Armitage Open Thread

I don't think we've made any mention of the one-cheek-sneak ending of the Valerie Plame affair. Although the trial of "Scooter" Libby seems to be going ahead, it now looks like Richard Armitage, the Peter Boyle of the first GWB administration and a favorite of Bush critics because he wasn't an ideological, pro-war hathet man, is the main leaker. This anticlimax creates some legal and ethical issues around Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation, which The New York Times, for obvious reasons, is happy to jump on. I've never been terribly interested in Plamegate, beyond hoping that after all the time and energy expended we might get some entertaining fireworks out of it. The Judith Miller epiphenomenon was somewhat more entertaining, and you can read a variety of Reason coverage on that here. If you have strong opinions, modest opinions, or uninformed opinions (the truest opinions of all), you have the floor.

Comments

[R C Dean]

So, if I have this straight, Fitzgerald knew very early who the leaker was, determined very early that there was no underlying crime, but continued to run his office in hopes of tripping someone into a perjury/obstruction type rap?

And with all that, the best he could do was the weak case against Scooter Libby.

Who this poster predicts will walk. And deservedly so.

What a fargin' fiasco.

[Chamberlain]

Bush called for the Plame investigation, and Armitage worked for him.

Through skilled spinning, the Plame investigation has turned into a Democratic witch hunt that has snared one of their own...

Hehe, damn, they're good!

[joshua corning]

yellow cake!

[kevrob]

There turned out not to have been any underlying crime in the Imclone investigation, but Martha Stewart still went to Club Fed for lying to a government investigator. Libby may still get the same treatment.

Kevin

[Joe Wilson]

I still want a goddamn frog march, goddammit!

[jf]

Interestingly, there's not a single post in the last two weeks on DailyKos with the term "Armitage" or "Plame" in it. Far cry from the umpteen million "Karl Rove must do the perp walk" threads from earlier (ok, according to Google, 388).

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D, NY), a Kos diarist, last year said

"It is time for the President to keep his word. Karl Rove should be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," said Rep. Slaughter. "There can be no gray area here, regardless of how he phrased it, regardless of how much detail he provided, he revealed the identity of an undercover CIA agent. What Mr. Rove did is reprehensible. Putting the life of an undercover CIA agent in jeopardy can not be tolerated. He clearly deserves his pink slip," she continued.

Karl Rove might be Satan incarnate for all I know, but it's nice to see another Democratic Congresswoman go Cynthia McKinney on the world.

[JT Barrie]

I too have scant interest. I detest the CIA so when one their agents is exposed I have no fears about national security. After all, what has the CIA done for my security? It sure does work for the benefit of multinationals looking for client states to increase their profit margins.

Is the real culprit Colin Powell via his undersecretary? The irony is that reacting poorly to "leaks of classified information" seems to be the prime tactic of the Bush regime when it comes to revelation of embarrassing truths about their operations. The last I knew Colin Powell was part of the Bush regime and probably left post haste to preserve any semblance of integrity and personal reputation.

Was the purpose of the investigation to draw out Democratic hyperbole and associate any critics of Bush policies with those comments? False associations seems to run a close second in tactics with the GOP - although the Dems are a distant second in the use of these lies.

I agree: the more blood of lying politicians on the floor the better for the country. Unfortunately, until people stop wasting their votes for "the lesser evil" and stop giving credence to any reportage of the corporate media, that won't accomplish much. But it might nudge the conversation away from the gatekeepers.

[crimethink]

Wow, I didn't realize my Rep was a Kos diarist. Then again, given the painstakingly gerrymandered nature of my district, there's not much point keeping tabs on her.

[mewsifer]

I'm not a big fan of the CIA myself, though I'm not sure how else to collect intelligence.

One thing I do think that an active CIA employee who uses their position to influence domestic politics should go to jail.

For a very long time.

So I've always felt Valerie Plame should be in prison for exactly that reason because whoever leaked what to whom, that's precisely what she did.

[Marcvs]

Interestingly, there's not a single post in the last two weeks on DailyKos with the term "Armitage" or "Plame" in it.

What are you talking about, jf? There's one from Monday of this week with the explicit title:

Newsweek: Plame Outed By Armitage

[jf]

Marcvs,

Obviously, the DailyKos search engine wasn't working when I searched then, because I did a search for the last 2 weeks just for the term "armitage" and got zippo. Maybe I needed the capitol 'A'. Thanks for the correction.

Interesting, however, that the diarist who wrote the post you linked to still thinks Karl Rove is somehow behind it. I wonder if he uses a special glare-shield to keep the reflected light from his tin-foil hat from interfering with the readability of his monitor.

[Jon H]

"One thing I do think that an active CIA employee who uses their position to influence domestic politics should go to jail."

Which is utterly irrelevant in the Plame case, because she didn't send her husband, and her husband was qualified for the job in his own right.

[mewsifer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html

[joshua corning]

YELLOW CAKE!!!!

[TrickyVic]

The right person for the trip would be one with diplomatic experience in both regions and has ties to the CIA.

Despite the mud slinging and outright character assassination by the Bush administration, Joe Wilson was very qualified.

[TrickyVic]

The right person for the trip would be one with diplomatic experience in both regions and has ties to the CIA.

Despite the mud slinging and outright character assassination by the Bush administration, Joe Wilson was very qualified.