Bush Family Tradition: Ducking Scandal

[Jon8503]

By Robert Parry
July 15, 2005


If there is one trait that has followed the Bush family through generations of privilege, it is the ability to escape scandal – a skill that will be put to the test again over the leaking of the identity of an undercover CIA officer, apparently to get back at her husband for criticizing George W. Bush’s case for invading Iraq.

The criminal investigation into who revealed Valerie Plame’s identity – and endangered clandestine operatives working with her – has been building for two years. But it is finally reaching critical mass with the disclosure that Bush’s political guru Karl Rove discussed Plame’s CIA work with Time correspondent Matthew Cooper in July 2003.

Rove appears to have been part of a P.R. campaign to punish Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for writing an article on July 6, 2003, that the administration had reason to doubt claims about Iraq seeking yellowcake uranium when Bush cited that dramatic allegation in his State of the Union address in January 2003.

A United Nations agency debunked the yellowcake claim in March 2003 – finding that it was based on forged documents – but Rove and other Bush allies still went on the offensive against Wilson in July 2003. Their primary line of attack was to assert that his CIA wife had authorized his trip to Niger in 2002 to check out the allegations.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/071405.html

[liberaliraqvet26]

1. I don't think they are going to be able to ...

duck this one. The press is salavating at the mouth on this one. They have done much worse over the years but this one has legs. If this is what will finally tarnish them than so be it!!!

[Jon8503]

2. I think you are correct. The MSM unfortunately sucks bigtime, but

I think they are just salivating at the mouths for a scandal like this and they really don't care who it is.

It is unfortunate they did not do their job of investigation of the information leading us into this war in the first place. Who knows, we might not even be there now if they had done their job.

Thank God for the Internet and the European Press.

[wishlist]

3. Excellent article- Chris Matthews seems to have had epiphany this week

judging by his show earlier this week where Matthews told McCain he was wrong about Wilson and on his Sunday show today where he ended with a commentary stating that how we got into the war deserves more attention. He described how the White House got us into the war using false and misleading claims about Saddam's WMD and nuclear capacity. Considering that Matthews has always fawned over Bush describing Bush as a straight shooting stand up guy, his comments this week indicate an attitude adjustment in light of the Rove revelations.

But he is still giving Bush a pass by not pointing a finger directly at Bush to question Bush's leadership in the run up to war and in the White House failure to come clean about the leak. After all this is Bush's White House and it is hard to believe Bush is not involved in strategy decisions in light of his own history of working behind the scenes on other political campaigns.

Bush has succeeded in insulating himself from criticism by projecting an image that he delegates everything and is not that bright or detail oriented (out of the loop) and hence not responsible for misleading statements or how his staffers carry out his broad objectives.


"The next day, Wilson said he was told by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that “I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He says and I quote, ‘Wilson’s wife is fair game.’ I will confirm that if asked.”

If Bush did not decide she was fair game and authorize the leaks, he should be strongly denouncing whoever made the decision and those who lied about leaking her identity. Instead, he is weaseling out and backtracking, probably hoping that the ongoing investigation gets derailed.