I saw in
Slate today that Mickey Kaus--that crazy right-wing uber-apologist--agrees with E.J. Dionne: The White House Leakers have probably known for a while that they could lie to Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury with impunity: Bush will pardon them anyway. Kaus's money-quote:
Q--Would Libby really have been dumb enough to contradict his own notes (which the prosecutor has had from the start) under oath?
We now think we know the answer to that question, which is that Libby wasn't dumb enough to contradict his own notes. Instead he was dumb enough to avoid contradicting his notes by concocting a wildly implausible story about how he forgot what was in his notes! That story is non-believable on its face, whether Tim Russert testifies or not. ... Who would take such an idiotic risk before a much-feared special prosecutor? One answer: Someone who knows he'll be protected in the end. Someone who knows, for example, that he'll be pardoned. Maybe even someone who had represented a client who'd been pardoned in similarly controversial circumstances. It's easier to be a highwire daredevil when you know you have a safety net.
For reference, Dionne's
so-obvious-it's-brilliant observation yesterday:
Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
In his impressive presentation of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed the wish that witnesses had testified when subpoenas were issued in August 2004, and "we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005."
Note the significance of the two dates: October 2004, before President Bush was reelected, and October 2005, after the president was reelected. Those dates make clear why Libby threw sand in the eyes of prosecutors, in the special counsel's apt metaphor, and helped drag out the investigation.
I know all signs lead to Cheney, but the MSM must not lose sight of Bush. The likelihood of a pardon points to no less than Bush's direct involvement in the conspiracy.
If Bush's hatchet men knew they would be pardoned, then Bush knew what they did. And if he did know, when did he know it?