Me: “So. Your boy dodged a bullet today, eh?”
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: “Did he?”
Me: “Well, he could have indicted on multiple crimes—including outing a covert CIA agent and putting national security at risk—the fallout from which would have been devastating to this Administration and to the Republican party in general. Not to mention that the specter of Bush’s Brain having its tubby ass frog marched across the White House lawn would have led to the kind of leftwing schadenfreude we haven’t seen in this country since…well, since ever.”
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: “Is that so…”
Me: “Well…yeah. I mean—isn’t it?”
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: “I don’t know. You tell me. Though before you do, allow me to point out the obvious: Karl Rove wasn’t indicted today, was he?”
Me:
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito:
Me: “I hate you.”
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: “Uh huh. Pass me that salsa, would you please?”
****
update:
Me: “Okay, just tell me this. Are you ‘Official A’?”
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: “Don’t you just love autumn—when the leaves change, and the air smells of cloves and cinammon…?”
So, can we move on now? I’m certainly interested to see what the left will go after now that this dog won’t hunt. But christ, if I hear one more thing about Plamegate I might hurl.
She wasn’t outed. Fitzy said so. Put down the pitchforks folks.
How bout them White Sox huh?
WHAT DID OZZIE GUILLEN KNOW, AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?!!
Well, I indicted him. But the media didn’t cover it.
I think it’s because of the FASCISM!
blarg
ack
*foam*
TOMMAGUIREISTHEDEVIL
At least Fitgerald had the decency to wait until after the White Sox victory parade. So… he’s got that going for him.
How does it feel to be owned by a burrito? Pass the salsa, indeed.
Goldstein = PWN3D BY BURRIT0X0RZ!!1one!
With the Plame-out flameout and Miers withdrawal, loads of tedium are falling away. I’m making pancakes for dinner.
So Karl Rove’s burrito wants you to eat it? Sounds like a conspiracy to me.
I take it the dancing armadillo escaped indictment (again.)
Jeff –
This may help you out with your sorting:
Valerie Plame –
** worked for/at the CIA post 1999 – not classified
** worked counter-proliferation at CIA during same time – classified
** status as a former NOC agent for CIA – very classified (codeword stuff)
** details of operational work while a NOC agent – very, very classified (different codeword stuff)
—-
The damning piece for Libby is his inclusion of the phrase ‘counter-proliferation’ when describing Ms. Plame’s then current role at the CIA.
That’s a piece of classified information that has nothing whatsoever to do with Valerie’s prior work as an NOC agent.
What’s unknown, and this is up your alley, is whether Libby meant ‘Counter-Proliferation’ as a specific bureau assignment at the CIA or if his meaning was ‘counter-proliferation’ in the pedestrian sense of the phrase. There was a general ‘counter-proliferation’ effort around the UN inspections/yellowcake issue so Libby might have been talking in a generic sense.
Or not.
The lithium battery cells that fuel the mind-control ray reception units implanted at Rove’s insistence at the start of Bush’s presidency in 2001 only have a tested life of 50 months.
That syncs up nicely with Libby’s screw-up.
Maybe somebody forgot to replace Libby’s cell.
.
Hmm. Interesting. Thanks for that.
Wonder if the reporters would have known the distinction. Didn’t seem to show up in their writings, for what that’s worth—so that means, if we believe he was actually trying to out her in that capacity, he wasn’t very effective.
How in the hell can someone who was smart enough to go to Yale and be a player in the f*** White House end up getting himself indicted?
What kind of dumb f**k is this guy???
Scooter: What should I say to the Grand Jury?
Scooter’s attorney: ah just make up a bunch a shit you know just lie .
Scooter: Isn’t that like illegal or something?
Scooter’s attorney: It doesn’t matter dude because like she really wasn’t like a spy or something.
Scooter: So lying to a Grand Jury when the whole world is watching is alright?
Scooters attorney: What’s a Grand Jury?
Libby was willing to risk his career to call Wilson-Plame’s bluff. That makes him a hero in my eyes.
Don’t forget that the whole Niger-stunt was designed to improve John Kerry’s chances in a national presidential election. Kerry’s message, “Bush Lied to Take us to War,” relied on the intersection of planted, forged documents by French agents, with Wilson’s debunking of one of Bush’s reasons for the war.
Plame’s questionable “covert status” was used to shield Wilson’s Niger-lies from scrutiny. If ever Wilson’s wife’s interventions came out in public, all the co-conspirators, including all the abetting media organizations, were prepared to counter with charges of “outing a covert agent.”
Libby called this bluff at a real risk of indictment and imprisonment. He’s my Rambo, today. Can you say “presidential pardon.”
-Steve
Aha, the conspiracy is coming out. Fitzgerald is a Chicagoan and a White Sox fan. His press conference was all full of baseball talk on the subject of beanball pitchers, the White Sox style. Bush is a baseball man, a Houstonian, connected to Drayton McClain and the Astros. The series was obviously thrown because the Astros melted-down in critical situations time and time again.
There was obviously a deal to let Rove off the hook provided the ‘Stros threw the Series. It’s 1919 all over again. This is dirty.
Innaresting theory, Richard. Anybody know if Joe Wilson tends to walk around barefoot?
Me: So you in on the Miers nomination?
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito:
Me: That was fu**** genius I mean to get Will.Krauthammer; Limbaugh; Coulter Ingraham ;Fund ;Kristol and the NRO fags all hate’n on you at the same time is brilliant.
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: F*** Off!
Me: And then letting Scooter go before the grand jury and lie his ass off when there was no underlying crime was just a work of art.
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito:
Me: And oh yeah the way you handle the PR on Katrina ………..What you don’t get cable in the WH?
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito:
Me: So I guess after the election you guys are pretty much just phoning it in ?
Karl Rove’s breakfast burrito: Yeah so?!
YOU’VE BURNT ME FOR THE LAST TIME, RAWSTORY.COM!!
That burrito is getting more and more talkative with each passing conversation. Someone might want to let the little egg-stuffed dumbshit know that’s how people get sent to jail.
I don’t know whether he’s guilty or not, but I don’t see anything heroic in perjury and obstruction of justice. I do know that if he’s convicted and gets a presidential pardon then Bush and the current congressional GOP leadership will be able to kick back, relax, and congratulate each other.
All their hard work turning the GOP into a socially conservative version of the 20th century Democratic party will finally be done. They’ve already got pissing taxes away on entitlements, pork, and ever bigger government down pat. Cronyism in executive appointments is going fairly well for them even with the loss of Miers. May as well add in pardoning convicted friends and political allies and go for the hat trick, right?
So does this mean Libby will get a nice paying salary for some Lobby?
How many indicted Clintonites went on to start some firm, raise money for special interest or lobby, I can’t remember how many were indicted during his 2 terms.
What he said.
All their hard work turning the GOP into a socially conservative version of the 20th century Democratic party will finally be done.
Oh, please. What we have here is one indicted fellow for trying to get the truth out about Wilson’s lies. If he lied to the GJ, then he should go down, but not as severely as had he lied to discredit and smear honorable people, as the Wilsons and Dems have been doing with impunity. Stealing-and-destroying-classified-docs-during-a-Congressional-investigation Democrat Berger didn’t even get jail time, only a slightly pink wrist from a judicial love slap.
Putting the Dems and Repubs on the same level after this episode is like saying Bush and Clinton are no different because they both like women. Well, yeah…
T/W zipper, as in one can keep it up
I see that Daver in the previous thread and I both mentioned Berger about the same time. It’s remarkable how unremarkable the MSM considered Berger’s cover-up theft and lies to be. Major networks didn’t interrupt their programming to tell us that he was indicted. Or convicted.
Just want to add that under the Donks, taxes and Congressional spending would have been MUCH higher, domestic social engineering accelerated for grievance-group votes and to play catch-up with Europe, post 9-11 Afghanistan only bombed Kosovo style and the Taliban left in charge, Saddam left defiant and the ME virulent and emboldened, the US more subsumed to the UN, ICC, Kyoto and to whatever our betters like Chirac and righteous rebels like Chavez think, etc.
If we eat our own by saying the Repubs and Dems are virtually same-same, then we deserve to have the Crats back in charge. And may Gaia help us.
C,
What you said.
-Steve
It is not “just this episode”, if you would read all of Sean’s post. He was commenting on a Presidential pardon for Libby if he is found guilty.
And explain to me if you will just how Scooter’s lies did anything to “get the truth out about Wilson’s lies” because I am not seeing it. Frankly, I can’t figure what the fuck he was thinking.
And the lesser of two evils is still evil. That is worth remembering.
Aha, just read
from the previous thread, and that is beginning to explain Scooter’s behavior, but it also reinforces my belief that the Repugs need to stop acting like Democrats and confront their opponents openly. Once again by trying to be low-key and cute the evil geniuses have played right into the left’s hands.
tw: history-> nah, too easy
I’m Official E…
…tired of the whole thing.
So Libby goes to trial. Subpoenas Wilson and Plame. That should pretty much ensure we never hear another word of this..
Hmmmm.
And yet if we don’t object when the GOP starts running off on a tangent, what we’ll end up with is a Democratic Party with an elephant for a symbol.
Ed, it’s one thing to object to Libby’s alleged lying to an investigating prosecutor or GJ regarding whether, who and when he told reporters the truth that Wilson’s wife is CIA. But believing the two parties and their records to be (im)morally equivalent is like saying the Iraq War is Vietnam redux or that Abu Ghraib is no different than Saddam’s decades-long torure policy.
Not even close, but if it makes some feel better to think so, then enjoy. Most Repubs are not excusing Libby, just putting things into context and perspective. Nearly all of us have said that he should pay a price for lying to investigators, if in fact that is what he did.
Now, what penalties will be paid by Wilson for his lies or by Plame and the CIA for their nepotistic, political adventurism?
Please. If you believe that there’s that big a difference between the two parties on anything other than social issues and defense anymore then you’re wearing rose colored glasses. There are still major differences on social issues and defense which is the GOP’s only saving grace for many people right now.
On spending and government growth the GOP under Bush has been at least as bad as post New Deal Democrats. Bush has been at least as bad as Clinton as far as cronyism in executive appointments goes. We’re already further down those paths than I’m comfortable with and my point was just that pardoning convicted friends is going a step too far.
As bad as the GOP is now, the Dems are currently much, much worse, but I was talking about last century’s Dems. Seriously, are you telling me that you really think comparing how fiscally profligate the past decade’s GOP have been to the past half century’s Dems is like comparing Iraq to Vietnam? You honestly think that comparing the way Bush uses executive appointments to reward allies to the way Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, or Clinton did is like comparing Lyndie England’s mistreatment to Saddam’s torture?
My entire point was that the GOP has abandoned enough conservative principles without taking up Clintonesue use of presidential pardons. How pointing that out is eating our own is beyond me.
The Things Roves breakfast burritto didn’t say, are the most telling. That 11th hour backroom meeting between the Rove crew and Fitzy has all the earmarks of yet another Rovian leftwing takedown. If I were a Liberal, (I’m safely between meals as I write this), I’d be casting fearful glances over my shoulder right now.
Things just seem a little too askew, and we all know what that has ment in the past everytime the minions of the left thought at last their ship had come in, only to find it beached on the shouls of frustrated disarray. That all this should be happening on All Hollows eve is just a leetle to cutsey in my book…..
wordromp: “step”. The left should definately watch its step while its thinking of celebrating…
Sean H,
It has fallen to the GOP to protect this country, and that is what they’re doing. There is no more important issue of these times. That the Bush administration and Republican Congress are managing to do this- execute a WOT both domestically and internationally and militarily topple two regimes to remove their threat and infuse a little sane governance into SW Asia and the ME- while keeping the economy afloat and even prospering post 9-11 is damn good and good enough for a lot of us.
That the GOP is also keeping taxes down, addressing business strangling regulation and trade issues, realigning the courts (with a misstep here and there that gets corrected), fighting the NEA to reform our public schools (never enough, of course), putting issues like Social Security and tax reform on the table, resisting international treaties supported by Dems that are designed to tie us down, forming constructive alliances with countries with whom we can do mutually beneficial biz and politics, more aggressively tackling the proliferation problem, building up the military with a good bit of today’s Profligate Spending, encouraging Americans to stop apologizing for this country and to stand up for our values instead of groveling before the world as the Dems from the last century and current would have us do, all while dealing with an obstructionist/hostile Opposition Party, partisan/hostile press, and antagonistic Internationalist Elites, is pretty good, imo. Not perfect, and in some areas of governance a little disappointing, but considering the big picture, really pretty good.
To suggest that there’s not a great deal separating the Dem and Repub parties because this administration’s WH and Congress suffer from Major Cronyism, Profligate Spending and a Hypothetical-Pardon-to-Come-of-Someone-Who-Committed-No-Underlying-Crime-Before-Allegedly-Lying-to-Investigators is a bit over the top. Webster’s defines “Clintonesque” as having numerous indictments in one’s corrupt administration and doling out pardons to criminals out of self-interest, either to hush them up or for “contributions”.
I don’t wear glasses, rosy or otherwise, but am a glass-half-full kind of person these days, considering with what we are dealing now and having to fix from before. No cakewalk, no perfection, a few blindspots and some politics as usual, but real progress and some of it profoundly transformational.
I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, C. Maybe if I were a Republican or a social conservative I’d see it your way, but I think you’re giving the GOP far too much credit and coming down far too hard on today’s Dems let alone last century’s. I’ll grant you that he’s done a good job on homeland security and the WOT, but I’m an enormous Iraq supporter and even I’ve got tons of criticism on how we’ve gone about it and how poorly he’s communicated.
I think you’ve made as strong a case for them as anyone could, but outside of defense what you’ve listed is a lot of GOP talk and a pretty bare list of actual accomplishments. I’ll give you cutting taxes, but if he doesn’t also do something about spending all he’s accomplished in the long run is laid a greater tax burden on later generations. His “fighting” the NEA has consisted mostly of heaving money into education at levels that would have made Clinton blush. Any credit he deserves for proposing SS and tax reform the congressional GOP leadership cancels out for the way they hid under their desks until the talk of reform died down. Heck, the Medicaid drug plan alone is a setback so big that I have a hard time thinking up enough GOP domestic accomplishments to offset even a quarter of it. In my opinion what the GOP has accomplished domestically in the past decade essentially boils down to not being Democrats while adding mightily to the lifetime tax burden of anyone under 40.
As far as the Dems go I think you’re painting the party with too wide a brush. Lumping Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh, Ben Nelson, and dozens of other congressmen and Dem governors in with the likes of Dean, Kerrey, Byrd, and Pelosi is unfair and inaccurate. Lumping last century’s Dems in with them is just crazy talk. I can picture Clinton groveling, but only if he were trying to get some. I can’t even imagine Roosevelt or Kennedy groveling, but if they were with us today I could easily picture them smacking Dean, Michael Moore, and the MoveOn crowd down like a pack of bitches and taking their party back from them.
Thanks for your response, Sean, and I guess we’ll have to thoroughly but respectfully disagree re the tone and tenor of America’s two parties. Here’s a rather interesting discussion on today’s political divisions, if you’re interested (please scroll down to “A Terrible Slow Sword”, since screenshots are beyond my limited moderate Republican abilites!)
T/W heart, as in I heart our military and their efforts on our and others’ behalf.