FORGET ABOUT quail. If you're Dick Cheney, your eye should be on Scooter

[kpete]

JOAN VENNOCHI
From hunter to hunted
By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist | February 16, 2006

FORGET ABOUT quail. If you're Dick Cheney, your eye should be on Scooter.

Boston.com
According to a Feb. 9 report posted by the National Journal, the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby, told a federal grand jury he was ''authorized" by Cheney and by ''superiors" to disclose classified information about Iraq's nuclear weapons capability. A president can declassify information and a vice president has some legal leeway to do so as well. No one is suggesting any crime was committed. The implication is that information was declassified for political gain, so Libby could defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence.

.........


In this case, Cheney also displayed contempt for President Bush, along with his well-documented contempt for the press. By stonewalling, the vice president turned a bird hunting mishap into a political albatross for the White House. That, in turn, reinforced the recurring theme of a president who is not in control of his own administration or its policies. Who's the boss? Cheney, not Bush. It gave Democrats a new line of attack, linking Cheney's penchant for secrecy to an overall pattern of secrecy in the Bush administration.

Cheney, the hunter, is now Cheney, the hunted. The media have him in their sights, with fresh ammunition thanks to the shots he accidentally fired at Whittington. As a political lame duck, he can dodge the press as he sees fit. But what about the special prosecutor? Fitzgerald's investigation is not as easily sidestepped.

When Libby was indicted, the Washington media predicted he would be too loyal to turn on his former boss. But an ex-chief of staff facing jail time and disgrace can redirect loyalty from an ex-boss to his family and himself. Libby's case is not scheduled to go to trial until January 2007. Cheney has plenty of time to find out whether Libby's loyalties run as deep as he believed or hoped.

For Cheney, ducking questions about a hunting accident could be preferable to ducking questions about Scooter Libby.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/16/from_hunter_to_hunted/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

[leveymg]

1. People are smarter in colder climates.

This makes more sense than anything I've seen in days in the MSM on the subject.

The Hell's only beginning for Dick.

[stop the bleeding]

2. thank you for posting this,

[Kazak]

3. Which one of these issues...

removes Cheney from power first? :shrug: