Bush lawyers up

Even though Big Pundits like those on the Oliphant-and-Brooks Clown Show last Friday don't think such things are even worth mentioning, the fact that President Bush is lawyering up in the Valerie Plame leak, the one that exposed her as an undercover CIA agent, is significant.

John Dean, Richard Nixon's former White House attorney, who is a genuine authority on such things breaks it down for us:  The Serious Implications Of President Bush's Hiring A Personal Outside Counsel For The Valerie Plame Investigation Findlaw 06/04/04.

But from what I have learned from those who have been quizzed by the Fitzgerald investigators it seems unlikely that they are interviewing the President merely as a matter of completeness, or in order to be able to defend their actions in front of the public. Asking a President to testify - or even be interviewed - remains a serious, sensitive and rare occasion. It is not done lightly. Doing so raises separation of powers concerns that continue to worry many.

Instead, it seems the investigators are seeking to connect up with, and then speak with, persons who have links to and from the leaked information - and those persons, it seems, probably include the President. ...

Undoubtedly, those from the White House have been asked if they spoke with the president about the leak. It appears that one or more of them may indeed have done so.

Dean explains that in order to be able to have a conversation with an attorney that is covered by attorney-client privilege, i.e., the attorney cannot be compelled by a court to testify about it, he has to seek outside counsel.  He can't rely on his Presidential counsel.

Ironically, as Dean explains, it was Kenneth Starr in his legal jihad against Bill Clinton who obtained two federal court rulings, one involving Bill and the other Hillary, that said government-paid attorneys could not claim attorney-client privilege.

Even though Big Pundits find it beneath their notice, the fact that Bush is lawyering up in the Plame investigation is important.

And the Plame investigation, even though it involves a serious felony touching national security, is not nearly as serious as the reported intelligence leaks through Ahmed Chalabi's group to Iranian intelligence.