… have, as many people know, launched a civil suit against I. Lewis Libby, Karl Rove and Richard Cheney.
It will be very interesting to watch unfold … the defendants in a civil suit will have to answer questions such as "Did GWB authorize you to leak that information ?" It may also be that the Republicans will come to regret their ferocious support for a similar action by Paula Jones in the Clinton years, allowing a sitting president to be deposed.
Etc., etc., etc.
What I have found particularly interesting in all that I have read thus far about this new initiative is that 1) Amb. Wilson not only tried for months to get the Administration to address the falsity of the yellow-cake allegation, and 2) that some of the former members of Junior’s Dad’s cabinet also tried hard to get that message heard.
I suspect that this particular element of the full scope of information can or will be quite damaging to the deposed individuals. It’s not that hard to imagine them being insistent on going ahead with the Iraq invasion, and having had the intent and strategy to do anything to discredit Wilson’s information, and then when he exposed the lack of evidence in the NY Times seek retribution by exposing his wife.
Read some much more informative reporting on these issues here and here.
1. Privately urged Administration to correct the false allegation in the State of the Union for months. When the Administration refused, Wilson exercised his right to speak out about governmental problems.
2. The case starts with a bang, with the quote from GHWB (Dad, POTUS 41):
…. "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."
This is a poke on several levels, and amusing in that standing outside the fray looking in sort of way.
GWB has issues with his father, we have been told over and over by family and friends and insiders in the Bush milieu, and this quote just rubs salt in that wound by pointing daddy’s finger directly at all of Junior’s minions.
Beyond that, I have heard that not only did Joe Wilson try directly and through back channels to let the Administration quietly know that the "16 words" were in error, but that a number of GHWB’s old gang tried to also do so on Amb. Wilson’s behalf, much to the irritation of Junior and the consternation of Dick Cheney.
Tags: Libby, Rove, Cheney, civil suit, Wilson-Plame
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