Mar 26 2007
What The Plame Game Has Wrought
The Plame witch hunt by Fitzgerald has ended open discussion of issues on the Hill and in public. Clearly,when someone can face 20+ years in prison for misremembering or mistating irrelevant and marginal facts (i.e., there is no legal issue to HOW Libby learned of Plame’s situation, just whether he illegally discussed it with the media) then you get this kind of self protection response from government official:
Monica Goodling, a Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self- incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.
“The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real,” said the lawyer, John Dowd.
He said that members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees seem already to have made up their minds that wrongdoing has occurred in the firings.
Good for her! Congressional Dems are about to learn another consitutional lesson. That is no one can be forced to put themselves in legal jeopardy and everyone is deemed innocent until PROVEN guilty. The Dems are actually quite an impotent lot. Just look at their ability to issue subpoenas (none to date – too scared), stop the NSA surveillance program and surrender Iraq to al Qaeda. Neither can they remove Gonzales or impeach Bush. They cry and whine a lot, but the fact is they are just a bunch of harmless partisans ovetaken by terminal stages of BDS.
AJ – its not a witch hunt if and when a jury finds a liar guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, so quit whining about Scooter.
I can hardly wait to see the MSM, cable news, The Daily Show and YouTube running tape loops of a Department of Justice employee invoking the Fifth Amendment in order not to answer questions from Congress about her job performance.
Can you say: Fire her ass?
Do you really think a Justice Dept. official can plead the 5th and expect to keep her job??
It’s liike the Bush Administration is always saying: If you didn’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from (warrantless wiretaps; NSA eavesdropping; denial of habeas).
Further, if Monica wants to play that game, Congress can play hardball with her – grant her limited immunity – and order her to testify. If she refuses – she goes straight to jail until she decides to answer every question in the book.
This looks to be some quality TV!!!
Oh – and by the way – your boy Gonzales has got a new problem:
And there are still plenty of shoe yet to drop. Speedy is Toast.
I don’t agree with pleading the 5th in this case. I think each and every member of the Bush Administration who is called to testify should employ the “Mr. & Mrs. Bill Clinton” grand jury strategy: I’m sorry, I don’t recall; I have no memory of that; I’m sorry, I have no recollection of that.
Too bad about all those e-mails.
In the meantime we have Senator’s and their aides carrying concealed and loaded weapons to school (er Congress) A fully loaded firearm and two fully loaded clips apparently! Check THIS out:
Webb staffer arrested for carrying an unregistered and LOADED firearm into the Capitol with extra magazines!! What’s up with this story? I just saw it on Drudge. No siren though. Wouldn’t surprise me if the CHP already dismissed this as Webb’s staffer doing his boss’ bidding. Shouldn’t be allowed in ANY circumstance! Someone carrying a loaded gun and extra ammunition into the Capitol? WHAT THE HELL???
If the CHP does nothing, this will tell us where they stand on protecting the Congress of the United States! If this were Trent Lott’s staffer instead of Webb’s we would be getting HOLY HELL from here to breakfast!
I don’t blame Goodling a damn bit. I say plead the Fifth even if Congress asks you your name. I say that if Goodling is her married name and somebody in Congress insists on calling her by her maiden name, another Fitzgerald could literally make a federal case out of it.
Hell, maybe people should stop saying “No comment” to reporters and just say “I plead the Fifth” — while wearing a button that says “Remember Scooter Libby.”
Good move, Gooding! Even if she is “forced” to show up, then she should say, ” I do not recall.”, “I do not know”, et al. And that’s it.
Does Fitz know what he did?
Yup, the days of people testifying to congress except for political friends, is over. Never again will anyone testify because they won’t be tried for any crime … most of the time the hearings will be inquisitions without any criminal investigations … but they will be tried for even the slightest misstatement.
The Democrats have ruined the investigative process and have tossed “good faith” under the bus.
I was never really all that politically active in my life but I have to say that I am deeply ashamed of the Democratic Party and what they have done. I am embarrassed to be called of the same nationality as they are. Chances are pretty good at this point that my children aren’t going to grow up to be Democrats. The damage the dems are doing themselves now will probably not be felt for several years.
Considering how many idiots there are like soothie it is no small wonder someone is taking the fifth. There was no crime in the Plame/Wilson circus and yet look at how that ended. Plame can lie to Congress and get away with it and Libby is looking at jail.
This whole episode is stupid, there was no crime in firing these people and while people like sooth here might try to concoct one, this pales in comparison to the the numerous scandals of the Clinton administration and I don’t remember the Democrats much giving a damn about that.
BTW sooth, that speedy remark is racist. I am surprised that a little progressive such as yourself would be such a bigot.
I hear that Reno gave the 90+ attorneys she fired 10 days to clear out their desks before she replaced them with the right sort of people.
retired:
Hillary Clinton said “I don’t recall” 150 times in her testimony. It worked for her.
Pleading the fifth is brilliant and the example given above says it all. If she gives her maiden name and responds to someone calling by her married name, she could be indicted for lying under oath. So she shouldn’t even give her name. Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. h/t Sir Walter Scott
If I were a democrat such as Rockefeller and Schumer, I would be very, very afraid…
Bush failed the test. The rest doesn’t matter.
Given that the donks have very little leverage with the American people, only means that Bush’s failures to “enjoy” support from the American poople is obvious. And, he has no one to blame, but himself. And, all the other incompetents he decided to surround himself, and his administration, with.
Libby? Should never have been thrown to the wolves.
But then, neither should Paul O’Neill. Who was the first to write about it, SUCCESSFULLY. So anyone who read THE PRICE OF LOYALTY is aware of Bush’s shortcomings.
The other thing worth noticing? I’ll bet nothing changes.
Bush, today, is like Jimmy Carter, from yester-year.
Americans dealt with it by ignoring the white house, until there was an election. Carter had to be physically removed from the White House! Back in 1980. While, here? Bush will go, easily. He’ll be given a cap like his dad got. So both of them can wear “we were president’s” hats, on president’s day.
While over in “arabia.” Or the Mideast. NOTHING CHANGES! That’s why it doesn’t matter what condi does. The Israelis? They’ve been through it, before. And, they learned to RIDE IT OUT. Without saying the TRUTH.
Men like Carter and the Bush’s, do a lot to advance LIES. Until they go away.
What questiongs are Gooding, for instance, going to be asked, anyway/ The short of it is that Gonzales is as incompetent as “Brownie.”
You just don’t know the extent of it! While you know James Baker and Robert Gates are back, temporarily. And, inside the White House? More than just a few of Enron’s disgraced personnel. They’re suited up. And, yes. Bush hired a bunch of them.
You just have to wrap your minds around the idea that it doesn’t matter.
Heavy price was paid to elect Bush in the first place.
In 1988? That prize when to the elder Bush. In New Hampshire. Through the trickery of John Sununu. The Palestinian. And, dad to the current senator; whose shot at re-election doesn’t seem to be all that strong.
McCain’s chances, however, tanked. Gone.
And, yes, countries can be run by boobs. All you have to do is engage your eyes across the pond to know there’s troubles in europe. While Blair can’t figure out WHY the commander of the Cornwall; when he saw his troops being “arrested” by the Iranians, used none of the ship’s strengths to intervene with that kidnapping. You’ve got to wonder this: THE SHIP DID NOT COME WITH A MANUAL!
Ditto for the White House.
But the other thing to notice? Plenty of GOP kiesters are concerned, enough, that Bush is a boob. And, has used up a lot of good will, over nothing.
While, yes. Libby will go to jail. Lots of things wobble about, because we’ve credentialed incompetents.
Nah. It won’t always be like this. Bush goes home. And, when he does? He’ll probably go home mad, too.
While I expect NO CHANGES AT ALL IN THE MIDEAST! Nada. Not one. What the arabs do in their own neighborhoods, continues apace. From Lebanon to Iraq. To Iran. Those people will continue to kill each other. And, the frauds in the House of Saud will bring enough contempt, ahead, on Bush’s head; he’ll think the commander of the Cornwall “got off easy.”
TO ET. AL: Even if you loath the Clinton’s. During Bill’s 8 years in the White House no one thought he was too stupid to do the job.
The current occupant is TOO STUPID. That’s why YOU’RE GETTING THE LEARNING CURVE. It’s not too steep for you, is it? Feels more like familiar ground. Or it should. Than anything.
And can you say, P-A-T-H-O-L-O-G-I-C-A-L, a.k.a. The Left?
AJStrata, Captain’s Quarters has a new post up about Gonzales and Goodling. He is being very negative about it. He thinks that Goodling’s pleading of the 5th amendment is going to make Gonzales look bad. And so on.
The Captain no longer ‘gets it’. It doesn’t make any difference what this administration does or says. The media (and stupids like Soothie) will spin it to a negative. That is their plan and they’re sticking to it.
Thanks, Mark, I also read that Hillary and Bill Clinton did indeed plead the 5th before the Republican Congress.
And that Congress does not have the responsibility to charge anyone with contempt or whatever. Only the Judiciary (prosecutors) can do this. About the only thing Congress can do is hold her for contempt.
I hope the others will follow suit.
The Democrats are starting to learn that they can only go so far with their shenanigans.
I still say Gonzales need to stay in spite of his communication issues. I’m still not happy with Berger being let off too easily but was that a prosecutor, not Gonzales, that dealt with Berger?
“The Captain no longer ‘gets it’. It doesn’t make any difference what this administration does or says. The media (and stupids like Soothie) will spin it to a negative. That is their plan and they’re sticking to it. ”
Captain Ed hasn’t “gotten it” for a very long time. He was fully prepared to throw Denny Hastert under the bus for not being sufficiently aware of the Foley e-mails/PMs. But when readers pointed out to him that Pelosi and Emmanuel may have also known about Foley and yet kept their mouths shut, Morrissey wasn’t the least bit interested.
Soothie(ken)
grant her limited immunity – and order her to testify. If she refuses – she goes straight to jail until she decides to answer every question in the book.
No Can Do. Would have to be full immunity. You can’t tell someone that you will give them immunity against incriminating themselves, unless the incriminate themselves, you have to say they have full immunity.
This is straight Fitzville. Good for Monica Goodling. A Republican paying attention…..imagine that! You have a lawyer to answer any law enforcement questions (with copy of a tape), the Fifth or ‘I don’t recall’.
I am so tired of hearing Bush is incompetent. No one has stood against this type of anti-American warfare…..ever. It comes straight out, in his face, and I am sick of it. Bush is NOT incompetent. He is fighting. Not always the way I would like but at least I know he is trying his best. So do not tell me his best is not good enough. ENOUGH. Tell the New Republicans that want Sainthood to Stop it. Tell the Republican Congress to get up off their cans and fire some bullets of their own. But you need to point them in the correct direction. Bush is the WRONG direction.
Calling Clinton to talk to the Committee about pardons is a step in the right direction. Next time Schumer opens his mouth, I want to see every one of you on camera asking why he was snooping illegally. Next time Rocky hisses, I want to see all of you on camera, asking about his trip to Syria. The next time you see Specter on camera, take his azz off that committee. Enough.