A Cancer on the Presidency
To the White House, with its political obsessions, the most important battle — to frame Plame-gate in the media and public mind — is already under way.
The quickest and crudest sally is drawing parallels between Fitzgerald and Ken Starr and moaning that prosecutorial excess in the pursuit of minor peccadilloes is interfering with the president’s performance of his duties.
It scores high on the hypocrisy meter, simply reminds Democrats how our boy Bill got screwed, and seems too weak to serve as a stand-alone defense for a president scraping along at 39% in the polls (“So they lied. Look at the great job we’re doing!”).
To provide some much-needed political juice, George W. Bush is probably betting on a scandal that has pretty much faded from public awareness as the PR template for this snafu: Iran-Contra.
For those with short and lazy memories it can be spun as: Noble advisors serving sainted conservative president step over the line in protecting nation against existential threat — and get rewarded with pardons at the end!
Conflating these two scandals gives George the best chance of escape: nothing earth-shaking was done — just standard inside-the-Beltway hijinks — and anyway, it’s all part of that War on Terror thing.
To reinforce the theme, maybe they can invite Monica Lewinsky back to blow the entire White House staff while they ship Stinger missiles to Teheran and funnel the proceeds to Ahmad Chalabi.
Too bad I can’t think of any senior White House aide with a USMC uniform in the closet a la Ollie North, who gave TV viewers the indelible impression that only his bemedaled bosom and Fawn Hall‘s document-packed pantyhose stood between a defenseless nation and Nicaragua’s implacable red hordes.
But in truth Plame-gate is closer in significance to the biggie — Watergate — than any other scandal.
It’s not about lying. Though lying is bad.
It’s not about outing a CIA NOC. Though that’s pretty bad.
It’s not about building a false case for a failed war that has killed and maimed thousands of Americans and Iraqis. Though that’s really bad.
It’s not about using the power of the powers of the Presidency to intimidate domestic critics, suppress dissent, and corrupt the press. Though that’s perhaps the worst of it.
It’s about a cancer on the presidency — George W. Bush himself.
I don’t think the case is going to get too much public traction on perjury. Everybody who reads this website would love to see the Bush presidency decapitated at one blow by the scandal, but a lot of folks who suffered buyer’s remorse after drooling over the Lewinsky affair aren’t interested in seeing the White House crater just because its current occupants are worthless dirtbags.
The White House has done a halfway decent job of sliming Joe Wilson and marginalizing Valerie Plame. Unless it turns out that some local asset was tortured and executed as a result of the outing, people aren’t going to get too worked up because some showboat diplomat and his spook wife got their hair mussed.
As to lying to sell the war, that’s sacred ground to our conflicted, war-enabling public as long as our sons and daughters and American prestige are getting chewed up in Iraq. Anything is forgivable for the sake of fighting terror, protecting our nation, ensuring our troops didn’t die in vain blah blah blah.
But where I hope this case will resonate with the American public is as an indictment of George W. Bush. He created this crisis by ignoring and condoning the criminal behavior of virtually his entire executive team for two years — instead of showing leadership and courage.
We can leave integrity out of it. Bush could have solved this problem without integrity.
But he needed balls.
Two years ago, Bush could have said, “Yeah, well, I found out Scooter and Karl got all worked up over that jerk Wilson and things got out of hand. But nobody died so No Biggy! We don’t need a special prosecutor because I’ve already pardoned the boys. Matt and Judy, you can relax. The rest of the media can kiss my ass. And yeah, I’m expecting 20 lashes with a wet noodle from the Democrats in the next election. Now, let’s get back to the nation’s business of killing Iraqis.”
Instead, we got two years of stonewalling.
Actually, two years of pettiness, cowardice, deceit, and passivity from the President that goes a long way in revealing — and explaining — the pattern of failure and moral and intellectual drift of his Administration.
When we look back at the whole mess, this will probably be seen as the key, revealing transgression:
Bush sat around with his thumb up his ass for two years.
He was afraid to take responsibility and accept consequences.
He took a bad situation and made it worse.
A suitable epitaph for his entire administration, and a sign that something is significantly and dangerously wrong with this presidency.
I don’t expect Rove and Libby to go to jail. Even if they get indicted and convicted, Bush will just pardon them, like his dad pardoned Weinberger and the Iran-contra crew.
I’m not interested in the anointed sacrificial victims who will take the fall. They’ll just slide over into cushy thinktank sinecures, then return to practice the same tricks in the next Asshole administration.
I don’t want this thing to end with indictments, an attaboypat on the back for Fitzgerald, and years of inconclusive legal wrangling.
If most of the president’s inner circle is indicted, then I think the American people have the right to an unfettered Congressional investigation — full minority rights with subpoena powers, witnesses under the oath, the whole nine yards — to determine what went on in this debacle.
The only things I care about — and I think the American people are interested in — are What Did Bush Know, What Did He Do, When Did He Do It…
…and What Didn’t He Do.
The questions aren’t necessarily academic, idle, or vindictive.
They are a matter of the national interest.
Bush’s shortcomings as president are so manifest — and his administration so steeped in criminal behavior — that we deserve an unvarnished look at the dysfunctional mediocrity occupying the Oval Office.
And decide if this cancer on the presidency should be ignored, treated — or removed.
Peter Lee is the creator of the anti-war satire and commentary website Halcyon Days. He can be reached at peter@halcyondays.info.
