Someone get Joe Wilson some popcorn.

February 5, 2004 1:27 PM

Frog Scoot?The FBI appears ready to point fingers in the Plame affair, at Senior Administration Officials Lewis Libby and John Hanna. TPM reports that the intial charges against Hanna may be intended to induce him to name higher-ups. Will this really go down before the election?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly (19 comments total)

Worst (?) case scenario: Bush drops Cheney as running mate in '04, chooses stronger mate (Giuliani?)
posted by milnak at 1:39 PM on February 5, 2004

Hannah has a lot to be worried about of late. Cheney is done for if Scooter or Hannah talk.
posted by machaus at 1:42 PM on February 5, 2004

OT: that has got to be the most hilarous headline I've ever seen -

Cheney's Staff Focus of Probe.

Where are they going to start probing Dick's staff?
posted by psmealey at 1:44 PM on February 5, 2004

heh heh heh /Beavis - Sorry
posted by psmealey at 1:46 PM on February 5, 2004

psmealey: I noticed that, too. It made me feel a little queasy...

On topic, I imagine we are going to see an Oliver North scenario here - they will take responsibility and take the fall and, later, be rewarded with jobs at news stations.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:47 PM on February 5, 2004

Cheney can take the George Bush I defense: "I was out of the loop". Of course he can also add "and in hiding".
posted by Eekacat at 2:04 PM on February 5, 2004

I'm with Milnak. This could be a very convenient way for Bush & co to dump Cheney. He was trying to be loyal and helpful, but he overstepped the bounds.

(Of course, this would just allow Cheney to control things from a position deeper in the background.)
posted by alms at 2:04 PM on February 5, 2004

Worst (?) case scenario: Bush drops Cheney as running mate in '04, chooses stronger mate (Giuliani?)

Oh lord. Is this the new thing now since everyone got bored of pretending Hillary was going to run for President this year?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 2:14 PM on February 5, 2004

BOOM. crooked bastards. strong on national security my ass.
posted by specialk420 at 2:47 PM on February 5, 2004

The really disturbing thing about this is that the results extend far beyond Wilson and Plame. Every single person Wilson and Plame have had contact with overseas is under suspicion as well, as well as any organization that Wilson and Plame may have worked with. Now that she has been confirmed as an undecover spy, foreign governments can reconstruct her travels, and get insight into how CIA undercover operations work. Without a doubt, any diplomat attending state functions where she might have been present has already been questioned about what was said to whom in her presence. Foreign intelligence agencies can make some good guesses in regards to what intelligence she might have discovered.

This is not just a case of "whoops, someone revealed a dirtly little secret". Novak did as much damage in one article as Aldrich Ames did in selling names to the Soviet Union. And yet, there has been minimal outcry about this lapse of judgement.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 4:09 PM on February 5, 2004

This is but one turd in the perfect shitstorm starting to swirl around the Bush Administration. Tenet's refusal to cave in and take the fall for the all the WMD lies seems significant to me also. Maybe it's premature to see, everywhere, rats deserting a sinking ship.

But the ship's certainly taking on a lot of water, and G W Bush is getting soggy. cranky too.
posted by troutfishing at 4:23 PM on February 5, 2004

I dunno, trout. It looked like Tenet was bending over for the administration to me. They've been using the same line that the administration has been touting -- namely, "We were misled by bad info. Dang." Tenet has yet to say what we really want to hear: "The President put pressure on me and my men to give him info that would make his case for him." Instead, all I've heard his Tenet saying, "Welp, I guess we need to hire more men to get in the field."

Where have the CIA's balls gone? I just can't believe this is the same organization that orchestrated the Bay of Pigs (et. al.). If I were a member of the intelligence community, I'd be pissed at the president. He wanted WMD, they told him there wasn't any, he manipulated and ignored facts, and now... look! No WMD. Sheesh, that darned CIA, they keep getting it wrong. We're gonna have to fix 'em up good this time.

Blaming the CIA for intelligence gaps is an atrocious slap in the face. I can't believe they haven't off'ed him yet, like they did to that sum'bitch Kennedy. :)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:42 PM on February 5, 2004

Fall guy-ism appears to be a contagious disease in D.C. right about now: Frist Aide Resigns in Probe Over Democrat Files.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:41 PM on February 5, 2004

Frog Scoot?
posted by soyjoy at 6:25 PM on February 5, 2004

Plaime, Oneil, Shrub's mil service, next month Perle's book will be still another shitstorm.

I'd say this is a coordinated effort to hit Bush once a month. And there's such a deep trough to pull up the scandal of the month from, this will likely go on all year.

When the going gets tough, its fun to tune into Rx Limbaugh. He's quite defensive and shrill these days. His basic spin is the "libs" could never have saved the country from the 9/11.
Its a rather weak line, even for him.
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:01 PM on February 5, 2004

Fupped Duck - That's incredible. I don't Listen to Rush, so it's good to hear the news......

Limbaugh's losing his mind. He's completely lost his PR compass - In yapping about how the Dems couldn't have prevented 9-11, he's just hammering home the point that 9-11 happened on a Republican watch.

I think that his brain function is probably still chemically unbalanced - I suspect his brain became adjusted to his chemical addiction, during all those drug-tinged years - Now, he probably can't yet think quite straight without help of Oxycontin.

Civil_Disobedient - Yeah, you may be right. What struck me was Tenet's strong emphasis that the CIA Intel given the White House did NOT warn of an "immanent WMD threat". That doesn't help Bush one bit.
posted by troutfishing at 6:31 AM on February 6, 2004

TPM link in FPP is broken. The story can actually be found here.
posted by jester69 at 7:21 AM on February 6, 2004

But really, hasn't Rush always been the lowest common denominator in conservative commentary? Give me Will or even Buckley any day. I pick up the Limbaugh Letter on a regular basis and it's just embarassingly bad. On the level of 17 or Cosmopolitan.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:48 AM on February 6, 2004

hasn't Rush always been the lowest common denominator in conservative commentary

Yup, that's why Saint Raygun called him "the best precint captain the party ever had." You say that like LCD is a "bad thing." :-)
posted by nofundy at 9:50 AM on February 6, 2004