The Bushies and Sacrifice

We've seen how the Obstructer in Chief handles former staff who have done some illegal bidding for him with the commutation of Scooter's sentence to ensure his further silence and protection of the Preznit and his boss, Dead Eye Dick, over their bogus case for invading Iraq. And Scooter was able to dash off a check for $240,400 to cover his fine. No big deal. He'll land at one of the wingnut "think" tanks before long and be well taken care of.

One of the hallmarks of this corrupt group is that there's never any accountability required, from Bush to Cheney on down. There's never any personal sacrifice, either, in terms of the matter that they've described as the critical issue of the day: war against terrorism. Few, if any, Republican elites have had loved ones in harms way in that war. They believe "sacrifice is for suckers." The little people are sent to war; Bushies get out of jail free.

Obstruction of Justice Continues

While "Scooter" scoots free, it's worth reflecting on the fact that the Decider, in commuting his sentence, has removed the only remaining incentive for Libby to expose the campaign led by Dead Eye Dick to discredit a critic of the Assministration's Iraq war rationale regarding WMD. Thus, the Decider is further obstructing justice, clearly concerned that further exposure of Cheney's misdeeds could lead to criminal charges against his Veep. Complicit in the "nothing to see here, move along" tactics of the Assministration is the Beltway media elite, who have embraced "Scooter" as someone to be protected from jail. One would think that the MSM would want to explore the mystery of "what is the Assministration trying to hide", but one would be wrong.

Glenn Greenwald says it best in his latest column in Salon:

"In every country ruled by a lawless government and a corrupt political and media elite, powerful political officials do not go to prison for crime."

Judge Borks Dork

Earlier this week, we were amused by the letters to the Court on behalf of Scooter Libby from a variety of wingnuts and Bushie gophers. Happily, the hilarity continues. An amicus brief for Libby by an assortment of right-wing legal academics, including Robert "Dork" Bork, has drawn a response from Judge Reggie Walton. It's priceless.

Incidentally, Dork, who has been raging on for tort reform, recently filed a personal injury lawsuit against the Yale Club, after he took a tumble from the dias at their function last year. The Yale Club should have insisted on a breathalizer test for Dork after the tumble, since there's no court-admissable test for hypocrisy.

Nothing to See Here. . .

It's a shame that the Washington Post's Dana Milbank snarkily sees the testimony of Valerie Plame in such a frivolous way. But then again, it's received wisdom at the ComPost's editorial page that 1) Scooter Libby is an all around great public servant, 2) Valerie Plame sent her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Niger, 3) Wilson's a blowhard, and 4)there's really no underlying crime in the Plame/CIA/Niger uranium story. It's nothing about the Administration presenting lies in justifying the war in Iraq, nothing about outing a covert CIA official, nothing about continued cover up at the White House in an effort to protect Dead Eye Cheney and the Presidunce. Nothing like that at all. So keep moving, folks, nothing to see here. Nothing.

Goodnight, Dick

Time Magazine has a featured article in it's new edition, "Cheney in Twilight", that captures Dead Eye's fall from grace in both public opinion and likely inside the White House. Cheney's role in managing the disinformation campaign leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and in the cover up of that campaign that was exposed in the Libby trial, has more and more people writing the evil doer off. Quote from the Time article:

"Everyone now knows that Bush and cheney took the country into a deadly, costly, and open-ended war on flimsy evidence of weapons of mass destruction."

The main instigators of the disinformation were Cheney and the neocon empire he fostered in the White House and the Pentagon. Is there a cloud over Cheney's head, as Libby trial Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald said the other day? Yes, and it's beginning to rain on Dead Eye's parade.

I Beg Your Pardon

Now that Scooter's trial is over, and the drawn out process of appeals begins, there will be speculation on the timing of Bush's expected pardon. This would obviously create political damage for the Presidunce, given the managerial role that Dead Eye Dick played in the coverup and obstruction. There's also the growing odor of deceit permeating the justification for war with Iraq connected to this case. A quick pardon - - as suggested by such right wing outfits as the Wall Street Journal and the National Review - - would almost certainly lead to increased pressure on Congress to investigate why Dead Eye, Turd Blossom Rove, and others were so fixated on propping up the Niger uranium story after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Scooter & The Shooter: Suborning Perjury?

The National Journal's Murray Waas has an interesting analysis of a discussion between Scooter Libby and his former boss, Dead Eye Dick Cheney, that may lay the groundwork for a subornation of perjury charge against the VP. As Waas notes, when Libby trotted out his cover story about getting gossip about Plame from Tim Russert, "the vice president already had reason to know that Libby's account to him was untrue. . .yet Cheney did nothing to discurage Libby from telling that story to the FBI and the federal grand jury." There's more, and it's beginning to look like the Libby trial is just the beginning. Underlying question: why was Cheney so obsessed with discrediting Joseph Wilson's claim that Iraq was not seeking uranium cake from Niger? Likely answer: the claim would help unravel the Administration's deceit about Iraq's possession of WMD, etc. that led us to war.