How High is High? Or, Whither Cheney?
The buzz today is over the possibility that Dick Cheney himself may be ensnared in the web Patrick Fitzgerald is weaving. The Wall Street Journal reports that the account of Judy Miller seems to pointing towards the investigation of possible misconduct in Cheney’s office (well, duh!), while Bloomberg plays up the Cheney angle as well.
Obviously, Cheney’s Chief of Staff is a target of the probe; just as obviously, Fitzgerald has sought to determine the extent of the involvement of Cheney himself. Every prosecutor dreams of catching the big fish. It staggers the imagination, however, to believe that Cheney himself will be indicted. Though such speculation no doubt feeds into the frenzy, even the Bloomberg account includes the following:
There’s no indication Fitzgerald is considering criminal charges against the vice president, who gave unsworn testimony to investigators last year. One option for Fitzgerald is to outline his findings about Cheney’s role if he files a final report on the investigation.
… To make a case against Cheney as part of a conspiracy indictment, Fitzgerald would have to show the vice president was an active participant in a decision to smear Wilson, Barcella said. “It’s a case most easily made if you can prove a person knowingly entered into an agreement to do something illegal,” he said. “Beyond that, it can be tricky.”
There are those who will argue that Cheney’s Chief of Staff could not have been involved without the knowledge of his superior. They may even be right…but it’s a long way from that statement to a criminal indictment. Odds of Cheney being indicted: 15-1 against.
UPDATE 2:15 p.m.: The DNC is wasting no time making hay off the Bloomberg story (hat tip to Jayson at PoliPundit)…
Bloomberg is basing this speculation on a reporter:
1. Who stayed in jail rather than provide her sources?
2. Discovered a notebook-with details of her conversation with Libby, but can’t recall if he told her, or someone already had told her.
3. Has about as much credibility as a Jim Jones’ kool-aid stand?
This is a big reach. Odds? a little smaller than an asteroid hitting the Streisand compound.
I agree with MtL–although I don’t love the Streisand analogy because I want an asteroid to hit that compound and it’s disappointing to think that it’s so very improbable. This is another example of the flailing that’s going on because no one has a clue what Fitzgerald is thinking. Cheney? Doesn’t he have other things to do?
And not to add to the flailing, but the person no one has mentioned in quite some time is Colin Powell, who after all had the Wilson/Plame memo on his plane, and a vested interest in preserving the WMD story. That might make some sense out of his “mea culpa” interview a few weeks back. Hmmmm….perhaps not quite so much of a saint?
Lump Armitage in with Powell.
He’s a loyal guy, and probably read every single memo that came thru the office.
Has Armitage testified? I know Powell did in July. We don’t know for sure if Cheney has, right?
Not the best source, but…
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=55063
“Powell Admitted Circulating A Classified State Department Memo Identifying Plame Aboard Air Force One. “After a June 12 Washington Post story made reference to the Niger uranium inquiry, Armitage asked intelligence officers in the State Department for more information. He was forwarded a copy of a memo classified ‘Secret’ that included a description of Wilson’s trip for the CIA, his findings, a brief description of the origin of the trip and a reference to ‘Wilson’s wife.’ …On July 7, this memo and the notes were removed from the safe and forwarded to Powell via a secure fax line to Air Force One. Powell was on the way to Africa with the president, and his aides knew the secretary would be getting questions…Powell told prosecutors that he circulated the memo among those traveling with him in the front section of Air Force One. It is believed that all officials in that part of the aircraft had high-level security clearance.” (Los Angeles Times, 8/25/05)
The only problem is that Plame’s name, if some of what Miller said is true, was already known by June 23, clearing the occupants of the plane.
The testimonies are being poorly covered by the press. Apparently Wilson was called back on Sept 30…Cheney has never been questioned by the GJ, but has taken questions from investigators. I don’t think Armitage has been called…but then there really isn’t a good list out there.
That’s right, Cheney answered questions from investigators, unsworn, but has not given sworn testimony in front of the grand jury…
“While the complete list of witnesses who have testified before the Grand Jury is not known (Fitzgerald has conducted his investigation with much more discretion than previous presidential investigations[45]), a number of individuals have acknowledged giving testimony, including White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Deputy Press Secretary Claire Buchan, former press secretary Ari Fleischer, former special advisor to the president Karen Hughes, former White House communications aide Adam Levine, former advisor to the Vice President Mary Matalin, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.[46]”
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=93444;title=APFN
The 46 reference is to Murray Waas:
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2004/03/waas-m-03-08.html
and the above first link was lifted from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair
The name that really stuck out was:
Mary Matalin. (Of course she could say she was drinking at the time, and can’t remember anything. god knows she’d have to be drunk to have a kid by Carville.)
Which leads me back to my original point–it seems to me that Cheney is the least guilty-looking party right now based on this evidence. Wouldn’t they want to bring him before the GJ before considering an indictment?
Prediction: Howard Fineman will write a “Cheney is guilty: column in the next 48 hours and it will all turn out to be smoke and mirrors.
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You want comment on the rumor? Try Left Coaster and Decision ‘08 and World O’Crap and The All Spin Zone and Seeing the Forest and Rook’s Rant.
AE…now that MoDo is under lock and key, what would we do without Fineman?…