And Your Point Is? - New York Times
If you, like me, have been trying to figure out the point of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation, Howard Dean has a couple of answers.Neither involves the original reason for the special prosecutor's investigation - the accusation that White House aides deliberately outed a covert C.I.A. agent. Much of Washington now figures that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby didn't violate that law....
So if John Tierney is wrong, and Fitzgerald actually does file indictments, is Tierney planning on resigning his column to work for the Weather Channel?
Personal attacks! Can you imagine President Bush's critics ever sinking to that level? Dean himself may have occasionally faulted Republicans - using words like “liar,” “brain-dead,” “corrupt” and “evil” - but he must have meant them, like Dame Edna, in a caring and nurturing way.The other supposed reason to care about the investigation of the C.I.A. leak is that it's really not about the C.I.A. leak, anyway. As Dean explained, “This is not so much about Scooter Libby and Karl Rove. This is about the fact that the president didn't tell us the truth when we went to Iraq, and all these guys are involved in it.”
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You can argue that the leakers should be fired for carelessness in revealing that Wilson's wife worked for the C.I.A., but there's been no evidence yet that they realized it was illegal because of her status as a covert agent. You can argue that Libby should be fired for stupidity because of the letter he wrote to Judith Miller, the Times reporter, that sounded like a vaguely clunky - and unsuccessful - attempt to coach her testimony.But no one deserves to go to jail for leaking information to reporters without criminal intent. The special prosecutor was assigned to look for serious crimes, not to uncover evidence that bureaucrats blame other bureaucrats when things go wrong.
No one deserves to be indicted on conspiracy charges for belonging to a group that believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Foreign policy mistakes are not against the law.
Yes, so now breaking the law is akin to personally attacking Republicans, and therefore not worth any effort. I don't remember reading about this new prosecutorial choice, I'll have to remember it next time the tables are turned. Republicans are no longer the “Letter of the Law” party, but rather the party of thin-skins.
While we are on this subject, seems like Nicholas Kristof also believes that Fitzgerald is a big meany for bothering the nice Republicans, just when everything is starting to go their way (see previous entry, Big Oil reaps in Record Profits)
Instead, Mr. Fitzgerald is rumored to be considering mushier kinds of indictments, for perjury, obstruction of justice or revealing classified information. Sure, flat-out perjury must be punished. But if the evidence is more equivocal, then indictments would mark just the kind of overzealous breach of prosecutorial discretion that was a disgrace when Democrats were targeted.And it would be just as disgraceful if Republicans are the targets....
But there's also no need to exaggerate it. The C.I.A. believed that Mrs. Wilson's identity had already been sold to the Russians by Aldrich Ames by 1994, and she had begun the process of switching to official cover as a State Department officer.
To me, the whisper campaign against Mr. Wilson amounts to back-stabbing politics, but not to obvious criminality. And if indictments are issued for White House officials on vague charges of revealing classified information, that will have a chilling effect on the reporting of national security issues. The ultimate irony would come if we ended up strengthening the Bush administration's ability to operate in secret.....So I find myself repulsed by the glee that some Democrats show at the possibility of Karl Rove and Mr. Libby being dragged off in handcuffs. It was wrong for prosecutors to cook up borderline and technical indictments during the Clinton administration, and it would be just as wrong today. Absent very clear evidence of law-breaking, the White House ideologues should be ousted by voters, not by prosecutors.
Perjury, obstruction of justice, revealing classified information: to Kristof, these are petty crimes, not even worth noting in the “Paper of Record”, much less prosecuting. Let's take them off the books then, shall we, so we can concentrate on real crimes, like columnists with their heads up their digestive organs? And apologize to Lil' Kim too.
update 4:36: Eric Alterman
Kristof to liberals: As a liberal, I say let’s let the Bush administration win again. After all, my principles are more important than anything that actually happens in the real world.
John Tierney: “Can you tell any difference between me and Kristof? Me neither, but at least I don’t call myself a ”liberal“ before bashing them all the time.
Kristof Weasel Word Watch: ”seem to… We don't know… but… is rumored to be considering… would mark… would be…. seems to… My guess… it may well have been… I question… and I wonder... it would be“ Quite a case there, fella…
Tags: Impeachment, /Karl_Rove, /media
