Thursday, August 31, 2006
You Wish
Punch-me-faced prep David Brooks takes time out from writing his new book, "Tattooed, Middle-Class Bobos Who Didn't Marry and Procreate Before Thirty and So Are Doomed to a Life of Mediocrity" to opine in today's Times that the Valerie Plame Wilson scandal -- "a crime so heinous that her husband was forced to endure repeated magazine photo-shoots" -- is "[n]othing. A piffle."
The reason? Why, of course it's that the revelation that the "primary leaker" was Richard Armitage -- as opposed to say, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby or Dick Cheney -- renders it a "politically useless wrongdoing" that can no longer be used as "a way to expose the black heart of the Bush administration."
This, of course, is in keeping with "The Latest Right-Wing Line of Hooey" ™ which boils down to "Nothing To See Here -- Move Along, People."
You wish, David Brooks.
It certainly puts into perspective, if not comic relief, the convenient notion (appearing now, six weeks after the filing of this suit), that the whole thing was "nothing", and the accidental work of a hapless and repentant Richard Armitage.
The suit lists many - presumably undisputed -- facts that link high-level White House officials directly to a campaign to out Plame and discredit her husband. We say "undisputed" because it's clear that the defendants in this case will never mount a defense on the merits, instead using every legal maneuver at their disposal to get the suit dismissed.
Brooks should hope they succeed, for if the Wilson's are allowed to take discovery in this matter, the truth will out - and the tattooed middle-class bobo's might catch on to who and what Brooks really is.
The reason? Why, of course it's that the revelation that the "primary leaker" was Richard Armitage -- as opposed to say, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby or Dick Cheney -- renders it a "politically useless wrongdoing" that can no longer be used as "a way to expose the black heart of the Bush administration."
This, of course, is in keeping with "The Latest Right-Wing Line of Hooey" ™ which boils down to "Nothing To See Here -- Move Along, People."
You wish, David Brooks.
- July 13, 2006
Valerie Plame Wilson and Joseph Wilson, IV
Plaintiffs
v.
I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Karl C. Rove, Richard Cheney, and John Does 1-10.
Defendants
This Complaint arises out of a conspiracy among current and former high-level officials in the White House and actions taken by and on behalf of those officials in 2003 to violate the constitutional and other legal rights of Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Those officials sought to punish Mr. Wilson for his public statements regarding assertions by the President of the United States in the 2003 State of the Union address that he used to justify war against Iraq. As their chief method of punishment, the White House officials destroyed Mrs. Wilson's cover by revealing her classified employment with the CIA to reporters prior to and after July, 14, 2003, the date on which a newspaper column by Robert Novak made public that employment.
According to a filing by Special Counsel Fitzgerald in United States v. Libby, "There is ample evidence that multiple officials in the White House discussed [Valerie Wilson's] employment with reporters prior to (and after) July 14." On information and belief, the multiple officials include Defendants Cheney, Rove, Libby, and John Does No. 1-10.
It certainly puts into perspective, if not comic relief, the convenient notion (appearing now, six weeks after the filing of this suit), that the whole thing was "nothing", and the accidental work of a hapless and repentant Richard Armitage.
The suit lists many - presumably undisputed -- facts that link high-level White House officials directly to a campaign to out Plame and discredit her husband. We say "undisputed" because it's clear that the defendants in this case will never mount a defense on the merits, instead using every legal maneuver at their disposal to get the suit dismissed.
Brooks should hope they succeed, for if the Wilson's are allowed to take discovery in this matter, the truth will out - and the tattooed middle-class bobo's might catch on to who and what Brooks really is.
