The Plame Game: What Waas’s big scoop may really tell us about Bush Lies

[kpete]

The Plame Game
What Murray Waas’s big scoop may really tell us about Bush’s pre-war deceptions.
By Greg Sargent
Web Exclusive: 04.04.06
...................

Thanks to Waas, for the first time, we may now know for a fact that Rove and other Bush advisers viewed the truth about the run-up to war as something that could destroy his re-election prospects. It is entirely plausible that Bush advisers calculated that if it came out that they'd outed Plame, Congress would have been forced by the resulting firestorm to run a far more aggressive investigation of Bush's pre-war deceptions - and possibly uncover the smoking gun Waas reports on, among other things. Remember, Libby and Rove testified in early 2004, during the heat of a presidential campaign which Rove himself had apparently concluded was at risk if existing hard evidence of Bush's deceptions surfaced.

So it seems plausible that Libby and Rove sought to minimize the chance of the aggressive congressional oversight that might have resulted if it became known that they'd outed Plame. In short, misleading the grand jury about Plame may simply have been a key piece of a broader effort to get past the election before the truth about the run-up to the war surfaced to sink his campaign.

................

White House officials, including Bush himself, withheld critical information it had about doubts over supposed evidence of Saddam's nuke ambitions in order to better make the case for war. Then they subsequently discovered that hard evidence existed of that duplicity. Then, anxious that this evidence might surface before the 2004 reelection, they engaged in a relentless campaign to cover up what really happened during the Iraq run-up and to prevent an aggressive congressional investigation until after the election. They relied on Pat Roberts to run a pseudo-investigation; they withheld the daily briefs; they leaned on Hill allies not to talk to the press. And they obscured their role in the outing of Plame to prevent an outcry that would have certainly forced Congress and the press to probe far more aggressively than they did. And they succeeded: If Congress and the press had been more aggressive -- and this may be the real significance of Waas's story -- it's perfectly possible that John Kerry would now be president.

If that’s how it happened, then it may be only a matter of time before the whole story comes tumbling out. Waas has reported that there’s a piece of paper out there that proves Bush deceived the nation during the run-up to the war. The nation’s premiere investigative reporters, one would think, would very much like to see that piece of paper for themselves. And if there’s one thing recent history tells us, it’s that the small, short-term cover-ups never do succeed in preventing the larger story from coming to light. That larger story is still waiting to be told in all its gristly detail – and, eventually, reporters other than Murray Waas will get around to telling it.
much more at:
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11370
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0330nj1.htm

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Everyone at DU knew these things

The media never reported it. The media is the key element in the success of Rove to stymie any and all scandals that swirl around the president. No reporting leads to no outcry leads to no serious Congressional oversight.

[rodeodance]

3. But Waass puts it all together to look at the big picture (WH conspiracy)

[rodeodance]

4. needs to be connected with 'cult of coruption"

[Me.]

2. K & R

[Lostnote06]

5. DENY,DEFLECT,DEFER!!!!!Thee GOP Trinity....

[Disturbed]

6. The Bush Regime Creed is:

"Above the Law and Unaccountable"