I've been watching (as I suspect many people here have) the Scooter Libby trial with great interest. Like many of you, I've been following this train wreck since the beginning when Amb. Wilson wrote his op-ed piece.
I've been reading the excellent coverage at Firedoglake, although I must admit that I haven't read through every line of the live blogging. Many interesting, interesting things have been uncovered and with the latest piece by Sidney Blumenthal in Salon here titled Libby's cynical defense, I'm beginning to think that there might just be a shadow conflict going on in the Executive Branch between the OP and the OVP. Let's call them Team Cheney and Team Bush.
more on the flip.
Let's assume that at the start of this Administration, Team Cheney and Team Bush were on the same side, but as this trial has shown, Team Cheney (or TC) has assumed far more power and control than probably any other Vice President in American history. While some of this power has come at the expense of Congress, I suggest that some of it has also come at the expense of the Presidency itself. I think most of us have suspected that Cheney was (to a greater or lesser extent) the power behind the throne of GWB and is definitely influential in setting the ideology behind this administration, but I don't think there has been much speculation that perhaps this has not sat well with Team Bush and their allies. Could it be that Cheney is a rogue elephant? A quote from Mr. Blumenthal's article:
Throughout the anxious months before the trial of United States v. I. Lewis Libby, one of Scooter Libby's old mentors, a prominent Washington attorney and Republican with experience going back to the Watergate scandal and with intimate ties to neoconservatives, implored him repeatedly to stop covering up for Vice President Cheney and to cut a deal with the special prosecutor. Yet another distinguished Washington lawyer and personal friend of Libby's, privy to the mentor's counsel, reinforced his urgent advice and offered to provide Libby with introductions to former prosecutors who might help guide him.
The implication is clear that some people want to see Cheney go down. Within the Libby trial we have seen evidence that Cheney apparently was angered by what he perceived was Libby being "thrown into a meatgrinder" in order to save Karl Rove (a member of Team Bush). Tension, tension.
Perhaps this internal conflict is obscured because, in essence, it is a power struggle rather than an ideological struggle (they still share the same essential goals, just have different opinions on who should be in charge). Could Bush's continued insistence that he's "The Decider" actually be directed within the Executive branch as well as without?
Anyway here is what I think the Team Bush plan is, and why there hasn't been a pardon for Scooter (and probably won't be) and why Fitzgerald simply hasn't been fired (it would look bad to fire him you say? ha!):
After the Republicans spectacular failure in the elections and the disaster that is their handling of Iraq, the finger pointing began in earnest (with the added difficulty that this has to be done in secret), but really, I think, it started before the elections. Team Bush and Team Cheney each blamed the other. But, how to get out of the mess that is Iraq, or, at least, blame someone else for it? Democrats are out, in fact, Congress is out, since they've been completely shut out of the planning since the get go. Can't blame the soldiers: it doesn't poll well. Sooo.... How about Cheney? He's a jerk and thinks he's in charge (which wouldn't sit too well with someone like Bush, I think, especially when things aren't going well). The problem is that Cheney is poweful with lots of friends and has as much dirt on you as you have on him. If he doesn't want to go, he won't and you can't make him.
Enter the Libby trial, the perfect opportunity. You let the trial expose all of Cheney's dirty laundry (while staying out of it). You know Cheney's up to his eyeballs in it and is in the prosecutor's cross-hairs. You let Libby go down, make sure your guys who have to take the stand hammer the evidence home and don't cover for him one bit (like Ari Fleischer) and it's even better because they can actually tell the truth (for once). Once Libby is convicted, either the pressure on Cheney will be so great he will HAVE to resign or, if he doesn't, Fitzgerald will indict him. Then, after that, you clean house of the neo-cons and Cheney-ites, appoint a much more compliant VP and blame ALL the failures of Iraq on Cheney (and Halliburton). You can even expose just enough of the White House's inner workings to really seal his fate while potraying Team Bush as trusting (but naive) followers of a more "experienced" politician who, it turns out, tricked Team Bush TOO! Then they say, "sorry, sorry everyone, you can trust us again" and slightly switch course.
Just a thought.