Friday, September 30, 2005

Momentum and the fall of BushCo

"Big Mo," it used to be called by a football loving jock I used to work with.

Momentum 1: DeLay in trouble, actually indicted in Texas of all places, for what amounts to political money laundering. DeLay is one of the most cocky and negative of the Neocons, working to pack Texas with republican congresspeople, simply so the rightwing could get their way in Washington.

Momentum 2: Judith Miller, accompanied by the publisher of the New York Times, testifies in the Grand Jury looking into the matter of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA covert operative being revealed by someone close to the top in Washington. The revelation came after Plame's husband, in a New York Times op-ed piece, criticized BushCo's rationale for the invasion of Iraq. The op-ed piece was written after evidence was published suggesting Iraq was not really a global threat after all. It's a crime to reveal info about agents, and that's the reason for the Grand Jury.

Basically it looks like BushCo stepped on its own foot in trying to punish Plame's husband for speaking out against BushCo and the invasion of Iraq.

But what a story, somewhat twisted- involving the not only the op-ed piece, but a column by Robert Novak, which was where Plame's association with the CIA was supposedly revealed. Rove's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is supposedly the source the Times reporter Judith Miller wouldn't identify- Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify, btw. The source finally agreed to being identified and that's what led to Miller's 4-hour testimony yesterday.

Apparently Libby, Rove's [actually Cheney's] chief of staff, confirmed to Times reporter Miller that CIA operative Plame's role had indeed been revealed to the columnist Novak by Rove. Libby and Rove, according the AP, also met with another reporter from Time magazine, a Matthew Cooper, and told Cooper something about Plame. It looks like Wilson's testimony was key to the Grand Jury since she can corroborate what the Time magazine reporter testified to.

Convoluted. I'll have to dig up the press articles involved- the article by Novak from, I believe, 2003, the op-ed by Plame's husband in the NYT. Wonder what Matthew Cooper from Time and Miller from the NYT wrote, as well.

Didn't mean to go on and on but my point is this makes the Bush administration look very bad. This is this kind of thing that can go a long way towards showing some of the supporters exactly how those people do business. The supporters seem to bury their heads in sand, buying into myths about a liberal media, and etc. See my site re BushCo- the Oliver page.

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