Turdblossom Tidbit

Digby found a fun one:

This article doesn't state specifically when it took place, so it's hard to know if it's referring to the meeting I found so puzzling, but according to a Rove associate, Fitzgerald at some point met with James Sharp, Bush lawyer, about whether or not Rove misrepresented his role in the leak case to the president. That's a bit more believable than Fitzgerald making a personal pilgrimage to Sharp's office to get word to the president that Rove is out of danger, as Michael Isikoff would have had us believe.

What did the president know and when did he know it? It's not the crime, it's the cover-up. Who new we'd be singing choruses of that some 30 years later? The similarities between current events and Nixon's downfall are almost to the point of cliche. But they just won't stop.

In a commentary published Sunday in the Sacramento Bee, former Republican congressman Pete McCloskey recalled a visit he paid years ago to John Ehrlichman, the late former domestic policy adviser to President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was in federal prison at the time, having been convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and conspiracy for helping orchestrate the crimes of Watergate.

McCloskey said he asked Ehrlichman, an honorable World War II veteran and attorney, why he had lied for Nixon. Ehrlichman replied, "It took us three-and-a-half years to be corrupted by the power. . . ."

Hey...maybe shrubya's not a complete failure after all - it only took the Mayberry Machiavellis two and a half years to feel comfortable outing a CIA agent! And they've been lying about it ever since. There are plenty of rumors and other indications to suggest that shrubya knew the whole time, even as he pretended we might not ever find the leaker. Maybe that explains his insincere promise to fire anybody involved - he really thought the truth would never come out. But it did and accountability went out the window.

President Bush said Monday that if anyone on his staff committed a crime in the CIA-leak case, that person will "no longer work in my administration." His statement represented a shift from a previous comment, when he said that he would fire anyone shown to have leaked information that exposed the identity of a CIA officer.

...Bush said in June 2004 that he would fire anyone in his administration shown to have leaked information that exposed the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. On Monday, however, he added the qualifier that it would have to be shown that a crime was committed.

Asked at a June 10, 2004 news conference if he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked Plame's name, Bush answered, "Yes. And that's up to the U.S. attorney to find the facts."

We're waiting...