I'm not buying that it was Bush who authorized the Plame Leak

[LynneSin]

Sorry, since day one the only decisions that Bush is allowed to make is what color underwear he's going to wear for the day. Bush was never a decision maker in the Whiet House - his whole existance in the political arena was to be built up as a namebrand to eventually run for the White House (didn't you ever find it odd that Bush wasn't into POlitics until 1994 - the first mid-term after Clinton beat Poppy Bush. There was no coincidence there).

We all know the reason why Dick Cheney was made vice-president is because he's running the show and doesn't trust Bush one bit to actually follow through with the PNAC Agenda.

So, sorry, I'm just not buying that it was Bush who authorized the leak. They're trying to hide something but I haven't figured it out yet.

[apollo56]

1. I can since he is just dumb enough to do it!

[LynneSin]

8. Bush isn't allowed to make those kind of decisions

he's not that bright. He's like "Take your kid to work day" kid. He's allowed to come to the meetings but probably required to sit in the corner and given some pens and paper for him to color with

[apollo56]

37. It makes sense since he cannot be accused of breaking the law!

How clever they are!

[Warpy]

2. It's Stupid's style, that petty vindictiveness

However, I think they're protecting both Rove and Cheney. I think Stupid probably knew about it, though.

Cheney is the one who doesn't fit. He knew where the line was and he's smarter than that. Rove and Stupid didn't care.

[blm]

11. Nah - They were all RIDING HIGH on their arrogance back then - and still

had a pretty tight grip on most of the media - before that damn category 5 hurricane exposed their undies.

[pepperbear]

3. AND JUST IMPUDENT ENOUGH! n/t

[SmokingJacket]

4. To protect Cheney, maybe?

By saying Bush did it, they might be hoping that the old "if the president does it, it's not illegal" thing will fly, as it seems to be flying with the wiretapping.

If it were pinned on Cheney, I can't see how he could remain in office; Bush would have to fire him.

[IChing]

13. Libby is totally loyal to Cheney and not to *ush

so I think that makes sense to take the heat off of Cheney.

Next it will be a he said vs he said to let it play out more and kill time

[warrens]

5. Paper trail

Only Bush has the authority to declassify such documents; Cheney has zero authority in a formal sense. They might have lied to Bush to get him to sign it, but they have to cough up the authorization, and then we will know who's lying.

[Sydnie]

16. Cheney says otherwise - he says he can declassify

HUME: Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a vice president has the authority to declassify information?

CHENEY: There is an executive order to that effect.

HUME: There is.

CHENEY: Yes.

HUME: Have you done it?

CHENEY: Well, I've certainly advocated declassification and participated in declassification decisions. The executive order —

HUME: You ever done it unilaterally?

CHENEY: I don't want to get into that. There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the president, but also includes the vice president.

HUME: There have been two leaks, one that pertained to possible facilities in Europe; and another that pertained to this NSA matter. There are officials who have had various characterizations of the degree of damage done by those. How would you characterize the damage done by those two reports?

CHENEY: There clearly has been damage done.

HUME: Which has been the more harmful, in your view?

CHENEY: I don't want to get into just sort of ranking them, then you get into why is one more damaging than the other. One of the problems we have as a government is our inability to keep secrets. And it costs us, in terms of our relationship with other governments, in terms of the willingness of other intelligence services to work with us, in terms of revealing sources and methods. And all of those elements enter into some of these leaks.

sorry - I know it's Faux and all ... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185012,00.html

[BooScout]

28. He cannot declassify the disclosure of a covert agent....

She is protected by statute. Nothing can supercede the statute.

[Sydnie]

32. I agree completely

I think Cheney's statements are just do damming, I want to make sure that we repeat them back to him when he says he doesn't have the authority!

[warrens]

31. Over-inflated ego

The President can authorize him to declassify certain documents, but he can't give him blanket authority. Obviously, the president doesn't read every document declassified, but anything that is top secret isn't going anywhere until he authorizes it.

[PublicWrath]

21. Would it be necessary (I hope) to actually sign something

authorizing the release of classified documents? Is there an established protocol for this?

[LaurenG]

6. He has served their purposes and now he is to be

sacrificed. It's the Rummy/Cheney agenda, now that bush is on the chopping block they can get rid of the puppet and take total control.

[IsItJustMe]

7. That's not what is being reported. Chimp gave a general authorization

to leak information that would support his plan to go to war with Iraq. He supposedly told Chainy this. Chainy and Libby talked about this and Blame. Libby acted.

[bryant69]

9. I don't buy that

I don't think Bush is quite that much of an empty suit. He's incurious and not that bright, but he does seem to have a forceful personality - look at the stories about how he treats his staff. I can sort of see him doing this - out of petulence.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Midlodemocrat]

12. Yeah, the petulance part is something I can totally buy.

He is such a whiny crybaby, I could see him doing it out of spite, not unlike an eight year old who tells all his friends there's no Santa.

I am still on the fence about it, though. I can see him doing it, but I do agree in part with LynneSin.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. I am nervous about the very same thing. It has appeared to me,

throughout the last few months with the distance that some Republicans are placing between themselves and the administration, with the mid term elections coming up, that they may just be making Mr. Bush the fall guy...Get rid of him, restore order to the Republican Party...blah, blah, blah. Second verse same as the first. This keeps me awake at night. I hope I am just being paranoid.

[rudy23]

14. Right, it's like they're daring the Dems to try and impeach

so they can accuse them of trying to get revenge for Clinton. I hope the Dems call their bluff, if that's what's going on.

[rudy23]

15. If we're at war with Iran when this comes to a head, it'll be that much

harder to punish the president, being wartime and all.

[salin]

17. My Dear LynneSin - you have the answer

Dick makes the calls at the WH... Dick made the calls per Plame... Dick authorized the Libby story and W had to agree knowing that sooner or later it would come out, but was probably told way back when when they concocted it (around the time Libby went to testify), that his (ws) numbers were so high and his legions so loyal, that the people would buy ANYTHING they told them.

[cali]

18. Baloney.

God, I get sick of these opinions stated as facts. You presented no evidence whatsoever to back up your claim. Everything that I've read about bush and the bush whitehouse contradicts your opinion.

[yodermon]

19. Not at issue.

At least, it's not the whole issue.

What matters is that shrub was questioned directly by Fitzgerald, and if he can be proved to be lying when he did so, he can be charges with Lying to Investigators (a charge shared by Scooter right now).

Hard for * to spin out of that one.

[displacedtexan]

20. You just detailed Bush's defense strategery.

He can always play the "too stupid to be held responsible" card.

[Ganja Ninja]

22. I'm sure what he really said was something like, ...

"F@#k that b$&ch I'm take'n her out!"

[Garbo 2004]

23. Well the court filings don't support the headlines for one. Libby claimed

Cheney told him Bush authorized leaking of NIE info. (Remember Libby denied leaking Plame info, so he wasn't about to say that he was authorized to do something he said he didn't do.)

Cheney's been known, IIRC, to say Bush authorized things when his own authority was questioned. (As I recall Cheney authorized shooting down hijacked planes on Sept 11 and when told only the President had that authority claimed the President had ordered it. Then later Cheney told Bush about what he'd done. This was in early media reports. The official story line was "modified" for the Sept 11 Commission.)

Bush isn't exactly a hands on, details guy and delegates, but I don't think he's as completely out of the loop as some think.

[catmandu57]

24. I don't buy it either

I know that the monkeyboy* is small, mean, petty, vindictive, but someone had to tell this idiot* just who she was, he doesn't or can't read, somebody had to tell the bastard*
I think they're throwing the monkeyboy* overboard, and deadeye will come out in the open as the true power.

[lumpy]

25. Sure, Bush is stupidly wily, but

he knew what he was doing when he declared Saddam was trying to obtain yellow cake from Niger. He is not so stupid that he wouldn't order anything to prevent the truth from coming out. He is not knowledgable about a lot of things, but he is a sly, snakey ignoramous that will do anything, legal or not, to get his way.

[crispini]

26. The document itself is informative

"Defendant’s participation in a critical conversation with Judith Miller on July 8 (discussed further below) occurred only after the Vice President advised defendant that the President specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the NIE. Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller – getting approval from the President through the Vice President to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval – were unique in his recollection." (pp. 20)

Two things jump out-- (1) it's about "certain information" so what it was exactly was vague and (2) Cheney told Libby that Bush had authorized it. Third-hand, as it were.

[BooScout]

Even if Cheney was authorized by an Executive Order from Bush...

....to authorize the outting of Plame, the EO CANNOT supercede the statute that protects the disclosure of her identity. Bush & Cheney fucked up royally in thinking they could skirt around the Treason issue.

[July]

41. Can you explain the principle for me?

A statute supersedes an executive order, is that what you're saying?

[July]

44. Okay, I just read carolinalady's post, I'm starting to get a clue.

I'm not always this dense.

[Montagnard]

27. Bush is not as dumb as we would like to believe he is....

but, I agree he doesn't call the shots, he is a prop.

[Ksec]

29. I disagree Lynne

He only plays the dumbass hick without a clue. Hes actually on top of everything.

Its time for the dumbass to be outed for what he is. A control freak that plays this halfwit on TV.

[Minnesota Libra]

30. I'm with you on this one, Bush never............

....has done anything but by order of Cheney or Rove. My take on this is Libbey takes the fall, Bush claims he did it for national security or some other equally stupid reason, and Rove and Cheney go about their behind the scenes dirty work.

[debbierlus]

33. Who said he made the decision?

He okayed it.

Someone else (probably Rove) developed the strategy.

[debbierlus]

34. I love your Will Ferrell more cowbell take!

Gotta have more cowbell, baby!

[LunaC]

35. This is the set-up for Cheney to resign and McCain to step in

This is how the leak fiasco may play out....

Cheney will admit that he said "The President authorized disclosure" even though Bush* didn't.

Bush gets to claim plausible deniability and "fires" the leaker as previously promised.

Since it's "ALL Cheney's fault!", Bush* is absolved of ANY wrongdoing.

McCain replaces Cheney with ample time to stump before the midterms.

Cheney returns to Halliburton to oversee those juicy war contracts.

McCain continues boot-licking to become the heir apparent to the WH throne in 08.

And they all live happily-ever-after. :sarcasm:

[Swamp Rat]

39. DAMN!!! We are on the SAME page!

OK, my scenario is a little bit different:

Cheney steps down

McCain is made VP

Bushler is impeached

All the criminals of the Bushler administration are later pardoned by McCain

McCain is the incumbent for 2008

Then a military draft is ordered as WWIII is underway.

[LunaC]

42. McCain pardons them all

YES! It's fits perfectly!!!

[grytpype]

36. That's good because Libby is not saying Bush authorized the Plame leak.

[robertpaulsen]

38. Bush was in the loop & LIED ABOUT IT TO FEDERAL OFFICIALS!

I'm quite sure Cheney actually authorized it, but Bush was not kept in the dark:

Bush at Center of Intelligence Leak
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 06 April 2006

Attorneys and current and former White House officials close to the investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson said Thursday that President Bush gave Vice President Dick Cheney the authorization in mid-June 2003 to disclose a portion of the highly sensitive National Intelligence Estimate to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

snip

The sources indicated that the leak probe is now winding down, and that soon, new information will emerge from the special counsel's office that will prove President Bush had prior knowledge of the White House campaign to discredit Plame Wilson's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who accused the administration of "twisting" intelligence on the Iraqi threat in order to win public support for the war.

snip

According to four attorneys who over the past two days have read a transcript of the President Bush's interview with investigators, Bush did not disclose to either investigators or the special counsel that he had authorized Cheney or any other administration official to leak portions of the NIE to Woodward and Miller or any other reporter. Rather, these people said the president said he frowned upon "selective leaks."

Bush also said during the interview two years ago that he had no prior knowledge that anyone on his staff had been involved in a campaign to discredit Wilson or that individuals retaliated against the former ambassador by leaking his wife's undercover identity to reporters.

much more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040606Y.shtml

That adds up to obstruction of justice and lying to federal officials for Bush, the same charges Libby faces in his indictment!

[MoonRiver]

40. They authorized him to authorize it.

Get it?

[linazelle]

43. Bush has been teflon coated--until now. They WANT you to think

he's out of the loop. I don't think that true. He is not as dumb as you think, nor is he out of the loop. Saying Bush is out of the loop is a convenient alibi that absolves him of any responsibility for anything he does...and that's bullshit.