There is a cancer on the presidency (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

[kurth]

Sunday, October 30, 2005
CIA Leak: Not above the law
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

There is a cancer on the presidency, and it cannot be exorcised by the resignation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby, assistant to the president and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, has been indicted on five federal counts, including obstruction of justice, making false statement and perjury. The charges stem from the investigation into a leak disclosing that Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a covert CIA operative.

Based on the allegations special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald laid out in the indictments Friday, it's increasingly evident that officials within the Bush administration disclosed Plame's identity as part of an effort to discredit Wilson's criticism of one of the pretexts for war against Iraq.

Fitzgerald said that the investigation remained open, and the indictments make intriguing reference to the conversation another senior White House official, identified only as "Official A," had with columnist Robert Novak in which Wilson's wife was "discussed as a CIA employee." No matter where the investigation goes from here, the question is why President Bush didn't fire Libby long ago if his role in outing Plame was as clear as the indictments indicate. It raises the uncomfortable and inevitable question: What did the president know and when did he know it?

The larger, more important context goes beyond palace intrigue: the lengths to which the Bush administration was willing to go to protect its trumped-up justifications for an unjustifiable war.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/246325_scootered.asp

[lebkuchen]

1. There's an interesting on-line poll at the end of that op-ed

A vast majority of voters think both Bush and Cheney were involved in the outing of Plame.

[aquart]

5. 71.4 say both Bush and Cheney involved. 6.1 says neither.

[hippiegranny]

14. Yes, I thought that was interesting too...

... and even more interesting is this: who are the 4% who claim "it doesn't matter." ??? It doesn't matter? Now those are some serious kool-aid drinkers, even more so than the ones who voted "neither."

[goclark]

2. Like the tie in to the entire Crime Family

[lebkuchen]

3. This question indicts the Bush WH.

No matter where the investigation goes from here, the question is why President Bush didn't fire Libby long ago if his role in outing Plame was as clear as the indictments indicate.

[Erika]

4. It's finally getting to the unjustified Iraqi war

and the insanity of it all.

[Spinzonner]

6. This Presidency IS a cancer

on the country

[texpatriot2004]

7. Yes indeed. n.t

[indepat]

8. I was going to say this Presidency is a cancer, but you beat me to the

punch.

[rndmprsn]

15. AMEN!

[ktowntennesseedem]

17. And a cancer of the rectum, at that.

The whole lot of them, one royal pain in the ass.

:hurts:

[Liberty Belle]

9. kicked and nominating. Great editorial.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Calling it like it is!

"The larger, more important context goes beyond palace intrigue: the lengths to which the Bush administration was willing to go to protect its trumped-up justifications for an unjustifiable war."

[ninkasi]

11. Excellent editorial

I hope this is just the start of exposing the entire corrupt administration for what they are...money grubbing war mongers, intent on seizing power and keeping it. I hope that even some of their base will begin to see the light. Nominated.

[Botany]

12. 1 word

Hospice

the cancer is too advanced ..... bush is toast!

[yy4me]

13. Anyone with half an ounce of brains knew this ages ago,

so...what took so long? I quess I am just so anxious for this to progress, I forget that there has to be a certain procedure to follow. I hope I live long enough to see this gang swing in the wind.
Grrrrrr.

[bahrbearian]

16. Poll is being Freeped

54% Both 27% Neither

[stevedeshazer]

18. Young people, please take note

When the Executive Branch loses all credibility, the government ceases. Period. Frozen dreams.

All their (*Bushco) plans are halted because of this investigation. It's like when your toilet plugs up. It stinks, and nothing happens until someone has the courage to break out the plunger and use it. That's what the smell is right now.

If it overflows, your neighbors srart to notice, and they're not happy.

Rove, and all the attendant stench and hubris that He, the Lionized One, brings to bear, are a cancer on the presidency.

This enormous scandal will overflow the toilet of government just as surely as anything.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Wasn't this an expression used during the Watergate era?

A Cancer on the Presidency

Sounds vaguely familiar

[Elidor]

21. Yeah, John Dean coined it on one of the Nixon tapes

Ironically, he was part of it at the time.

[Independent_Liberal]

20. "a cancer on the presidency"...

That sounds awfully familiar.

[mcscajun]

22. It certainly ought to...

It's what John Dean said to Nixon about the Watergate Scandal.

He told Nixon that unless he came clean about the entire affair, it would bring down his presidency. Nixon didn't...and it did.

It's with no irony that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer column uses this headline.