He pissed off whats left of his base by not granting a full pardon and of course the dems were already mad. It's another fine example of the administrations bumbling thought process.
Faulkton, I'll give you that one. Bush has done a piss poor job of trying to appease the Left, only to realize that that is utterly impossible!! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/*******.gif.a649d21efc0d1fd4890a6428166586c1.gif However, there was no crime comitted in the Plame case. Adam71, "You ignorant ****" Plame WAS NOT COVERT. SHE WAS NOT!!! She did not qualify for covert status under the IIPA terms of covert status!! You can wish it were true til the cows come home, but it ain't so....
This Libby trial, when this is all over and when people are free to speak about this, I hope the country is made aware -- I'll do my part -- of what a total travesty this whole thing is. This has never been about Valerie Plame. If it were about Valerie Plame and her covert or not covert -- in fact, the judge told the jury twice, “I don't know what her status was and we're not going to learn it in this trial because it doesn't matter.” He told the jury they're not going to learn what her status was, covert or not, and it doesn't matter. Well, if that doesn't matter, what was this case about? You know, the original leaker was never brought under oath, never pursued, Richard Armitage.
I'll tell you what this was. This was an attempt by the CIA and the justice department to nail the Bush administration. I am convinced now, and I read a piece in the AmericanThinker.com posted by Clarice Feldman who's brilliant and a lawyer herself. She's been following the trial, blogging from the courthouse. It is obvious that this was a team-up between elements of the CIA and the Department of Justice to bring down the Bush administration. It's at the AmericanThinker.com and you can read it. It is just stunning. It confirms the suspicions of many people all along that this had nothing to do with Valerie Plame and nothing to do with Joseph Wilson. The target here was Dick Cheney and Fitzpatrick, as much as said this in his closing arguments before the jury. It is really a travesty.
In fact, Clarice makes the point that what was really the focal point here was the National Intelligence Estimate. The National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE that made it plain the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger, not the office of the vice president. Libby wanted that declassified, to get it out there. Because if that had happened, that would have spelled the end of this whole thing, because this whole thing relied on the media getting all hot to trot and spreading the story that it was the White House that was outing Joe Wilson. They were trying to criminalize politics. Joe Wilson is out there lying through his teeth about what his mission to Niger discovered, claiming that the White House sent him. The White House said, “Who is this guy? We didn't send this guy. Who is he? What did he find?” His report was not even submitted in writing. He was suggested for this trip by his wife, the now infamous Valerie Plame. One thing just leads to another. Libby wanted to get this NIE declassified. He went to a lawyer in the White House, and said, “Can the president do this? Can the president declassify a National Intelligence Estimate? Can he do this on his own?”
Anyway this whole case was about that National Intelligence Estimate remaining classified so that throughout this whole trial, throughout the whole escapade leading up to the trial, it would never be made public by either the CIA or the Department of Justice that in fact the CIA had sent Wilson and not the office of the vice president. So there are now suspicious eyes aimed at George Tenet because he clearly knew this and left the White House hung out to dry. Maybe he was upset over being hung out to dry himself on Iraqi intelligence or what have you, but Libby was as high as Fitzpatrick could get. He was shooting for Cheney, hoping to get Bush, maybe, and Rove. He misled them into thinking they were not targets when they were. It's a gigantic travesty. The piece that Clarice wrote makes me wonder how in the name of hell this can happen in the United States of America.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/02/bait_and_switch_and_trap_the_r.html
. Beyond pointing up the essentially unethical nature of the Libby prosecution--long obvious--these factors suggest to me that there may have been a type of bait and switch at the heart of the entire investigation. The operation of this bait and switch relied on the public outcry in the MSM about the disclosure of a covert officer's identitity. The reality, if the above analysis is correct, is that the referral letter did not reference such a possibility because it was known that Plame was not "covert" for purposes of the IIPA. The relevant officials at CIA and DoJ knew that this public scenario, replete with images of Administration officials frog marching out of the White house, bore no relation to the reality of the situation--especially in light of what those officials had learned from Richard Armitage. So, the investigation was an open ended warrant to find a violation of any statute or, failing that, to induce a process violation in the course of the investigation. The bait and switch relied on the public hue and cry to provide cover for turning the White House inside out in search of a crime--any crime.
The real targets of the investigation (Cheney, Rove, Libby) would be told that they were not targets as such but merely witnesses. They would be required by the President to appear over and over before the Grand Jury, ostensibly to give evidence to assist the investigation of what publicly appeared to be the disclosure of a "covert" officer's identity. These targets would rely on the Special Counsel's representations because they had not committed the acts that appeared from public statements--including Comey's letter--to be the focus of the investigation. The Special Counsel had deniability in the form of Comey's letter, although all Fitzgerald's actions have revealed all too clearly that they were in fact targets and not merely witnesses. No doubt the Special Counsel hoped that the targets' sense of their own innocence of what was publicly alleged would lead them to reveal some factual situation that could be construed as a criminal violation--or, failing that, become involved in a process violation. Had the investigation in fact concerned the disclosure of a covert officer's identity, the true target would of course have been Armitage.
The lack of prosecutorial interest in Armitage gives the game away.
Finally, the release of all 8 hours of Libby's testimony before the Grand Jury disclose the inordinate amount of time Fitzgerald spent grilling Libby about the declassification of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and when Libby talked to reporters about that. This is a clear indication that Fitzgerald was fully aware that there was no hope for a violation of the IIPA, despite the outrageous statements he made to the trial jury. It is further apparent from the record that the CIA did not want the declassification of the NIE to take place quickly even though that left the Administration hanging out on a cliff, unable to respond to Wilson's charges. Moreover, when DCI Tenet made his July 11 mea culpa he refused to do what the Administration wanted him to do--state publicly that the CIA, not the Office of the Vice President (OVP) had sent Wilson to Niger.
From all the above, it is clear beyond dispute that this entire disgraceful episode was manufactured deceitfully as part of a campaign to undermine and even bring down the Bush Administration."
