may be a crime behind it and we're just going to walk away from it.
Our job was to find the information responsibly.
We then, when we issued the subpoenas, we thought long and hard before we did that. And I can tell you, there's a lot of reporters whose reporting and contacts have touched upon this case that we never even talked to.
We didn't bluff people. And what we decided to do was to make sure before we subpoenaed any reporter that we really needed that testimony.
In addition to that, we scrubbed it thoroughly within ourselves. And we also, when we went to court, we could have taken the position that it's our decision whether to issued a subpoena, but we made sure that put a detailed, classified, sealed filing before the district court judge, the chief judge -- Hogan -- in the District of Columbia.
Wanna bet it'll get him a swipe at the Supremes if a Dem gets in though?
This is the reason for the catfight at the New York Times.
Judy Miller got in trouble and did not,or could not, cooperate.
As Chrissie continued in his mad quest for another Watergate scenario... he ran into some sobering facts(you know... the truth. Something that the 'Spitter' hates to reveal on his show) from Deborah Orin.
While Chrissie and la communista Vandenhovel pleasured themselves in orgasmic fiction, Orin stated that Fitzgerald made it VERY CLEAR that his investigation had NOTHING to do with the pretext to war in Iraq. She was eloquent, direct and would not be cowed-down. It was like someone turned on the ventilators in a crowded mens-room.
Once she left however, the rank stench of Dem-bias descended once again.
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