The Osterley Times: The rock on which Bush will perish

Sunday, April 09, 2006

The rock on which Bush will perish

Okay, here's the problem I have with Bush's current line on Libby and the Plamegate scandal. The official line runs roughly as follows:

President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday.

Bush merely instructed Cheney to “get it out” and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House. The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president’s wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said.

Now, lets take that at face value and accept that this is 100% true.

Bush tells Cheney to "get it out" meaning, discredit Joseph Wilson.

Is it conceivable that, when Wilson's wife was revealed as a covert CIA agent, Bush didn't join the dots and realise that - perhaps inadvertantly - it was his attempt to discredit Wilson that had led to the uncovering of Plame's status?

I think not, and Bush and Cheney must have, at the very least, discussed this possiblity.

At that point, they had two possible routes to go down.

They could have apologised for the naming of Plame - offered a scalp - but, basically stuck to their attack on Wilson's evidence.

Or they could have gone down the route they chose, which was feigning ignorance, denouncing "leakers", and launching an investigatation that sought answers to questions that they already knew the answers to; hoping, one can only conclude, that the investigation could be thwarted or derailed.

That they chose the latter option reveals them as cynical and dishonest. The launching of that enquiry should hang, like an albatross, around Bush's neck.

And, like Thatcher before him, the inability to ever admit you are wrong will be the rock on which he perishes.