'Scapegoat:' Scooter's Stunning Defense & The Circular Firing Squad

[133724]

Jan. 23, 2007 - It was the last thing the White House needed at a time when President Bush is already on the defensive over Iraq: a circular firing squad in a federal courtroom in which the president’s men—and Vice President Dick Cheney’s—are all shooting at each other.

<snip>

Wells's argument was both brilliant and complex—and perhaps difficult for non-news hounds on the jury to follow. But it raised the prospect that the Libby trial will now turn into a horror show for the White House, forcing current and former top aides to testify against each other and revealing an administration that has been in turmoil over the Iraq war for more than three years.

<snip>

But Fitzgerald, in his own riveting opening statement, placed Cheney at the center of the case, telling the jurors that when Plame’s husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, began accusing the White House of twisting intelligence about Iraq, it was the vice president himself who first disclosed Plame’s identity to his chief of staff in June 2003. Cheney later intervened with the White House to get then-press secretary Scott McClellan to issue a misleading public statement clearing Libby of any involvement in the leak of Plame’s CIA employment to reporters, Fitzgerald asserted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16778317/site/newsweek/

GAWD Whos is Cheney shooting at now??????????

[yurbud]

1. the correct subject line for this: Scooter fingers Turdblossom

more accurately reflects both the tone and literal behavior of these guys.

[emulatorloo]

2. Wells brilliant? Not really -- just good at distractions and obfusgating

Libby is on trial for lying to the FBI and to the Grand Jury.

How does Libby being a "scapegoat" for Karl Rove apply to that charge?

It doesn't. It is irrelevant to the charges. It just confuses the issue that the jury has to deal with, which is -- did Libby lie?

[Mandate My Ass]

3. That was my thought exactly

How is it brilliant to admit your client's guilt and say "so-and-so did it too." ?? :shrug:

After his conviction, maybe he'll write a tell-all. A girl can hope anyway.

[emulatorloo]

5. firedoglake - "Understanding the Libby-Rove Head Fake"

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/24/understanding-the-libby-rove-head-fake/

<snip>

So why the big fuss about Rove? Part of it may be simply creating a distraction — with Fitz taking dead aim at Dick Cheney in his own opening argument, Libby's side had to do something dramatic to keep Big Dick from being the center of media coverage. But I also think there's an alternate-reality version of the Plame outing that Scooter's legal team is trying to create, to deflect not only the current charges but the correct impression that Libby was the mastermind at the center of the leak scheme.

I've posted repeatedly about my theory of Ari Fleischer leaking about Plame from Air Force One on July 12, 2003, following orders from Libby that may have originated with Cheney. Both Fitzgerald and Wells seemed to allude to these leaks during their opening statements, and Fleischer has apparently received immunity for testifying that Scooter made him do it. To raise doubts about Ari's testimony, Libby has to invent an alternate history in which Fleischer made the calls either on his own or at someone else's behest, and then had a motive to lie to the FBI (and Fitzgerald) about it. That's where Rove comes in. It seems like Team Scooter is going to imply that Ari, as a White House employee, would only have leaked because Turdblossom told him to, and that the need to protect Karl led Fleischer to put the blame on Libby.

<snip>

[DemReadingDU]

4. audio link

Michael Isikoff

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12318129/site/newsweek/?bctid=443670865