The "Criminalization of Politics" Dodge

Boy, oh boy, the Republicans are going to throw everything, and I mean everything against the wall to save DeLay, Rove, Libby, Frist, Cheney, Hughes, Fleischer, and whomever else happens to get indicted in the next few months.

They are already starting to whine and wimper about the "criminalization of politics." Of course, when they chanted "rule of law" about Bill Clinton's lies to Ken Starr's Grand Jury, they had no idea that they would be in the same position someday. Now they are.

But the reality is (and this is where their habit of ignoring reality is gonna come back and bite them in the ass) that almost none of the laws - except the campaign finance laws in Texas - they will have allegedly broken say anything about politicians. In fact, politicians, especially in DC, tend to exempt themselves from so many laws they must wonder how they forgot to exempt themselves from the treason and conspiracy statutes.

(We better keep an eye on those legislative agendas in the House and Senate the next few months -- there could be some finely worded amendments that just so happen to give "Get Out of Jail Free" cards to the entire gang. I wouldn't put it past them. Of course, that assumes President Bush doesn't uphold family tradition and pardon them all.)

So conspiracy, perjury, outing undercover CIA agents, money laundering, insider trading, and even murder charges are brought every day against every kind of person. If that person so happens to be a politician, well, so what? We are a nation of laws, as the Republicans like to say. And I agree. But since the press has abdicated their responsibilities at the national level, at least we can thank some prosecutors for still taking theirs seriously.

Finally, there is one, and only one way, to negate their phony talking point about the criminalization of politics: get the Criminals out of Politics. Mr. Fitzgerald is doing part of the job even as we speak.

speaking of administrivia

I had to put comment verification on the posts due to some spam comments that are coming in. Sorry for the headache.

(some people really do have too much time on their hands.........)

Administrivia + Cronyism = Major Malfunction in Government Services

Main Entry: ad·min·is·tri·via
Pronunciation: &d-'mi-n&-s'tri-vE-&
Function: noun
(conj. ADMINIStrative TRIVIA) the often inordinate amount of detail required to administer, or manage, a network; the trivialization of routine administrative tasks to the point of uselessness

PLUS

Main Entry: cro·ny·ism
Pronunciation: -nE-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: partiality to cronies especially as evidenced in the appointment of political hangers-on to office without regard to their qualifications

EQUALS:

• Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was “part of the problem”. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, “she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president”.

• The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was “a concrete example” of the decision-making problem, with the president and other top officials in effect giving the green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it.”

• The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed, “start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam....and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel”.

• Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, whom most of you probably know Tommy Franks said was stupidest blankety blank man in the world. He was. Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man. And yet after the Secretary of State agrees to a $400 billion department, rather than a $30 billion department, having control, at least in the immediate post-war period in Iraq, this man is put in charge. Not only is he put in charge, he is given carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw themselves in a closet somewhere.

WDTPKAWDHKI?

The most famous acronym in scandal history - What Did The President Know and When Did He Know It?

I have a feeling we're going to get the answer to that question sometime in the near future. Christmas comes early?

YABL*

This isn't really news:

Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak

BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.

So did Bush tell the truth during these press encounters after he knew? You be the judge:

On June 10, 2004 Bush was asked at a news conference if he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked Plame's name. Bush answered yes, "And that's up to the U.S. attorney to find the facts."

Of course Bush already knew Rove did it, so that was another LIE and he did not need the prosecutor to complete his work to really know who leaked Plame's id.

And then there are these wonderful nougats by Bush at a press briefing in September, 2003:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me answer a couple of questions, then we've got to go to Cincinnati. Deb.

Q Do you think that the Justice Department can conduct an impartial investigation, considering the political ramifications of the CIA leak, and why wouldn't a special counsel be better?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. ..... And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.

(I wonder what he meant by that? It's not necessarily a negative that Karl Rove will be "taken care of." It could mean he'll be put up in a Roman villa with a pension of $1 Million a year. - Z)
....
THE PRESIDENT: I'm absolutely confident that the Justice Department will do a very good job. (Note to Patrick Fitzgerald smear artists. - Z)
.....
THE PRESIDENT: I want to know the truth. (Ugh, gag me. - Z)
.....
Q Yesterday we were told that Karl Rove had no role in it --
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. (BINGO! Lie number 8,432,767. - Z)
Q -- have you talked to Karl and do you have confidence in him --
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody (WTF? Why the need to rephrase that innocuous statement? For legal reasons? - Z) in my administration who leaked classified information.
.....

The President knew Karl Rove leaked Plame's identity. The President lied to the American people about it, and the President kept someone on his senior staff who lied to him, lied to us, and lied to FBI investigators about an undercover agent at a time of war.

INEXCUSABLE! But Bush supporters from across the spectrum will excuse every aspect. The "rule of law" means nothing now that they are in power and Bill Clinton's blow job has been successfully prosecuted.

* Yet Another Bush Lie

Drunk with power

Old news, new bottle.....

Party to Treason

AmericaBlog nails it today. The unvarnished truth, the only conclusion that can be made of the illegal acts - they are stated here and cannot be refuted. Indictments for all!

The GOP has become the party of treason:

If a senior White House staffer had intentionally outed an American spy during World War II, he'd have been shot.

We're at war, George Bush keeps reminding us. We cannot continue with business as usual. A pre-9/11 mentality is deadly. Putting the lives of our troops at risk is treason.

.....

Yes, the Republicans are now making light of an intentional effort to expose an undercover CIA agent, working on weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, no less, while we are at war in the Middle East on that very issue.

.....
More at the link above.