How do we know the special prosecutor hasn't been bought?

[CatWoman]

when I see the GOP on tv praising what a good, fair job the guy is doing, and what how magnificent his findings will be, it sends chills down my spine.

[Fiona]

1. If he'd been bought,

Miller wouldn't be in jail, the whole the thing would've been closed down 18 months ago with an announcement that there was no evidence of a crime.

[babsbunny]

3. There truley is hope

That we will get something done about this evil Administration?

[napi21]

2. Do a Google on Patrick Fitzgeral. I think you'll be pleasantly

surprised. Many of the sites list all the Wins he's had in court, and there sure doesn't appear to be any Party bias in any of them! He grabs a case, what ever it is, and who ever it is, and shakes it like a pitt bull.

In fact, read BuzzFlash today. I just got a BussFlash email with a fairly long rant, but the last paragraph said "Patrick better get himself dipped in a couple coats of Teflon, because Rove's signature trick is to dig up, or MAKE UP dirt on his opposition, and we all should watch for it to be spread by FOX and Limpballs!!!"

I'm not at all concerned about Fitz.

[jmcon007]

4. It's a given that some freepers will kiss his ass, but if he indicts Rove,

Fitz may as well get ready because Mehlman will gather the troops and send them on another smear mission to discredit and destroy him.
At least as far as this goes, both sides are wondering th same thing. How much integrity does this Fitzgerald have? Dems hope a lot, neonuts, umm.....not so much.

[Mythsaje]

5. Fitz is the REAL "McCoy."

Anyone who's ever watched NBC's Law and Order knows what kind of pitbull "Jack McCoy" is. He doesn't give a rusty rat's ass about politics--he just wants to get the guilty. Everything I've read about Fitz so far puts him in the same general category.

The guilty better watch out. Fitz is coming.

[wtmusic]

6. You never know

but his actions don't suggest it.

When was the GOP saying that? Everything I've heard has been trying to undermine the charges.

[CatWoman]

8. when the GOP

finally started their coordinated attack -- about 3 days ago.

[wtmusic]

9. I'd like to see them

Ken Mehlman has been defending Rove all along: "the fact is Karl Rove did not leak classified information" and calling the charges a "partisan attack". That's a good sign. :)

[TNDemo]

7. Probably sucking up

and hope he'll go easy because of the flattery.

[Pepperbelly]

10. you're a little cynical these days ...

What's up with that?

:D

:hi:

[CatWoman]

16. LOLOL

:hi:

maybe it's "old age" :D

[roguevalley]

11. what else can they say? Besides, he and Judith Miller have already

gone rounds before. Trust him for now, honey.

[Lecky]

12. I haven't heard anything negative about this guy

...like someone said before, we have a journalist (if you wish to call her that) behind bars right now, this man seems relentless for some answers. He sees this case goes beyond 1st amendment rights, I wouldn't be surprised if he continues to go after Judy even harder for criminal contempt charges.

Also, I think we are all getting excited about Rove going down, but we don't know what's going to happen legally. It's all mere speculation. Now that I said that, I do agree with the democrats (and the press) for calling out the WH for stonewalling on this case.

In my opinion the political damage is already done, the GOP has a lot of spinning and explaining to do and no one is buying their desperate attempts. We made our statement about Rove, it's obvious that Bush is not going to take any action unless there are some sort of indictments made (because he lacks ethics and is an arrogant pompous ass) he is hoping that Rove comes out clean. Now, instead of focusing all our attention on attacking Rove, let's not forget the real issues here:

Wilson's wife was outed because Wilson had given evidence that contradicted the White House regarding going to war with Iraq.

This is huge! This is what jumps out to people and indicates the corruptness of the current administration. Also, keep in mind of the worst case scenario that Fitzgerald may not have enough evidence to indict anyone. I hope this doesn't happen, but it's indeed possible.

I hate to be one of those "don't give your hopes up" people (they annoy me), but let's play this smart politically and not get wrapped up in our hatred for Rove.

Also, I have a sinking feeling tomorrow Matt Cooper will be sticking up for Rove in his interview. This doesn't matter though, Fitzgerald is after someone and it's a repuke in the WH (or a group of repukes). Neither side knows for sure what is going to happen, I just hope and pray that these weasels get caught and I think we have a good chance with Fitzgerald. I'm not worried about his integrity as a prosecutor.

I think a lot of us are so used to being let down that we live in fear and create a defeatist attitude which is more dangerous for our party than the current administration IMO. We should be taking every opportunity to call out these bastards while simultaneously working on a clear cut message that sets us apart from the fascist elite. If nothing comes out of this case, don't consider it a loss for our side. We won't win any elections purely based on negative PR for the republican party alone. Many people have lost faith in the republican party AND the democratic party. We have a lot of work to do and I'm optimistic that we can pull through this mess w/o the indictments of the bastards currently in office.

[JohnnyBoots]

13. Stubborn Irish, with a very well oiled moral compass, can't

ask for much more.

[Cha]

14. Everything I've read about

Pat Fitzgerald has been encouraging. I just read this in Frank Rich's column..

"Another bogus subplot, long popular on the left, has it that Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, gave Mr. Novak a free pass out of ideological comradeship. But Mr. Fitzgerald, both young (44) and ambitious, has no record of Starr- or Ashcroft-style partisanship (his contempt for the press notwithstanding) or known proclivity for committing career suicide. What's most likely is that Mr. Novak, more of a common coward than the prince of darkness he fashions himself to be, found a way to spill some beans and avoid Judy Miller's fate. That the investigation has dragged on so long anyway is another indication of the expanded reach of the prosecutorial web."


Much more interesting analysis from Frank Rich..
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/opinion/17rich.html?hp

[Must_B_Free]

15. EIther his is and his job

is to uncover everything while protecting everyone and that;s the only reason that it is getting media play and downing street memo is not; or there is a fissure on the other side and a faction is paying back the neocons who have driven the party into the ditch.

[FormerRepublican]

17. All I can say is...

...if they do attempt to smear Fitzgerald, or do anything else to him because he's in the midst of this investigation, it really will be obstruction of justice.

As we saw with Nixon, the President is super-powerful, but it won't save him in the end if a crime has been committed.

Unfortunately for Rove, he has 2 known counts of violating the intelligence act, in addition to numerous violations of his non-disclosure agreement. There are probably others, as well.

Bush currently protecting him puts Bush himself into an uncertain legal position.

The 'puke spiel that this was all a nothing won't fly with the courts.

I'm not going to count Fitz out until I see a reason to.

[snippy]

18. The Court of Appeals opinion in the Cooper/Miller case makes me think

Fitzgerald is honest and intends to indict people in the Bush administration. In that opinion Judge Tatel wrote a concurring opinion dealing with a possible journalist's privilege. In reaching the conclusion that any possible journalist's privilege concerning the identity of Cooper's source would be overcome by the grand jury's need for the information, Judge Tatel wrote:

Cooper asks us to protect criminal leaks so that he can write about the crime.
The greater public interest lies in preventing the leak to begin with. Had Cooper
based his report on leaks about the leaks—say, from a whistleblower who
revealed the plot against Wilson—the situation would be different. Because
in that case the source would not have revealed the name of a covert agent,
but instead revealed the fact that others had done so, the balance of news
value and harm would shift in favor of protecting the whistleblower. Yet it appears
Cooper relied on the Plame leaks themselves, drawing the inference of sinister
motive on his own. Accordingly, his story itself makes the case for punishing the
leakers. While requiring Cooper to testify may discourage future leaks, discouraging
leaks of this kind is precisely what the public interest requires.

. . .

Were the leak at issue in this case less harmful to national security or more vital to
public debate, or had the special counsel failed to demonstrate the grand jury’s need
for the reporters’ evidence, I might have supported the motion to quash. Because
identifying appellants’ sources instead appears essential to remedying a serious
breach of public trust, I join in affirming the district court’s orders compelling their
testimony.

http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200... (Tatel, J. concurring opinion at pp. 82-83) (emphasis added)

Appellate Court judges typically write with a great level of precision. It is unlikely that Judge Tatel would have referred to "criminal leaks" or "the crime" or revealing "the name of a covert agent" unless he had concluded that the leaks violated the law. These comments by Judge Tatel follow the several pages of redacted material in his opinion. That redacted material almost certainly contained a great deal of Fitzgerald's arguments and evidence which were filed under seal and likely provided the basis for why Judge Tatel concluded a crime had been committed. In other words, Fitzgerald convinced Tatel that a crime had been committed.

I also found it interesting that Judge Tatel referred to "the plot against Wilson" as though such a plot was an established fact. Perhaps the reasons for that conclusion also were in the redacted material. Since Judge Tatel distinguished a hypothetical situation in which Cooper could have reported about the "plot against Wilson" I doubt that Tatel based his statement concerning the existence of such a plot on Cooper's or Miller's arguments and evidence. Instead, I think Judge Tatel based the statement on Fitzgerald's arguments and evidence. The reference to such a plot makes me think Fitzgerald is looking at the involvement of the WHIG in this case. As a member of the WHIG, Rove certainly was involved in that plot.

Based on Judge Tatel's statements, I think Fitzgerald is pursuing the case honestly. I also think he will indict several people on a variety of charges and I think one of those people will be Rove.

[Tommymac]

19. Great Thread about Him in GD/P

Hope this will allay some fears.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1931051&mesg_id=1931051

This guy is the real deal.