Worse than Watergate

The fallout for BushCo continues around the TreasonGate scandal. The mainstream Media is catching up. Tricky Dick Cheney apparently told his Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby of CIA officer Plame. And there is a twist that is sure to earn Libby an indictment:

Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Libby and Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, from journalists, the lawyers said.

The notes, taken by Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, who was questioning the administration's handling of intelligence about Iraq's nuclear program to justify the war.

The notes also divulge that Cheney learned of Plame from George Tenet, then CIA Director, in response to an inquiry of Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband and critic of the intelligence used to invade Iraq. Now, while this is not illegal - given the status of these folks, the question of how the information made it to Novak, Miller, Cooper and others in the Press is where the scrutiny lies and who knew makes them suspect. Furthermore, the fact that the testimonies before the Grand Juries have changed leads to clear-cut obstruction of justice and perjury. These serious offenses would force Libby, Rove and others to resign that would put BushCo in a tailspin.

Lawyers involved in the case said they had no indication that Fitzgerald was considering charging Cheney with wrongdoing. Cheney was interviewed under oath by Fitzgerald last year. It is not known what the vice president told him about the conversation with Libby or when Fitzgerald first learned of it.

But the evidence of Cheney's direct involvement in the effort to learn more about Wilson is sure to intensify the political pressure on the White House in a week of high anxiety among Republicans about the potential for the case to deal a sharp blow to Bush's presidency.

This does not look good and is much bigger than most people realize. Or want to realize... The battle is not over though. Expect Fitzgerald to be attacked and smeared, once he rolls out the indictments. BushCo will be on damage control and the propaganda will fly through the mainstream corporate Media. The real question here is whether the American people, tired and disillusioned by BushCo already, will demand that enough is enough. Time will tell. Nixon, of course, allowed time to force him out of office because he would not see the forest for the trees. His reckless regard for rule of law and lust for power destroyed him and the men around him, while scarring a generation of Americans to reject government outright. That was a low time in American history. This time, it looks as if the same tragic outcome will result. BushCo, however, will not go down respectfully and with the understanding the government and American people are something greater than him. That is what sets this current administration apart from that of Nixon's - being above the law is all they have and will not cede that power for the sake of Democracy and America. Nixon, at least, had the courage, to walk away...