The investigations are starting... and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how the apologists for the Bush administration are going to try to undermine the findings... or even the process of any oversight committee:
"This is nothing but a partisan witch hunt."
It's a good all-purpose dodge. You don't need to substantively argue any of the specific points regarding the merit of the claims, the seriousness of the charges, the violations of whichever laws are at stake. You just dismiss the effort as being motivated by those irrational Bush-haters to score political points against our Commander-in-Chief.
The rejoinder is simple:
No, this is an investigation of a partisan witch hunt.
Because regardless of whether we're looking into Plamegate or any of the myriad scandals that seem to fractally propagate around this administration, at the root of it is partisanship.
The Bush administration has always been far more interested in politics than policy, and the raw accumulation and exercise of power has been the objective of everything they have ever done. They do not govern. They do not enact and administrate programs.
What they have tried to do is rule. And you only need one party to rule.
When the Republicans had a majority in Congress, they completely excluded the Democrats from the legislative process. There were no efforts at compromise or comity. The Democratic members of Congress were shut out entirely.
When fellow Republicans - former administration officials, in some cases - were at all critical of the administration, they would be smeared and slandered mercilessly.
In the face of GOP partisanship, any and all efforts to challenge that, to establish some kind of balance, will be accused of as being opportunistically partisan. To counter that, we need to be on the offensive, demonstrating the degree to which this is remediating an imbalance created by existing unchecked partisanship on the part of the administration and its supporters.
No, this is an investigation of a partisan witch hunt.