by Charles
The rest of the blogosphere is talking about it, so why not here. The way it usually works is that authorities determine if a crime has been committed, then they investigate. Not so in the strange twilight world of Plame, where the threatened indictments are not for outing a CIA agent, but for lying to investigators. Today we hear that Rove will not be indicted. I leave the rest to Tom Maguire for the details. There may be more indictments coming, but right now the investigation looks like a Piccolo Pete that has just run out of juice.
Standard disclosure: Whether a crime was committed or not, it was wrong for anyone to reveal the identity of a CIA operative.
The way it usually works is that authorities determine if a crime has been committed, then they investigate.
WTF ?
and if another crime is committed during their attempt to determine if the first crime was committed or not… ?
and, what was the Clinton Impeachment about ?
sounds like you’ve shaken your brain loose, from jumping around in glee.
Today we hear that Rove will not be indicted.
Interestingly, I now am in a spot where I have to wonder if news that a member of this administration is not being indicted will boost the president’s popularity. Whether it does or not, it’s certainly a cause for great celebrations and many huzzahs in right-wing blogsville.
The way it usually works is that authorities determine if a crime has been committed, then they investigate.
Let me second Cleek’s WTF? How do you think authorities determine if a crime has been committed, rock, paper, scissors?
Also note it’s quite clear Rove flatly lied about what happened.
let me apologize for my final sentence. i might have slipped over the line-of-comity in my haste to get out of the office after a hard day of nothing much at all.
All snark aside,
Charles, do you believe Rove is innocent?
It should also be noted that all of this is coming from the defense lawyers, and not Fitzgerald, who has yet to make a public statement.
“The way it usually works is that authorities determine if a crime has been committed, then they investigate.”
Um, that’s entirely untrue, you know.
They have to investigate to determine if a crime has been committed in many circumstances. And if you think there’s something odd about sending someone to jail, let alone prosecuting them, for perjury, you might ask Alger Hiss.
Or John Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman, and John Mitchell.
Or Clair E. George, Duane R. Clarridge, Caspar W. Weinberger, Richard Helms, Robert C. McFarlane, oseph F. Fernandez, and so many other folks some of us remember well.
I seem to recall a certain impeachment charge not long ago. And we were assured that it wasn’t about the sex, it was about the perjury.
How could the charge, and the investigation, of perjury suddenly be unimportant, and rare, exactly?
Luskin has turned out to be wrong often enough that I’m waiting for word from Fitzgerald.
sounds like you’ve shaken your brain loose, from jumping around in glee.
Please, try to get me to care about Plamegate. If this episode shows one thing, it’s that Rove has no business hanging around when it’s not an election year.
My other point had to do with the clamor for an independent prosecutor before even knowing the nature of the alleged crime.
Given that Ashcroft recused himself, Charles, don’t you think that would be a prima facie case for an independent prosecutor?
Seems like this piece of Plamegate is over: TalkLeft says so.
Please, try to get me to care about Plamegate.
I see. Revealing the identity of a CIA operative: bad. Holding anyone accountable for it: booo-ring, silly, etc.
All other issues aside, I must agree with you, Charles. I think it’s clear at this point that Rove’s area of profound expertise is running a machine that shapes and controls discourse. When it’s pointed in the direction of an obvious and tangible goal (winning an election), Rove may fight dirty and ugly and all that, but he knows where he’s going.
When the time to work on policy and set an actual agenda comes, it doesn’t seem that he’s very competent; it’s been noted many times before that the current administration’s policy arm has been all but nonexistant. Articles if ideological faith are inserted in their place — things that are perfectly acceptable as planks in a platform but insufficient as actual plans.
You’ve noted before in your ‘Occasional Communicator’ posts that a failure to focus on what’s genuinely important, and communicate it to the American people, is one of the major failings. I would argue that this is a symptom of Rove’s profound inability to grasp what goals and issues ARE critical, outside of an election context and the PR focus that dominates it.
Nell:
So it would seem.
Pity we never got around to setting up an operation to keep track of Iran’s attempts at developing nuclear technology, isn’t it?
Oh, wait…
If this episode shows one thing, it’s that Rove has no business hanging around when it’s not an election year.
Actually, I think it shows that they ascribe to the Andre Agassi (early 1990s version) school of politics: image is everything. Substance be damned.
My other point had to do with the clamor for an independent prosecutor before even knowing the nature of the alleged crime.
I think it was pretty clear what the alleged offense was from the very beginning, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.
My other point had to do with the clamor for an independent prosecutor before even knowing the nature of the alleged crime
correct me if i’m wrong, but didn’t the CIA itself ask for the matter to be investigated ? they certainly knew the nature of the alleged crime.
Please, try to get me to care about Plamegate. If this episode shows one thing, it’s that Rove has no business hanging around when it’s not an election year.
But since it is, that makes it alright?
Dang, missed this.
Why does the Bush administration hate America?
They hate our freedom, SomeOtherDude.