Friday, June 09, 2006
Friday Cat Blogging
Today we learn that Ashcroft was told that Libby was lying in late 2003.
And Fitz hasn't even gotten a jury impaneled.Move over, cats.
It's a lot easier to show that a statement is false than to prove that it was a deliberate falsehood -- and even harder than that to prove it to be perjury. For one thing, the statement not only must be under oath, but must concern something that is relevant to the matter at hand. (That's what ultimately saved Clinton's bacon in the impeachment nonsense, if you remember: His persecutors were asking him questions about things that had nothing to do with their ostensible reason for putting him on the stand.)
It took Fitz two years to get enough evidence to break down Libby's "I know nothing, I see nothing" defense. But Libby's not the real target here. Rove and Cheney are. And the leak about Libby -- who was Ticky Dick's right-hand man -- probably came from Rove's camp, as Rove and Cheney are currently engaged in a battle to see who can toss the other over the side first.
2006? I wouldn't bet on sleeping all the way through, Charles. I know you don't like/trust Fitzgerald, but bear in mind what he's up against. Frankly, I'm amazed he was able to get Libby -- and now he's got a shot at taking out both Rove and Cheney.
Rove and Cheney are in a battle to see who can feed the other to Fitz first. So far, Rove's winning -- none of his aides have gone down the tubes, whereas Cheney lost his right-hand man.
Remember how nobody thought Tom DeLay would ever lose sleep, much less his House seat, over what he'd done?
But tell me something: how do we know that Rove and Cheney are competing to sell each other out? The Rove demotion does suggest an attempt to shield Bush from his indictment, but the YKos Plame panel completely discounted the Jason Leopold story of his imminent indictment. And the courts are stacked with judges who put loyalty to the Party above loyalty to the law.
Let's assume that Fitz is a straight down-the-line guy who isn't too deferential to the White House and is committed to prosecuting the perfidy of outing a NOC. The barriers are huge. Watergate only was exposed because Sirica abused his authority as a judge to put extreme pressure the Waterburglars. I just don't see anyone in the system willing to take those risks.
Anyway, we'll see. We always do, whether we want to or not. :-)
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