The Detroit Free Press recently published an LTE from Mike Cox, Michigan's Republican Attorney General, that succintly and effectively disputes the Republican's canned talking points about how Fitzgerald went beyond his scope of authority and that the charges against Scooter were mere technicalities.
Mike Cox's LTE was published by the Detroit Free Press on 11/2/05 in response to someone else's comments about Fitzgerald's leak investigation and the resulting indictment of Scooter.
November 2, 2005
I strongly agree with Bronwyn Lance Chester's assertion in her Oct. 28 op-ed column that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the public identification of CIA operative Valerie Plame is no mere technical or political matter ("Perjury? Handle It").
To the contrary, criminal investigations are a serious and vital method for determining the truth. A felony indictment is an essential component of the criminal justice process in any serious investigation. The criminal justice system must be protected, even if the person charged with felony perjury and obstruction of justice happens to be a senior White House official.
Until Fitzgerald was appointed to direct a criminal investigation, the circumstances surrounding the outing of Plame had remained shrouded in secrecy. By all accounts, Fitzgerald has methodically reviewed the evidence for more than two years. Convening a grand jury and dispatching federal agents to conduct interviews and gather evidence are two examples of the lengths to which he has appropriately gone to determine the truth of what happened.
The public has a right to know if any serious crimes were committed. Fitzgerald has a right to expect that witnesses will cooperate in accordance with the law. Anyone discovered committing perjury, or otherwise obstructing justice, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Public trust in the criminal justice process compels nothing less.
Mike Cox
Michigan Attorney General
Having been a criminal prosecuting attorney for most of his career, he knows what is entailed in an investigation and prosecution.
I have been so frustrated for the last week having to hear all the CONservative pundits make statements about how there was no evidence that Mrs. Wilson was "covert" or that the information was not "classified" or that Fitzpatrick was somehow criminalizing politics and came up with these petty little charges to justify his own existence for the last 2 years.
Perhaps none of you will find this statement by a Republican Attorney General, but I found it refreshing to hear a Republican make these statements. I have a new found respect for Mr. Cox now -- he stood up and told the truth. I think that took some courage given the general lack of civility and the complete lack of tolerance for any viewpoints that do not track the mandatory RNC talking points.
As a side note, my LTE on the leak was published on the same day. I was trying to draw attention to the fact that the Bush Administration talks about "values" but acts as though they have none. In particular, CONservatives always spout the phrase "family values" but they then proceed to engage in conduct that seems to me to be completely contradictory. For example, they impeached Clinton for lying even though his lie (was probably -- at least originally, intended to protect his family). He hurt himself and his wife and daughter.
The CIA leak scandal shows how the CONservatives lied with the intent to hurt someone else's family. Do CONservatives use lies as a sword whereas Clinton was persecuted relentlessly because he was trying to protect his family from the hurt they would suffer knowing about his extracurricular activities. Clinton was using lies as a shield for his family.
I cannot think of anyone who condones Clinton's behavior with Ms. Lewinsky, et. al., but his behavior didn't result in thousands and thousands of innocent people dying and tens of thousands more families having to suffer through the horrendous of life, limbs, and livelihood brought on by an unlawful war.
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November 2, 2005
Prove those morals
If he is half as moral as he pretends to be, President Bush will conduct an internal investigation into the CIA leak and related activities immediately, and he will publicly identify those who have lied and then fire them.
Part of Bush's platform in the 2000 election was how moral he and the Republican Party were compared to Bill Clinton and his lies about Monica Lewinsky. To the extent Clinton lied, at least he was using his lies as a shield to protect his family. There are liars in the White House who appear to have lied to harm someone else's family -- Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife.
Rhonda Ross
Rhonda Ross For Congress (MI-09)
www.ross4congress.org