Traitorgate (WH leaks): Predictions on End Game???

[skip fox]

So . . . How's it going to play itself out?

I think that we'll have two victims by week's end, two bodies falling on their swords. One will be an offical working under Scooter Libby and one under Karl Rove. They will try to take the fall for their bosses. The question is . . . WILL IT WORK? Or will the Dems have the guts to do a Congressional Investigation and can they prove that the responsibility for the leaks resides with Rove and Libby (or even Cheney!).

Predictions, anyone?????

[LittleApple81]

1. Congressional investigation? from what I saw today

with Schumer's (sp?) amendment I don't have too much hope.

[HereSince1628]

8. Schumer's amendment was a weak attempt

it was defeated by a point of order...that is the chair got to decide that the amendment was unrelated to the bill under consideration.

The dems have to get this manuvered into a corner that forces a vote. I believe that will require some Republican assistance. I believe that is out there, but the evidence of a criminal within the Bush admin is going to need to be made obvious before they come on board.

So, to the SS reading this, please pass it along....

Dear Mr.s Tenet and Whom It May Concern,

Please share you information with appropriate individuals within the Democratic minority and sympathetic Republicans.

[paulsbc]

2. Rove

will be found responsible, and fired, causing the Republicans to further go down in 2004 after losing their (remaining) political clout with Americans..

[peaches2003]

5. Never will they admit

that Rove either spread the leak himself (which he's not that stupid to do) or had others do it for him (which he certainly did and was the mastermind behind the get-Wilson plot). Someone low on the food chain will fall on their sword to protect Rove and any other senior adm official and the press will go along. Whatever happened to an investigative press, btw?

[gristy]

7. but a Guardian report (audio, on another thread) states that

the journalists have said off the record that it was Rove.

[mountebank]

21. Wilson said a journalist told him it was Rove

Here is the quote:

"I have reason to believe that it was the political office that at a minimum confirmed it and the political office was Karl Rove. It was a reporter who told me it was Karl Rove and that's as far as I want to go right now."

And link: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0930-02.htm

[skip fox]

10. Peaches2003, Welcome to DU

:toast:

I hope you're wrong, but then you probably hope so as well.

cheers,

skip

[HereSince1628]

3. MSNBC poll earlier today indicated 75% of Americans want independent

investigation.

Consequently, after some intial stalling I think that will happen. I also think that at the same time Congressional hearings will begin and in order to get the parties to step forward and talk they will be given immunity from prosecution.

[Fenris]

4. Not to sound cynical or pessimistic

But with the way the party runs the government, I'll be surprised if anyone takes the fall for this. Could be some low level patsies that ultimately take the blame, but I doubt anything really comes of this. Rove has things too well wired and he's too damned sly to have this wreck him or the administration.

But I'm a Humean, so I don't deal in certainty. The ideal situation would involve Rove going down in flames. But it could go either way.

[Pathwalker]

6. Presidential Pardons all around.

I have always felt that the reason Repukes went after Clinton regarding every "scandal" was to innoculate themselves from their own future illegal activities. We now see, IMO, the REAL reason they made such a stink about Clinton's pardons - when jr. pardons everyone in his administration - they'll just do what they have done so far. Cry "politics of personal desctruction", "Clinton did it", and so on.

[sable302]

9. my 2 cents

We will have the independent investigation and Rove will have to go away (he will hibernate and infect some other republican administration at some later date). It'll just take time. This thing was talked about here weeks, if not months ago. It takes folks a while to catch on in these post 9/11 days.

By weeks end is far too optimistic, I think, even for loyal republicans willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the party. I hope I'm wrong, but I really want to se this thing pinned on somebody real high up.

[Bozola]

11. Preditions? Look for a BIG distraction

My only question is who's gunna die this time?

[skip fox]

14. Yeah, thought of that this morning. Double suicide of two

staffers. "Pressure proved too much," etc.

But I think Bush is preparing us for two to come forward and take the heat for Rove and ______ (Libby?).

See the way they're preparing it:

<snip>

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Bush called on Tuesday for anyone with information about those who disclosed
the identity of a CIA official to come forward, saying: "I want to know the truth."

"If anybody's got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if
they came forward," Bush told reporters after meeting with business leaders in Chicago. It was Bush's first
public comment on the controversy.

<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20030930/ts_nm/bush_leak_dc_6



They're running damage control. Late Friday afternoon, two staffers will step up (IMHO) and take the heat. This is W. "best case": the Dems bitch and moan, but the story dies. (Maybe with the help of other major stories: Attack on Syria??)

Question is . . . will they be successful?

[hang a left]

25. The Pope is very sick.

[Former Republican]

12. This won't hurt Bush.

Call me a pessimist, but I don't trust the media to keep this story. Bush will try to side himself against whoever did it in a vague fashion, as will O'Reilly, Scarborough, and the rest of the conservative news "anchors" (I call them comics).

[Dhalgren]

13. I don't see how any "low level" aides

could "take the fall". The "WH officials" who leaked to Novaks had access to the identities of CIA operatives. What would be the scenerio by which the assistant to the assistant to the deputy chief of ... would have such access to extremely sensitive information? If the attempt is made to pass this off onto some low level cypher, then the Bush "wartime" WH is sure a monkeys' island.

[skip fox]

15. dupe . . . hit Send Message 2 times,

n/t

[skip fox]

16. I'm hoping for a COVERUP!!!!!

And if they patch one together as stupidly as they went after Wilson through his wife . . . then we'll be in high clover, as they say.

(Anybody else old enough to remember the broadcasts of the Watergate hearings? Damn, that was swell.)

[Stephanie]

18. There's already a cover-up

They're pretending they don't know who did it. Obviously they do know. Rove has denied it. Bush has said he'll get to the bottom of it. All BS.

PLUS, why let two months go by with a traitor employed in the WH - someone's who's sabotaged the War on Terror, interfered with the fight against WMD proliferation?? Why protect this person - you've known for two months that he is in your WH? THAT is a cover-up right there.

[skip fox]

17. Damned good point!

That's WHY they're trying to spin the story that many people around DC knew Wilson's wife was with the Bureau. Then, they can say that the assistant to the assistant to the assistant knew and was (misguidedly) trying to help the president and will now take his fall and a bow.

[rucky]

20. So it'll become a debate over one word:

"operative" - which, they will claim was a misstatement on Novak's part. So I say the only person who roasts for this is Novak, who will write a book.

[TEXASYANKEE]

19. Pessimistic

My prediction -- nothing will happen. Based on 3 years of watching this misAdministration pull one stunt after another (energy hearings, 9/11, 2003 SotU speech, invasion of Iraq, Cheney's continuing ties to Halliburton, etc etc etc) with no consequences, I have no illusions that outing a CIA operative is going to cost them anything. No one will come forward. No one will be disciplined. No one will fall on their sword. Nothing is going to happen.

I would love to be proven wrong, though.

[skip fox]

22. The COVER has started! But they're working on the fly

and will make mistakes.

1.) They've put the word out that many in DC knew Wilson's wife worked for the Bureau. Therefore, the leaker didn't need high clearance. (And a lower level official can take the fall.)

2.) maybe the law doesn't even apply ("operative," "undercover")--more properly disinformation than cover, but they're trying to muddy the waters. Problem: W. HAS to fire (at minimum) leaker due to the statements he's made today.

[lanlady]

23. this is a criminal investigation,

not a garden variety political scandal. People aren't going to take the fall if they're looking at jail time. Either the real culprits will be implicated, or no one will.

[skip fox]

24. Yes, I hope you're right, but

"the cost of liberty is eternal vigilance." So . . . I watch.

[bitchkitty]

26. The only thing I'm sure of is that

chimpy will not take the fall, or be damaged by this. Sorry to be so negative, but I remember Iran/Contra. The BFEE does not pay, they never pay.