31 March 2006

Plame "peripheral" to more serious questions...

Murray Waas has a spectacular article in the National Journal that puts the whole "Plamegate" fiasco in perspective. Here is one of the juicer outtakes:

Signaling a possible defense strategy, Libby's attorneys filed papers in federal court on March 17 asserting that he had not intentionally deceived FBI agents and a federal grand jury while answering questions about Plame because her role was only "peripheral" to potentially more serious questions regarding the Bush administration's use of intelligence in the prewar debate. "The media conflagration ignited by the failure to find [weapons of mass destruction] in Iraq and in part by Mr. Wilson's criticism of the administration, led officials within the White House, the State Department, and the CIA to blame each other, publicly and in private, for faulty prewar intelligence about Iraq's WMD capabilities," Libby's attorneys said in court papers.

What's this? The "I could have done something much, *much* worse defense"? The "Yeah, I engaged in pooch screwery, but only because much heavier shit was going on defense"?

I'm amazed that anyone who claims to be a conservative can have anything to do with W and his posse, much less vote for them. A vote in 2004 for W was a bum wipe with the Constitution. Bill Clinton was ten times the conservative that W could ever be, and that's just a damn fact.

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