Perhaps the most striking feature of today's Associated Press news report, that President Bush personally authorized leaking to the press information to discredit Former Ambassador Joe Wilson, is that it is anticlimactic. The breadth of duplicity, bad judgment and corruption within the Bush administration makes news of the President's direct involvement in those desperate dirty political shenanigans sound more like a firecracker than a bombshell. Most people who have analyzed the "outing" of covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame [Wilson's Wife], have opined that Scooter Libby and Karl Rove would not have engaged in leaking classified information to the press without direct authorization from their bosses. They were expected to fall on their swords like good martyrs to shield Bush and Cheney from responsibility when the lowly political dirty tricks they authorized came to light. But they are both too politically astute to engage in knowingly illegal actions without getting marching orders from the top.
One of the rules of playing cards is that you have to always remember that there is a joker in the deck. Perhaps Bush and Rove believed that they had full control of the Plame investigation. After all, Fitzgerald was not even a true "independent prosecutor." He was appointed by the Justice department under the President's control, so it was reasonable to expect two things. First that whoever was chosen would have political aspirations that would cause him or her to limit inquiries that got close to the President and his senior staff. Second, the investigator chosen would have sufficiently limited ethical standards that he would immediately back off when "advised " by the Bush White House that the investigation was getting into uncomfortable waters. But the investigator chosen turned out to be the joker in the deck. He is more concerned about doing his present job than worrying about what his next position might be. And he has followed the investigation carefully and tenaciously wherever it has led him, including what now appears to be the threshold of the Oval Office.
After being cast adrift by the White House, Scooter Libby ratted out his boss to the Federal Prosecutor. They say there is no honor among thieves, and I guess that the same goes for members of the cabal running the White House. The public facade of aggressive investigation and prosecution of the person(s) who leaked information about the President's illegal domestic spying program now seems pretty silly. Of course the President is entitled to take the paternal high horse approach and tell his subordinates "Do as I say, not as I do." But again, that approach is hardly the kind of inspiring leadership that commands the discipline and loyalty necessary to bind together the cadre of incompetent and corrupt functionaries that the President has surrounded himself with.
With the recent announcement of departures from White House senior staff, the problem of keeping a lid on and covering up the mistakes, incompetence and corruption that has characterized the Bush administration up to this point can only grow larger. With Delay heading for prison and Frist battling potential indictment himself, Congress can no longer be counted to back the President's moves and superficial explanations. In the past years, the GOP controlled Congress lapped up whatever Bush dished out, no matter how irrational or rife with cronyism and corruption. Representatives are now facing a mid term election, and being a mindless rubber stamp may not be as appealing to the constituents as it has appeared to be over the past five and one half years.
What is most disappointing is that members of Congress could have acted like competent seamen and taken the necessary measures to keep the Ship of State seaworthy. Instead, they have taken the approach of rats deserting a sinking ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment