Various takes on the Plame case

The indictment of Scooter Libby is a big deal, a really big deal.  It might be big enough to shake our Potemkin press corps out of their corporate stupor for a few months.  It might be even be big enough to get the Democrats to start rattling the Republicans' cages over the scandal in a serious way.  There are some glimmers of hope on both scores:

"This indictment is not about the war,'' he insisted to a roomful of reporters and a national television audience. "This indictment is not about the propriety of the war, and people who believe fervently in the war effort, people who oppose it, people who have mixed feelings about it, should not look at this indictment for any resolution of how they feel or any vindication of how they feel.''

Yet even before he had spoken, many of those who opposed the war from the beginning sought to frame the charges as a larger indictment of the administration's march to war.

"At the heart of these indictments was the effort by the Bush administration to discredit critics of its Iraq policy with reckless disregard for national security and the public trust,'' said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who was among the most outspoken opponents of going to war. ...

... But Bush's opponents quickly charged that the developments reflect a culture of dishonesty at the White House that made it perfectly natural for a top official to lie even while under oath.

"Not only was America misled into war, but a Nixonian effort to silence dissent has now left Americans wondering whether they can trust anything this administration has to say,'' said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.  (Iraq war appears likely to go on trial along with Libby by Marc Sandalow (San Francisco Chronicle 10/29/05)

One of the more famous sayings of Bill Clinton's defenders during his impeachment trial was, when they say "it's not about sex", it's about sex.  I can understand that Fitzgerald is prosecuting a particular crime, and not the larger criminal conspiracy around cooking up the case for the Iraq War.

But this case in inextricably linked to that larger picture.  I assume that Fitzgerald is being entirely serious when he says it's not about the war.  But it is about the war.

Marty Aussenberg has some provocative thoughts about the case:

Libby's case will never get to trial, primarily because Bush and Cheney will never allow such a trial to become precisely the kind of exposé of the administration's motives and actions in the run-up to the war they were worried the indictments would constitute. It would be their worst nightmare to have their war machinations presented to a jury of 12 ordinary citizens in the District of Columbia (read: predominantly African Americans) who would be sitting as proxies for the families of 2,000 plus military fatalities in Iraq and the plurality of the country that opposes the war. The risk there is not just exposure to the possibility of conviction in Washington, D.C., but a subsequent prosecution in The Hague as well. (Fitz’s Knuckle Ball Booman Tribune blog 10/29/05)

I can believe that's what Bush and Cheney are thinking.  But how do they do they make a deal at this point?  It looks like the only way Scooter can cop a plea right now is to flip on Cheney.  They could try giving up Rove to the prosecutor, I guess.  But then Rove and Scooter both would be under pressure to finger the higher-ups.  And Rove and Scooter are already pretty high up themselves.

Steve Gilliard is also focusing on the chief warlord:

The funny thing is that after five years of Bush, people are so cynical that they think he can just throw up a few lies and walk away. He can't, much less pardon anyone. All the conservative bleeting about the indictment is just that, bleeting. It isn't serious.

Reporters take notes, for one thing. A bad memory is going to make your stay in journalism short lived.

No, this is isn't Watergate, this is worse, because the criminality goes right to the WH. No henchmen acting on their own. It is likely this came from Cheney himself. (Why Bush Is in serious trouble The News blog 10/29/05)

Have I mentioned that the FireDogLake and The Last Hurrah blogs are all over this case?  They are.  And doing good stuff.

James Ridgeway has been writing about the case for the Village Voice:

What did George W. Bush know? When did he know it? That's irrelevant. He's the Harriet Miers - the cipher - of his own administration. As Scooter Libby's expected indictment later today nears, the real questions include these: What lies did U.S. CEO Dick Cheney want the American people to believe about Iraq? How did he and Libby, his chief aide and someone who sat in all the Iraq policy sessions, get that task done? ...

No matter what yakkers like David Gergen say on MSNBC or elsewhere - that this stuff doesn't rise to the level of a Watergate or Iran-Contra scandal - they're wrong. It does. Watergate, Bill Clinton's cum stains - those are mere specks compared with the abuse of presidential power by Bush's main handlers Cheney, Libby, Rove, and Rumsfeld. More on that later. In the meantime, bloody hands all around. (War Criminal Nears Indictment: Charges against Libby would be a major step in unraveling cabal's Iraq plot - finally 10/27/05)

Bush's key adviser Karl Rove made a breathtaking escape from indictment today, and that fact may overshadow the true big news—that Fitzgerald's work will almost certainly mean more investigation of Rove. In all likelihood, Fitzgerald will probe further into dealings between Rove and Libby, and the possibility of a conspiracy running into Vice President Cheney's office and to the V.P. himself. Did Cheney order his flunkies to out Plame?

More to the point, today's indictments are the kiss of death for the Bush White House. Libby has resigned, but that's hardly the end of the problem for the administration. For all intents and purposes, so long as Fitzgerald probes, President Bush and Vice President Cheney are in straitjackets. (Libby Indictments a Kiss of Death for Bush White House: From Plame Affair to Lame-Duck Affair 10/28/05)