President Bush has asserted executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.A House committee chairman, meanwhile, held off on a contempt citation of Mukasey — who had requested the privilege claim — but only as a courtesy to lawmakers not present.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, rejected Mukasey's suggestion that Vice President Dick Cheney's FBI interview on the CIA leak should be protected by the privilege claim — and therefore not turned over to the panel.
Sigh. Just in case you have forgotten what this was all about. It's about the leaking of an undercover CIA agent's idenity, Valerie Plame, to shut up her husband...who was not toeing the company line regarding the march to war with Iraq.
State Department official Richard Armitage first revealed Plame's identity as a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak, who used former presidential counselor Karl Rove as a confirming source for a 2003 article. Around that time Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was criticizing Bush's march to war in Iraq...
Libby told the FBI in 2003 that it was possible that Cheney ordered him to reveal Plame's identity to reporters.
Outing an undercover agent is treason. Someone should be in jail. Someone, Scooter Libby, was convicted of all sorts of things and sentenced to jail...but oh wait, he's not in jail, Bush let him off the hook.
Cheney's then-chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, also was involved in the leak and was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing him from serving any prison time.
So...the fall guy took the fall, and then was patted on the back and sent on his way for doing so. The rest of the rats in this tale hide behind executive privilege.
What exactly does the Bush cabal have to do to get impeached? Hold satanic orgies on the White House lawn while TV cameras roll? Go on a baby killing spree, video tape the whole thing and post it on YouTube? Seriously, the stuff they are getting away with is really ridiculous.
