Frank Rich: Rove Resignation Is a Certainty (tomorrow's column)

[AnnInLa]

Don't know if I agree with Rich's assertion, but it is interesting:

from www.talkleft.com

Frank Rich: Rove Resignation Is a Certainty

Frank Rich has a column in Sunday's New York Times in which he writes that Iraq, not the Wilsons, is the real issue in RoveGate. And,

Seasoned audiences of presidential scandal know that there's only one certainty ahead: the timing of a Karl Rove resignation. As always in this genre, the knight takes the fall at exactly that moment when it's essential to protect the king.

While I tend to follow the subpoenas in analyzing the story, Rich advises you to follow the uranium.

[krkaufman]

1. Permalink here...

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/011518.html

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

2. Once again, Frank Rich nails it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/opinion/17rich.html?hp

<snip>

This case is about Iraq, not Niger. The real victims are the American people, not the Wilsons. The real culprit - the big enchilada, to borrow a 1973 John Ehrlichman phrase from the Nixon tapes - is not Mr. Rove but the gang that sent American sons and daughters to war on trumped-up grounds and in so doing diverted finite resources, human and otherwise, from fighting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. That's why the stakes are so high: this scandal is about the unmasking of an ill-conceived war, not the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative who posed for Vanity Fair.

So put aside Mr. Wilson's February 2002 trip to Africa. The plot that matters starts a month later, in March, and its omniscient author is Dick Cheney. It was Mr. Cheney (on CNN) who planted the idea that Saddam was "actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time." The vice president went on to repeat this charge in May on "Meet the Press," in three speeches in August and on "Meet the Press" yet again in September. Along the way the frightening word "uranium" was thrown into the mix.

Once we were locked into the war, and no W.M.D.'s could be found, the original plot line was dropped with an alacrity that recalled the "Never mind!" with which Gilda Radner's Emily Litella used to end her misinformed Weekend Update commentaries on "Saturday Night Live." The administration began its dog-ate-my-homework cover-up, asserting that the various warning signs about the uranium claims were lost "in the bowels" of the bureaucracy or that it was all the C.I.A.'s fault or that it didn't matter anyway, because there were new, retroactive rationales to justify the war. But the administration knows how guilty it is. That's why it has so quickly trashed any insider who contradicts its story line about how we got to Iraq, starting with the former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill and the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke.

[pacalo]

13. Totally agree - he nailed it...except for one thing:

...That's why the stakes are so high: this scandal is about the unmasking of an ill-conceived war, not the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative who posed for Vanity Fair.

It was because the CIA operative had been unmasked that she was able to "pose for Vanity Fair". If not for the cabal who sought to destroy her career for revenge, she would never have been able to pose for a magazine. The layout was done after her undercover career was put to an end & it was meant to signal that they didn't break her mentally.

Btw, the Ron Ziegler quote at the beginning was a nice touch. Nixon lives through this administration.

[against all enemies]

31. The quote from Jon Stewart was great too. I wonder how the

press justifies the fact that a comedian from a comedy network doing fake news calls them cowards and idiots. And that the intelligent people in this country believe Stewart to be a more relevant newsman than those in the profession. The press must just blow smoke up each others ass and congratulate themselves on being relevant. What idiots or whores, it's one or the other.

[faithnotgreed]

15. thank you for the link... frank rich explains this simply

its a good beginning summary of whats important

[Justice]

29. Fineman said the same thing - about why we went to war, not

just about Valerie Plame.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

34. From his lips to God's ears, what we have lost as a nations is tragic.

"The small mendacious brat of wealth who presided over this fiasco..." Nick Tosches from "King of the Jews" in referring to the idiot and the Iraqi fiasco. Also read the during Vietnam combat troops referred to the chickenhawks as REMF's - rear echelon motherfuckers, it is past-time to take the gloves off and start dragging some of this heartless degenerates through the streets of DC for causing so much unjustified pain and loss in our sad old world. Happy and secure in their self-righteous, insular world of hypocrisy maybe it is time that they need to sacrifice instead of demanding it of the American public and military.

[shelley806]

7. kkraufman; somewhat unrelated....Where is the thread you posted

yesterday, with 150+ votes. (ABC London bombings related to Muhummad Noor Khan etc.) It's no longer on the greatest page (and what took them so long btw after more than 100 votes rather than 3). Was it placed elsewhere or do the voted pages just appear for that day? I forgot to bookmark it yesterday. I thought that the highest # of votes would appear on the Greatest page regardless of date...and with 150 votes, it should still be there!

[skids]

18. I think I linked that and one other like it...

...here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4115406&mesg_id=4115406

... though maybe there were more. Those are the two I remember seeing.

[krkaufman]

21. Here's the link

DU: ABC News is reporting bombers linked to last years arrests!

I'm not sure what rules apply for maintaining state on the "Greatest" page, but I do expect there's a time-based drop-off.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. I think a 'Greatest' nomination can stay on the Greatest page for 24 hours

I also wonder if the speed at which it gathered votes triggered some sort of automatic "anti-troll" block in the DU software (to be clear: I loved the post, and voted for it myself, but the comment from one of the admins was along the lines of "it's been put back there now". This is alos pure guesswork on my part).

[shelley806]

27. "automatic "anti-troll" block" LOL!! I wondered if the information was

inaccurate or somehow viewed by the admins as inflammatory to Londoners...

[krkaufman]

33. Had I known the thread would be followed so closely...

... I certainly would have left the "Holy Crap!" out of the subject. I also would have been more clear on the separation between what ABC News reporting stopped and my commentary began. (clarified later)

[shelley806]

40. LOL!!! Holy Hindsight!! Well, the way I view the universe, either

everything is Holy, or nothing is...so 'cr..' is included (brings roses, right?); Rove, Cheney, et al OH NO...I guess I have to include them too! Holy Cr....I can see I've already visited your clarified comment.

[shelley806]

26. TU for the link! If the greatest numbers of votes indicate popularity

(as they appear to do) then with 150+ votes, yours should still be there unless there is a time limit.

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks, Ann, and thank you, Frank Rich!

Great article! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[leesa]

4. That's right. It's Iraq and it's the financing of terrorism by the Bush

Crime Family, which includes ALL the players, of course. It will be the unraveling of what Plame had discovered that will be the plum. There will be proof of the illegal war, 9-11 culpability and more.

[LizW]

5. Excellent article, but

is Rich saying that Rove's resignation would suffice to save Bush? That if Rove takes the fall this story goes away and everyone stops talking about the lies that led us to an illegal war?

What a depressing thought.

[electron_blue]

8. good advice

It could save Bush. It would be a great distraction for most of America who is not paying very much attention to this. If Rove resigns, the Repubs will be outraged at the "over-reaction", many Dems would be pleased, tickled and momentarily take their eyes from the prize. And the average apathetic citizen will think the resignation settled whatever it was that was wrong. Certainly worth a shot for Bush to try. Of course, he may not need it. He may wait another week to see if this blows over. God forbid there be another major attack in the next week to distract us, kwim?

[ray of light]

9. The end happens when we all shut up and sit down!

I'm not ready to call it quits. I believe we need to hammer a new message after Rove is out of there. Elect progressives to "Clean up Washington" and repeat the meme often! I think that phrase sums it up without saying, "Vote for dems to impeach Bush."

Nope clean it up sounds much better to me! And cleaning it up includes all the corruption--Bush, Delay, Blackwell (election fraud and misuse of HAVA), and even takin' it to the Representatives who are NOT willing to take a stand now on cleaning things up--that includes both Dems and Repubs who are waiting to see what happens. If they can't take a stand and clean up Washington, then they're the wrong people for the job.

[wli]

12. stay away from anyone involved with AEI

They produced the current wave of neocons and neocon moles in the Democratic party.

[hyphenate]

16. To me, the point is less Rove

and how much pressure ends up on the asshole in the wh now.

If people have been paying attention--and yes, liberals HAVE been paying attention--they will see scapegoat after scapegoat going down on an endless stretch to save the ass of the guy at the top. Everything that implicates Georgie boy ends up on someone else's shoulder, and they have, over the course of the past almost 5 years, found enough members of the regime to utilize in those neverending scandals, or those people have left the administration when they realized they were going to likely be the next victim as a scapegoat. Think about it: Karen Hughes left, Ari Fleischer left, Colin Powell left, even Asscroft left. The people who have acted as the scapegoats, however, grew increasingly more important to the administration, and Rove is at the top of the ladder. However, now with so much at stake, there can only be one resolution: someone big has to take the fall, and you know damned well that Cheney ain't gonna take the blame. He's put himself above the law all along, and can't afford to be put on the block, so Rove is next in line. Too bad it wasn't Paul Wolfowitz or Richard Perle, or even Feith, or Condi who has to fall--they will be next, though. As long as the PNAC folks control our government, the shit that's going on will not stop. And think about it: Rove was let go from Poppy's administration, and certainly wasn't lazing around in the Clinton years--if anything, being out of the administration was probably the best thing to happen to him--he could certainly do more under the radar and out of the spotlight, so leaving this administration is going to have him carrying out more plots, more spin and certainly more treason.

More than anything else, Democrats and liberals need to maintain this backbone they've suddenly grown and keep up endlessly rattling this administration until all the traitors and all the neocons and all those who are using power for their own gain are gone. It's not going to happen anytime soon, though; many of us will never see the end of it, but I assure you--the RR can not keep things underwrap indefinitely--there are SOME people out there with a conscience and they will finally break their silence once they have protection from prosecution. And that can only be accomplished with the downfall of the guys at the top.

[lovuian]

6. If Rove resigns that would just make our day. It means he is

GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!!!

It wasn't the election theft that brought him down it was WMD!!!

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Exactly

It would show he is guilty. So I don't think he can resign. Bush claimed Rove wasn't involved so this would clearly show that he was wrong.

[wli]

11. need to open it all up

We need to get to the bottom of what happened with Iraq, Afghanistan, the 7/7-related and Plame leaks, and the 2000 and 2004 elections. I suspect that if Fitzgerald isn't assassinated that AEI, PNAC, and several defense contractors will get shut down.

[shelley806]

14. Kicked and nominated...Follow the uranium? Follow Non-existent

WMD's? Follow terrorism? NONE OF THE ABOVE. FOLLOW THE OIL. FOLLOW THE MONEY. FOLLOW HALLIBURTON AND ALL OTHERS WHO HAVE OR WILL PROFIT (Profit? what a joke...what does it profit a man who gains the universe and has lost his soul?) FROM THIS ILL-BEGOTTEN WAR. WHAT IS PUMP AND DUMP? BUSH DID IT BEFORE, BUT HE STUFFED HIS POCKET AND HURT THE LOCAL ECONOMY...HE HAS NOW CAUSED DEATH OF THOUSANDS, AND WHAT HE HAS REAPED IS STILL BEING SOWN...LONDON BEING THE MOST PROMINENT RECENT 'NEWSWORTHY' EXAMPLE; BUT IT HAPPENS DAILY IN IRAQ, AND IT'S GETTING WORSE.

CAPS: SORRY Meant to cap only "none of the above" and to tired to change it all.

[cliss]

17. Yes, I agree that it's about Iraq.

But it's not about why we went into Iraq.

It's about Iraq being a colossal failure. Let's face it: if Iraq was peaceful, and the oil was pumping happily, and Halliburton was now the world's leading oil producer and the mercenaries were successful and were counting their $billions$ in profits, would anybody care?

If Iraq turned out like they promised, none of this would be happening. In a way, Rove is being used as a scapegoat.

He may have volunteered for the job since they need to find someone to take the blame for this colossal failure. We'll find out if he goes willingly, or if they have to pry him out the door, with his fingers hanging on to the moulding.

Next week should be VERY interesting.

[Tommymac]

19. DU this article to top of NYT most emailed list (#13 now)

By emailing it out through the link on the article page. (email it to yourself if need be). Put it on top of the NYT most emailed article list. But make sure you use the email link in the article so it counts.

[Karenina]

20. Kick!

:kick:

[Jose Diablo]

22. OK after Rove what next?

From the times article:

" But by overreacting in panic to his single Op-Ed piece of two years ago, the White House has opened a Pandora's box it can't slam shut. Seasoned audiences of presidential scandal know that there's only one certainty ahead: the timing of a Karl Rove resignation. As always in this genre, the knight takes the fall at exactly that moment when it's essential to protect the king."


So Rove falls on his sword to save the king. Whats next?

Without Rove to wash the crap away, the stink will start to stick.

There is more than enough evidence surfacing from the French investigation into Halliburton bribing in Africa and Cheney behind A.Q. Kahn's, the father of Pakistan's bomb, trading in nuke material contrary to our nuclear anti-proliferation laws to put that sucker in jail for the rest of his stroke filled life.

When Rove goes down, then Cheney is next and then on to Junior. By the time November 2006 rolls around, the Republican party should be ready to become the 3rd world party of the USA, completely thoroughly discredited and lucky to be able to place a dogcatcher in office.

[Jack Rabbit]

25. Response

Karl Rove is really just another hatchet man. Bush can bring Ken Mehlman over from the RNC if he needs another. Or he could find some other Lee Atwater wannabe to whom to give a fancy title and put on the public payroll to orchestrate smear campaigns. Rove is really not at all indispensable.

Rove has not been able to keep this from stinking. Rove's usual method of keeping a dung hill from stinking is to point to another one somewhere else, usually one of his own construction, that raises a bigger stink. The problem is that the regime can't point to anything about their case for war against Iraq that was based on actual facts and don't have a lot to brag about since the invasion. There isn't a lot that's going to outstink that.

Mr. Rich is correct. The Wilson affair by itself is a small matter. It is about one diplomat's assignment to investigate one possible sale of yellowcake to Saddam based on what turned out to be a forged document. Wilson merely determined that no such deal had been made; he didn't expose the document as a forgery and, in fact, never saw the document. His findings didn't even mean that Saddam wasn't trying to buy yellowcake, only that it couldn't be said that he was based on the information given by the CIA to Wilson before he went to Niger.

The latest talking points are trying to make Wilson out to be a peacenik (FoxNews commentator John Gibson's term) who set out to undermine Bush's case for war. It seems incredible (and it is) that Wilson could have planted a bogus no-finding report in March 2002 only to embarrass Mr. Bush on a small matter in his case for war when he said something about it ten months later in the 2003 SOTU.

Among the problems with this theory are:

• Wilson, who had personal dealings with Saddam during the run up to the 1991 war, was not a peacenik when it came to that matter;
• The US ambassador to Niger, Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, had also investigated the yellowcake deal prior to Wilson's mission and found nothing more than he did;
• If Wilson were merely filing a false report in order to attempt to prevent a war by embarrassing the regime when some regime spokeperson contradicted his alleged false finding with alleged facts, he would have gone public five months sooner than he did, immediately after Mr. Bush's 2003 SOTU and before the invasion.

Wilson did not challenge Mr. Bush's now-infamous sixteen words in the 2003 SOTU immediately because, quite naturally, he assumed that either Mr. Bush meant some other deal for Iraq to buy yellowcake than the one he investigated. It was only when it became very apparent to Wilson that Bush was speaking of the same thing that he went public.

If this had been the only thing wrong with the regime's case for war, no one would care. It only becomes interesting because Bush and the neoconservatives got everything wrong. Wilson simply gives witness to one small case where accurate information was given to the policymakers that was contrary to their case for war and the policymakers discarded it.

Under those circumstances, questions of deliberate lying about the case for war become legitimate. Simple incompetence doesn't quite explain this.

Rove's going down in this matter won't directly lead to the fall of Bush, Cheney and the others who fixed intelligence and facts around the policy. However, just as uncovering the true facts behind a third-rate burglary led to revelations of wholesale misconduct and abuse of power by the Nixon administration, so might this lead to the revelations of how the Bush regime justified with a pack of lies an unnecessary war of aggression that had nothing to do with fighting terrorism or national security.

[FreedomAngel82]

35. That would be nice

I hope so. Then Nancy Pelosi would be the majority leader in the House and we can impeach Bush. 42% of the public is already with us. This was a poll that came out from Zogby when the DSM was getting some coverage. I saw him on Keith Olbermann's show talking about it and he said it was amazing because nobody was talking about impeachment. I hope and pray we can get 2006 and it's looking very likely. So hopefully we'll be the majority again in the House and Senate and we can have hearings on 2004, and Iraq and 9/11. On the record serious hearings. Then we can force Bush to have hearings too and be on the record for everything.

[Greeby]

43. Woohoo

The advantage of a 2006 Dem majority, Conyers becomes chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. What was it you said, John?

"We need some subpeona power in here." At the DSM Hearing.

Ya wry bugger ;-)

[Jack Rabbit]

23. Excerpt

(W)e shouldn't get hung up on (Rove) - or on most of the other supposed leading figures in this scandal thus far. Not Matt Cooper or Judy Miller or the Wilsons or the bad guy everyone loves to hate, the former CNN star Robert Novak. This scandal is not about them in the end, any more than Watergate was about Dwight Chapin and Donald Segretti or Woodward and Bernstein. It is about the president of the United States. It is about a plot that was hatched at the top of the administration and in which everyone else, Mr. Rove included, are at most secondary players.

Emphasis added.

[Carni]

28. I DO NOT believe that Rove will resign

If this happens I will be very shocked.

[leftchick]

30. Bob (aren't I gorgeous?) Woodward just said on reliable sources

that there is nothing to see here. :eyes:

[lovuian]

36. And Bob you'd sell your soul

and you just did !!!

[goforit]

37. Well...I feel Jon Stewart is right in that Bush will promote Rove.

[Tommymac]

38. Bob is a Hard Core Kool Aid drinker.

Way past his prime.

He did good 30 years ago...now he is just another has been selling his soul for $$$.

[blm]

44. Woodward also said there was "No story" in Enron. He couldn't find Bush1

wrongdoing throughout IranContra and BCCI, either.

[leftchick]

46. thanks for the timely reminder blm

It is hard to find a bigger sell out than Woodward these days.
Ack! The Ego!

[Straight Shooter]

32. I have a real pet peeve about using the word "pose" re: Valerie Plame

... not the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative who posed for Vanity Fair.

Why is it that no one refers to it as "Valerie Plame featured in Vanity Fair," or, "photographed with her husband, Joe Wilson, for a Vanity Fair feature article"?

That word, "pose," just rubs me the wrong way. I realize people "pose" for photos, but they don't mention Joe Wilson is in the same photo with her, it's only one picture, and they rarely mention she's wearing dark glasses, a head scarf, and it's not a full body shot. *sigh*

[Hidden Stillness]

39. This is the First Step, Not the Total Revelation

Don't make the mistake of underestimating the Plame-Wilson story. I believe this is the necessary, very small and simple, first step, that will eventually lead to unravelling the whole, hugely complicated set-up, that reveals how this Administration, and the whole modern Republican Party, does things, and many interrelated crimes and relationships can be revealed, if only the media still has any honest people left (not the Repub operative Woodward). This story is something clear that people can fix on--and a serious crime itself; I don't know why it was being minimized--that will lead elsewhere, and then it will all come down. Unlike before, these recent scandals are not going away and the media is sometimes even asking questions, which they never did before.

[Roy]

48. You are absolutely right but..........

more than one person while addressing this in the media must begin to draw parallels and frame this in conjunction with the pattern of abuse and corruption of the republican party as a whole.

The media will never use the word scandal when referring to this administration nor the republican party.

But, the Dems had better start doing so soon and often if they want an accurate picture of these thugs to be painted in the public mind.

[BrklynLiberal]

41. There is no way that DimSon will give up Rove. He will not want to be left

all alone in the White House.

[brettdale]

42. kick

kick

[Disturbed]

45. IMPEACHMENT

The RW Attack Machine is in overdrive to save the Regime and themselves come '06. Even the most apathetic of Amerikans are starting to smell to rotten decay of coruption.

[mbee]

47. Today I saw Woodward and Bernstein talking with Timmy Russert

and Bernstein was talking about Watergate and how he at one point said to Woodward something like OMG there's going to be an impeachment and that Woodward told him not to say things like that. Bernstein also in some way compared something to the Rove thing. I can't remember what it was, but if you read the transcript you'll see it. Bernstein calls it like it is, but I think Woodward holds back.

[brettdale]

49. kick

kick