Aug 29 2006
What He Said
Jack Kelley summarizes the Armitage damage and media culpability quite nicely. Armitage and Powell have a lot to answer for. There is no excuse for hiding the truth when other people are being falsely accused. None. Colin Powell, who I once held in the highest esteem, has diminished completely in the light of this revelation. You never allow someone to be falsely accused, no matter what the personal implications. I have been trying to drill this into my kids forever. It doesn’t help when national leaders act like children afraid to admit they made a mistake.
I do not think Powell is blameworthy. It seems that he and Armitage did advise the Justice Department, which is what they had to do. I do not think that he deserves the blame for failing to be clairvoyant enough to foresee what would happen to Libby, Cheney, and Rove.
The blame for what happened to Scooter Libby belongs solely on Patrick Fitzgerald, and nobody else.
Have to disagree, Harold (happens now and then). Powell has YET to come forth. Let’s not forget he was serving “at the pleasure of the President,” which carries some minimal level of loyalty to said President; let alone, standing mute while decent men like Libby are tossed under the bus and knowing from the get-go that it was his own second-in-command who had spilled his guts, not once, but twice in as many weeks.
I also have to figure this plays in to Powell being replaced as Sec of State.
AJ is right. Whether Powell is/was objectively right about his “doctrine of overwhelming force,” having his nose out of joint because his counsel on the point wasn’t adopted gave him several honorable options — sit in a corner and pout; submit his resignation; shrugg it off for now and save it for his memoirs after the war ends and dust settles; or all of the above. The route he took is shameful.
It was a particularly effective piece of propaganda..Almost 75% of Americans believed the WH had deliberately outed Plame.
I think Armitage behaved shamefully. Powell doesn’t look much better.
Fitz performed horribly.
Now, let’s figure out how best to force this to an end and get Scooter off Devil’s Island .
Should we demand Gonzales revoke the appointment of Fitzgerald and review the matter to see whether there is any point in proceeding further?
Should we ask the President to shut this down and pardon Libby?
What did Ariel Durant say? “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
“Lies come first, and drag along the gullible. Truth limps in long afterward on the arm of time.” – Balthazar Gracian
i think you are all being too nice. unless fitz put legal constraints on armitage i think it’s pretty clear that powell et al were only too happy to let this scandal run its course hoping that it would cost bush the election. it was a coup attempt with very little downside. it was a sophisticated CBS memo.
my hope is that some of the defendants bring civil suits against the perps so that we may actually find out what went on behind closed doors. collectively they all lied starting with wilson in an attempt to bring a president down in a time of war. in fact a casual review of a timeline shows bush’s current descent started at that time. the next step in this process will start in january when the new democractic congress starts impeachment hearings.
we are all circling the drain.
I think Fitzgerald should publically apologize to Libby for his press conference rant…and to the American people for wasting *our* money. And pay Scooter… as in malpractice, imho.
Ssadly, Powell has disgraced himself and Armitage, a former special ops as I understand it, has sunk to a disgusting low. And he is now John McCain’s foreign policy advisor! A pox on John McCain! If he thinks he and Liberman are going to win a presidential election as Independents…they have another thought coming….
AJ is right on..