Answers, Mr. Cheney is the title of the Chicago Tribune editorial that calls on the Vice-President to address the administration's role in the Valerie Plame scandal (diaired by dmsilev
here). But what the public needs now is answers not just from Cheney, but from the President himself.
That the highest officers of the United States were somehow involved in the use of classified intelligence for political gain is not an entirely new revelation. Recall that George Stephanopoulos alluded to their involvement last fall:
Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it's a manageable one for the White House especially if we don't know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions.
The White House, for its part, is not straying from its "ongoing investigation" mantra, hoping to wait out the scandal. But with each court filing the revelations keep piling up that the President himself was not merely a bystander to the campaign to silence a war critic, but rather he was an active participant in entire process, using and abusing his Executive Authority along the way.
It's infuriating, isn't it, knowing what we know now, to go back and watch the footage of the President telling us that he supports a full investigation, wherever it may lead. It reminded me of this quote, from President Nixon:
You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job.
Does the President dare utter those words today? Of course not. But he has played the same hand, taunting the system to investigate him and his administration, knowing full well who the perpetrators and deceivers already were. Such statements urging an investigation, when made by those who breached the public trust, evidence a belief of invincibility, that a crime or wrongdoing committed by the President cannot be a crime, or that the cover-up is so grand no pesky "investigation" can reveal the truth.
Hopefully, in time, Fitzgerald will reveal that truth. And when that time comes, I doubt any answer from the President or Vice-President will be able to salvage the administration.