Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Wilson Responds: Bush And Cheney Must Explain Why They Outed My Wife

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:33 PM
Original message
Wilson Responds: Bush And Cheney Must Explain Why They Outed My Wife
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/06/wilson-responds-verdict/


Wilson Responds: Bush And Cheney Must Explain Why They Outed My Wife

Ambassador Joseph Wilson offered his first response to the Scooter Libby verdict during a conference call today.

“Now that this trial is over,” Wilson said, “the president and the vice president owe the country a much broader explanation of their own actions.” Wilson called on them both to release the transcripts of their discussions with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and called on Bush specifically to apologize for overseeing the outing of his wife:

I also learned today that the president was quoted as saying that he was sorry for Mr. Libby and his family. I wish that he would express his sorrow for what has happened to my wife, whose career was destroyed as a consequence of this, and also to the service people of this country who are fighting in a war that now very clearly was justified by lies and disinformation.

Wilson said he hoped the verdict would teach Libby and other U.S. officials a lesson, that “you don’t abuse the public trust engaging in personal vendettas.” But he said he feared that “they will learn the lesson that several of them apparently learned after Watergate — not the lesson of not abusing power, but rather the lesson…that they should’ve destroyed the tapes.”

Transcript:

WILSON: Well, let me begin by saying that I would hope that Mr. Libby and all other officials in the U.S. government would draw the right lesson from this, and the right lesson to learn from this is you don’t abuse the public trust engaging in personal vendettas. What I probably fear most of all is that they will learn the lesson that several of them apparently learned after Watergate — not the lesson of not abusing power, but rather the lesson that they seemed to have learned is that they should’ve destroyed the tapes. That is the wrong lesson in our democracy to take away from it. So, if they learn the right lesson from it, that would be all to the good for the way that we function as a government.

I have said for quite a while, as you know, that I believe Mr. Rove was involved up to his eyeballs. That became clear when it was made public that Mr. Rove was in fact the source of the compromise of my wife’s identity to Matt Cooper. I’m not going to second-guess decisions that were made by the prosecution. We do have a civil suit in place that hopefully will address some of these larger issues.

I do believe that now that this trial is over, that the president and the vice president owe the country a much broader explanation of their own actions at this time. The president, of course, at one time said that anybody who engaged in this would be fired. Mr. Rove is still on the payroll. So I would, as a start, I would argue — I would ask the president and the vice president to release the transcripts of their interviews with the prosecutor, so as to be able to reassure the American public that they were not — that there is not a cloud over the offices of either of them. I think that would be a good start. I also learned today that the president was quoted as saying that he was sorry for Mr. Libby and his family. I wish that he would express his sorrow for what has happened to my wife, whose career was destroyed as a consequence of this, and also to the service people of this country who are fighting in a war that now very clearly was justified by lies and disinformation.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Dr Fate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:36 PM
Response to Original message
1. Awesome- I hope some elected DEMS echo these requests- on TV. n/t
n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
rumpel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:37 PM
Response to Original message
2. I wish I could give 100 recommends
on this one....
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MelissaB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:43 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. I'll help with another.
:kick:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mdmc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:42 PM
Response to Original message
3. WILSON! Wilson Fitz 2008
wish I could Recommend again and again!

God Bless all of you!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mikelgb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:42 PM
Response to Original message
4. Go get em Joe
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
laststeamtrain Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:50 PM
Response to Original message
6. It's WHIG vs Wilson (& the American people)
WHIG Members

* Karl Rove
* Karen Hughes
* Mary Matalin
* James R. Wilkinson
* Nicholas E. Calio
* Condoleezza Rice
* Stephen Hadley
* I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby

The White House Iraq Group (aka, White House Information Group or WHIG) was the marketing arm of the White House whose purpose was to sell the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the public.

On 20 October 2005, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a formal Resolution of Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes, notes, emails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), stating that "This group, comprised of the President and Vice President's top aides, was critical in selling the Administration's case for war. We now know that the Administration hyped intelligence and misled the American public and Congress in their effort to 'sell' the war. After over 1,900 American troops have been killed in Iraq, it is long past time for this Congress to ask serious questions about WHIG and its role in the lead up to the war."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=White_House_Iraq_Group
*

Time to loose the dogs. We know the names to put on the subpoenas. Let's get it on.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 05:09 PM
Response to Original message
7. The explanation: The Elephant flies above the Eagle
For the Bush White House, politics trumps every other consideration. The compromising of Valerie Plame, her cohorts and her assets was all necessary in furtherance of the Bush political agenda. Was intelligence gathering harmed? Big deal. You know how much valid intelligence goes by the board every day in the Bush White House because it doesn't conform to their preconceived notions? (Hint: Bin Laden determined to strike inside the U.S.)

Did people lose their jobs? So what? You know how many people have lost their jobs since Bush seized the White House? Were some people put in danger or even killed? Maybe you're unacquainted with the casualty figures out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bushistas don't care if thousands or hundreds of thousands die needlessly. They're in power, and that's all that counts.

If service to the country lined their pockets like corruption does, they'd do that. But it doesn't, plain and simple. You interfere with that at your grave peril.

That's not a very comforting explanation, I'm sure. But I have reason to believe it's accurate.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. Good post. Service to country vs. $$$/corruption, it's been demonstrated
what wins out. :-(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Miss Chybil Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 03:33 PM
Response to Reply #7
17. I believe your explanation is spot on. nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Vinnie From Indy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 09:41 PM
Response to Original message
8. Give 'em hell Joe! K&R
Edited on Tue Mar-06-07 09:42 PM by Vinnie From Indy
Frickin' bastards!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
az chela Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 10:27 PM
Response to Original message
9. I think Joe Wilson and his wife were destroyed by bush and cheney
so they could start this horrible war .I read Joe's book and it is amazing that bushco got away with this shit.I especially blame Colin powell because I
trusted him and he betrayed this country so that he could go along with george and the dick!!!!!
These men all deserve to be in prison the rest of their lives.Wake up people these bastards have to be stopped NOW
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Mich Otter Donating Member (887 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 10:57 PM
Response to Original message
11. K&R
It is interesting that Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame are in a position to fight for what America ought to represent, and the crooks in the Republican party put them on the front line of real freedom.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
KingofNewOrleans Donating Member (650 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 11:02 PM
Response to Original message
12. Get the recommend train going on this one! eom
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
midnight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 11:33 PM
Response to Original message
13. Mr. Wilson is correct in asking bush and cheny to apologies
Edited on Tue Mar-06-07 11:34 PM by midnight
for destroying his family.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
rudy23 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 11:58 PM
Response to Original message
14. Was a Rove follow-up contingent on a guilty verdict on the Cooper charge?
I wonder from the way Wilson talks about Rove's leak to Cooper, and how he's not second guessing the prosecutor (which he's clearly doing, to me)--is Wilson upset they couldn't get to Rove the way they'd hoped to, and is the not guilty on the Cooper charge, the reason?

Not to be a buzzkiller--I think they will still shed light on this, but the tone of Wilson's message made me wonder...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Melissa G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 10:23 AM
Response to Original message
15. excellent points.n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
yellerpup Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:14 AM
Response to Original message
16. The civil suit should force some explanation.
Mrs. Libby will surely fight for her cubs now that Mr. Libby is under the bus. In drama, the truth always comes out at the end. Let it be so in this case. Go get 'em, Joe!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
twiceshy Donating Member (259 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
18. I know I'm going to get flamed on this.......
If Valerie Plame/Wilson was covert and Chaney/Rove/Libbey/et al exposed her, then why did Fitzgerald not make a case for this obvious crime? It just doesn't make sense, was the cover-up that good?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
nomatrix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 03:56 PM
Response to Original message
19. From Joe Wilson's book
"This attack on Valerie may have been the White House's way of saying yes, indeed, there would be consequences if anybody else dared to speak out publicly. The message to mid-career intelligence officers was clear: Should you decide to speak, we will come after you and your family. Anyone not accustomed to the rough-and-tumble of Washington politics would naturally wonder if the game was worth the candle.

But how stupid I thought. The suggestion that Valerie might have improperly influenced the decision to send me to Niger was easy to disprove. The White House had already acknowledged that the Niger uranium link was unsubstantiated. Yes, I had been among who early on reported this but at the moment, it should have been the administration's priority to find out who had betrayed the president by putting lies in his mouth, rather than to attack someone who had brought the truth to him."




Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 04:44 PM
Response to Original message
20. Works for me. The libby trial/verdict opened up MANY more questions.
And they ALL need to be answered, or at least addressed - seriously, and at length.

BTW - if I may humbly submit, here's my take on it...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3149945
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Thu Dec 26th 2024, 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC