Posted on 09/02/2006 5:19:23 AM PDT by Clive
Has a Washington scandal ever ended with a more anti-climactic splat than the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson affair?
This week it was at last fully and finally confirmed that it was former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage who had leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Put like that, the story sounds pretty bare. So let me put it another way. Imagine that Ken Starr's investigation had concluded that Monica Lewinsky had made the whole thing up -- and that it was established beyond all possible doubt that at the very moment Monica claimed she was experiencing ecstasy in the Oval Office with Bill Clinton, Clinton was in fact up in the White House family quarters helping Hillary sort old wedding photographs.
Imagine all that, and you only begin to imagine how utterly the biggest scandal of the Bush years has fizzled into nothing.
The scandal originated in George Bush's Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union address:
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Six months later, on July 6, 2003, The New York Times published an op-ed by one Joseph Wilson that accused the president of twisting intelligence. Wilson explained that the CIA had sent him to Niger in 2002 to investigate Iraqi uranium buying -- and that he had reported back that it was all bunk. Suddenly all Washington was asking the same question: Who the hell was Joe Wilson?
Wilson, a former ambassador to Gabon now struggling to earn a living as an international business consultant, seemed a very unlikely person to investigate a secret nuclear transaction. The next week, syndicated columnist Robert Novak provided the answer: Wilson had been proposed for the assignment by his wife, Valerie Plame, "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
The administration's critics immediately erupted in outrage. "Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a U.S. intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security -- and break the law -- in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?" So demanded David Corn of The Nation magazine.
For his part, Ambassador Wilson vehemently denied that his wife had anything to do with his assignment.
The administration succumbed to media pressure and appointed a special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, to investigate the case. Critics gleefully settled in to wait for "Fitzmas" -- the happy day when the prosecutor would indict the so-called neocon cabal. Many speculated that the scandal must touch the Vice President, even the President. Wilson himself said he was looking forward to seeing Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.
Over time, it became clear that almost every detail of Joe Wilson's original story was false. Wilson's appointment was engineered by his wife. The report he filed did not acquit the Iraqis. Wilson had not detected forged documents. Above all: An Iraqi trade mission had in fact sought uranium in Niger in 1998 -- the President had spoken accurately.
Nonetheless, the Plame scandal ricocheted throughout the government. The Bush administration's pro-democracy, pro-Israel foreign policies were ferociously opposed by most of the U.S. national-security bureaucracy, and especially the CIA. Inflamed by the Plame allegations, CIA officials acted almost as part of the Kerry campaign organization through campaign 2004. Since Kerry's defeat, CIA betrayals of administration secrets have helped clinch one Pulitzer Prize for The New York Times and another for the Washington Post.
Yet somehow Fitzmas never came.
And then last week, Newsweek excerpted a new book co-authored by the magazine's Michael Isikoff and arch-conspiracy theorist David Corn that reveals that the Plame leak sprang not from Rove or Cheney, but from Armitage -- and that Patrick Fitzgerald has known this truth for close to three years.
Armitage was never an administration hawk. Indeed, he and his close friend Colin Powell loathed the so-called neocon cabal as fervently as David Corn himself. Armitage identified Plame to Novak not to settle scores, but out of a weak-minded delight in gossip.
Armitage, a former Marine, often questioned the physical courage of civilians who disagreed with him. But after the scandal exploded, and even as his administration colleagues and the President to whom he owed loyalty were exposed to enormous legal jeopardy by his actions, he kept silent to protect himself.
It's a shameful story. But the shame does not fall quite where the media promoters of the story hoped it would. Which may explain why newspapers such as The New York Times and left-wing blogs which once relished every last twist and turn of the saga have suddenly gone as silent about it as Armitage himself.
That would be the only conceivable bright side to this whole sordid mess. She's pretty fine.
-ccm
Well .. I wouldn't put the dems in charge of the govt any day soon .. their prospects are predicated on PHONEY polls - polls which they now believe are actually accurate. They did the same thing in 2004 - and they didn't learn anything.
It's documented they have been over-sampling dems by 11-14% for months now .. that's a very unrealistic number.
Point taken.
I just wish I could remain as optimistic as you are, guess I've been beaten down by all the pundits. Even Novak is predicting a 26+ seat takeover by the Dems.
It did not get him impeached yet,But this damaged his credibility on the Iraq war and all the Bush Lied cries are a result of this .That is one HUGE reason why the democrats may take control of the House and the democrats are going to do their best to impeach him over the War.I know it is based on lies but most of the American people will not realize that Bush told the truth about the Iraqis inquiring about yellow cake to make yes,weapons of mass destruction
Where are the screaming headlines?
Where is the apology from the MSM?
Where does Libby get his reputation back?
I knew Wilson was a nut after watchng him give one of his lefty speeches at a lefty University on UCTV. He even used the fascist word. This from a man that works for our government. A nut I tell you along with the likes of Scott Ritter. I can not believe that we have children like this in our government. It scares the you know what out of me.
Gerald Ford gave Richard Nixon a "complete, full, and unconditional pardon" as one of his first acts, "to put this national nightmare behind us." The Dems were winding up to indict Nixon and would have, had Ford not done this. So yes, there are pardons in advance.
Scooter Libby was a holdover from Clinton. Bush has held over many of Clinton's personnel. It's been a source of wonderment here. I would hope at least some of Clinton's appointments were both competent and trustworthy.
And I do think George should get up on his hind legs and act like a man. He should have put a stop to this foolishness long ago.
CHRIS MATTHEWS needs to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness. He was awful and on a Jihad aganist Cheney whom he obviously HATES. He would not let it go and was getting hysterical. I AM WAITING.
An absolute out and out lie.
Bush has held over many of Clinton's personnel. It's been a source of wonderment here.
Yet another example of your ignorance on display.
You cannot simply fire civil servants because of their political affiliation.
Really? So a firefighter who charges into the WTC is questioned by this knob? I pulled a woman from a wreck that was on fire(it didn't explode, but it burned massively), he questions my courage because I wasn't in the Military? My brothers were in the Military one still is as a pathfinder. My Father was in the Military, My Step father took shrapnel as a Marine in Khe Sahn and lost friends in the Military, my sister retired as a captain in the Army. I was rejected due to lung damage as a child. Eff this f***wit.
Well .. don't count too many of those chickens before they hatch!
Your prognostications regarding the takeover of anything by the democrats is a pipe dream.
Secondly, "most of the American people" do not trust ANYTHING the media tells them. Therefore, the right wing talk shows and internet groups have the largest audience .. making them "the most well informed audience to date" - and those are a whole lot better stats than anything CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC can produce in the last 10 years.
I don't listen to Novak or any of the doomsday people .. they're too negative and they side with the dems more than half the time.
I listen to positive upbeat people like Rush Limbaugh. I have found that if I miss more than 2 days of Rush, I feel very disheartened .. but when I listen to a replay of Rush (because I have 24/7), I find it changes my attitude.
Rush alone has over 20 million listeners every week.
WHEN DOES FITZ GET THE BOOT
WHEN DO THE CHARGES AGAINST LIBBY GET DROPPED
WHEN DO CHARGES AGAINST WILSON GET FILED
[I just thought I'd help you out with your list].
I'm pretty sure that you're misinformed about Libby being a Clinton holdover. Google around and you'll see.
Libby held Undersecretary positions in the DOD in the middle 1990s, policy and strategy and resources. No idea if they require Senate confirmation. He was also lawyer for a key Clinton ally, Marc Rich. Was Rich one of the pardoned in Clinton's last week in office?
As far as the holdovers, Bush kept nearly all of Clinton's federal prosecutors. Clinton fired all of them and replaced them with his people. That's for starters.
Ummmmm...didn't President Ford pardon Richard Nixon prior to any charges even being filed?
Thanks for the help on the list, indeed it could be a long one. ;)
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