More Rovegate...

I know. I should let it go but this investigation is very important. I feel that if we let up then Rovegate will no longer be front page news. That is just what the Bush administration wants. I find this story to be very exciting and disturbing. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the soap opera appeal of a DNA stained dress. In my opinion, the actions of the Bush administration are infinitely more sordid. The investigation ends in October so I feel we need to keep pressing.

The next time you hear someone say Valerie Plame wasn't covert you will know how to respond. I found more information that proves that she was, in fact, covert. Ex CIA agent Larry Johnson has been asserting her covert status anywhere he can, including the TPM Cafe.

I found a good Rovegate timeline at Bushwatch. Some of the links provided have expired but it provides some perspective on the complexities of this story.

John Bolton

It looks like President Bush is poised to make John Bolton ambassador to the United Nations as a recess appointment. As a recess appointment, Bolton's position will only last until the next Congress. It is a temporary job. After that he has to be approved by the Senate. From what I understand the President has the right to do this but it is not used very often.

The President will use the democrats as his excuse for doing this. Bolton supporters say the democrats are stonewalling the vote for his approval. The democrats, lead by Joe Biden, are saying that the White House is refusing to give up pertinent information they need to make their decision.

Why are the Democrats (and some Republicans) wary of Bolton? Why do they think that he is not being forthcoming? I wonder why. There is an interesting article that says Bolton forgot to mention that he was interviewed by the State department in regards to Iraq buying uranium from Niger. Sound familiar? He had previously wrote in a senate questionnaire that he had not testified to a grand jury or any investigation in the past five years. He was not interviewed in the Plame investigation.

I'm sure that this is an honest mistake. If President Bush does appoint Bolton, who is very controversial, next week, then it really fits his MO on personnel choices. Our president loves to reward the people who make mistakes. Check out the pattern, Rumsfeld, Wolfiwitz, Rice, Hadley, Rove and I'm sure there is more.

Arianna vs. Judith Miller

Arianna Huffington is taking Judith Miller to task on her website The Huffington Post. Huffington suggests that Millers incarceration is not noble but self serving by way of protecting herself from prosecution. Yesterday she surmises that Miller could have been the source for Libby. Miller has many contacts with intelligence officials. Huffington reminds us that Judith Miller was the main reporter validating the false intelligence Bush and Co. were using to justify war in Iraq.

Today Arianna rips Miller's embedded reports during the early days of the war in Iraq (before "mission accomplished").

I don't know if you realize this yet but our government is no longer calling our military actions the Global War on Terror. The war is over! We are now entering the Global Struggle against Violent Extremism. Rolls right off the tongue. The article I read on the Heritage Foundation (conservative thinktank) website about the name change is interesting. They said the old phrase connoted military action only. The new name reflects the other aspects of the struggle including homeland security, law enforcement and international diplomacy. Since when is this administration interested in diplomacy? Randi Rhodes of the Randi Rhodes radio show on Air America noted the other day that the Arabic word for struggle is jihad. The German word for struggle is kempt.

Found this cartoon today thought it was funny.

McCain

I used to have a little respect for John McCain. I respect his service to our country in Vietnam. I respect his work on campaign finance reform. I lost a lot of my respect for him when he campaigned vigorously for Bush in last years presidential race. I certainly didn't expect his endorsement for Kerry. He is after all a Republican. I just thought he was a Republican I could really respect. I am Democrat but I would like to think that I would always vote for the best candidate no matter which party. McCain is definitely not one of these candidates. If he runs for president in '08 I will not vote for him, especially after his actions these last few weeks.

If this Rovegate controversy reveals what I believe to be part of a grand conspiracy to deceive America into the war with Iraq, then McCain will regret his role in defending Karl Rove these past weeks. In my mind Rove and Libby violated our country's security whether they knew what they were doing or not. At a minimum the president should strip them of their intelligent access until the special prosecutor finishes his case. The president has already lowered the bar he set in this case by saying that he would fire anyone who committed a crime in the Plame leak. He previously said, through Press Secretary Scott McClennan, that involvement in the leak would result in job termination. (I believe some people on the Right call this a "flip-flop".)

This mixed message from our President tells our country and the rest of the world that he values politics before national security. If the President, at the very least, would restrict the intelligence clearance of Rove and Libby it would show Americans and future foreign informants that he takes the CIA and human intelligence gathering seriously. Let's remember that it was the CIA that called for this investigation. Despite what the pundits on the right think, Valerie Plame's identity was a secret. They are obviously concerned that someone in the administration leaked the name of one of it's own agents. If that isn't bad enough, someone in the administration did this while our country is at war. Oddly enough Ms. Plames area of expertise is WMD, one of the main reasons Bush used to get us into the war in Iraq. Bush should show the world that he is appalled that this breach of our national security came out of his administration. This should appall us as Americans. Not only does the CIA worry about it's own agents but they are also concerned that this leak will affect future information collecting in foreign countries. Why would someone give secret information if they believe their anonymity could be revealed by this administration? Regardless of what the Republican talking points would have us believe, the Plame leak has rattled the CIA.


This is why I have lost all respect for Republicans who are going on the talk shows down playing the significance of this case with their talking points. John McCain is one of these politicians. I really think the Plame leak should be disturbing to all politicians. I expected better from McCain.