They’re laughing at you, Scotty. They’ve all made a fool out of you. They lied to you and left you with a huge pile of bird shit on your head. Now is your time for vindication!

McClellan: Bush should have fired Rove after leak

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush broke his promise to the country by refusing to fire aide Karl Rove for leaking a CIA agent’s identity, said Scott McClellan, the president’s chief spokesman for almost three years.

“I think the president should have stood by his word and that meant Karl should have left,” McClellan said Sunday in a broadcast interview about his new tell-all book, a scathing rebuke of the White House under Bush’s leadership.

McClellan now acknowledges he felt burned by Rove, Bush’s top political adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff. He said Rove and Libby assured him they were not involved in leaking CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity, and he repeated those assurances to reporters.

Former press secretary Scott McClellan may have given us more than he bargained for. In his newly released book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” McClellan pretty much confirms what we already knew about the Bush administration being rotten to the core.

From an email I received from Congressman Robert Wexler:

Dear Buck,

Last night, significant news broke that directly impacts our push for Impeachment Hearings and a possible Inherent Contempt charge for Bush Administration officials such as Karl Rove:

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has revealed in his upcoming book that:

• Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Vice President Cheney lied about their role in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson - actions easily amounting to obstruction of Justice.

McClellan also admitted that:

• There was a coordinated effort within the Bush Administration to use propaganda to pump up the case for the Iraq war and hide the projected costs of the war from the public.

(more…)

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was disbarred from practicing law in the nation’s capital on Thursday.

So unfair! Maybe Bush can come to his rescue on this also.

Well, he’s got that title up until he’s granted a full pardon, which Bush hasn’t ruled out. Why would he need one though? Does anyone seriously doubt Libby will go though suffering any repercussions of having that title? Others would! You and me, we’d be damn lucky to ever find employment. But with Libby’s high-end GOP friends, he’ll never be affected by it. He’ll get his pardon though. Bank on it!

“Another of Libby’s attorneys, William Jeffress, has said Libby deserves a pardon.”

Yes, he does. A republican committing perjury and obstruction is clearly protected under the “IOKIYAR” law.

Libby to Drop Appeal in CIA Leak Case

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence in July. Had Libby won a new trial, that commutation would be meaningless and Libby would again face potential prison time.

“We remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libby’s innocence,” attorney Theodore Wells said Monday. “However, the realities were, that after five years of government service by Mr. Libby and several years of defending against this case, the burden on Mr. Libby and his young family of continuing to pursue his complete vindication are too great to ask them to bear.”

Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. He was the only person to face criminal charges in the case.

I could be wrong, but I think he’s the decider and he’s not splainin nothing!

By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers exhorted President Bush Monday to allow top aides to explain to Congress why Bush commuted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence.

In a letter to Bush on Monday, Conyers said the commutation was troubling and could eliminate Libby’s incentive to provide information about the administration’s role in leaking the identity of former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

Libby, who was a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for obstructing justice in a federal probe of the leak.

Bush, calling the sentence excessive, used his executive authority last week to commute the sentence, sparing Libby from prison.

Conyers, D-Mich., urged Bush “to waive Executive Privilege and provide the relevant documents and testimony of any relevant aides regarding your decision to commute Mr. Libby’s sentence.”

The congressman said that his committee on Wednesday will hold a hearing to “explore the grave questions that arise when the Presidential clemency power is used to erase criminal penalties for high-ranking executive branch employees whose offenses relate to their work for the President.”

Read more at the AP

Congress would be much more equipped for this battle if they would all pick up a baseball bat upon entering the chamber. (read image caption)

Congress returns, ready to battle Bush

(LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer)

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., preparing for Monday’s battle with the White House, takes inventory of available head-bashing equipment.

WASHINGTON - Congressmen returning from their Independence Day break are ready for battle with the White House, with Democrats decrying President Bush’s commutation of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence and fighting Bush’s latest claim of executive privilege.
[...]

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said Monday there had been “a steady erosion for the president’s policy” in Congress because of the “tremendous loss of life among our troops” in June and “the failure of the Iraqi government to pursue the political reforms that are necessary to quell the sectarian violence.”

Meanwhile, several Democratic-run investigations are playing out this week as they head toward contempt of Congress citations and, if neither side yields, federal court:

- Monday is the deadline for the White House to explain why Bush is refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena for e-mails and other documents on his aides’ involvement in the firings of eight federal prosecutors last winter. The White House is not expected to comply with the deadline.

- In a pair of hearings Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will look at Bush’s commutation last week of Libby’s prison sentence for obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hear from former White House political director Sara Taylor about the prosecutor firings, according to Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

- The next day, the House panel is expected to turn to the prosecutor firings and has scheduled testimony from former White House Counsel Harriet Miers. It’s unclear whether she will appear.

Full article at Yahoo! News

Schumer on Face the Nation

Schumer: I’ve spoken to Sen. Leahy about this and what we’re thinking of doing is calling Patrick Fitzgerald-the prosecutor before us….and he might have some very interesting things to say.

from Media Matters

Following President Bush’s decision to commute the prison sentence for former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, media figures have continued to repeat the false claim that former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage’s role as columnist Robert D. Novak’s original source for Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA operative proves Libby was not involved in the leak of her identity. However, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, the fact that Armitage was the original source for Novak’s column revealing Plame’s identity is not inconsistent with Libby’s disclosure of Plame’s identity — specifically, to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller — before the publication of Novak’s column.

On the July 3 edition of NBC’s Today, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol claimed: “Scooter Libby does not deserve to go to jail. I would remind Joe Wilson that Scooter Libby did not leak Valerie Plame’s name. Richard Armitage told Robert Novak, we now know, about Valerie Plame’s name, so this was an investigation that should never have happened. There was no underlying crime.” Kristol was referring to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, Plame’s husband, who reportedly issued a statement saying that “the president’s actions send the message that leaking classified information for political purposes is acceptable” and that “Mr. Libby not only endangered Valerie and our family, but also our country’s national security.”

As Media Matters has previously documented, journalist Murray Waas noted in his book The United States v. I. Lewis Libby (Union Square Press, June 2007), Miller testified on January 30 that Libby had disclosed Plame’s CIA employment to her at a July 8, 2003, breakfast meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C., well before Novak publicly revealed it in his July 14, 2003, column. As Media Matters has also noted, it is likely of little significance whether Libby disclosed Plame’s name, as opposed to the identity of Joseph Wilson’s wife as a CIA employee, to a reporter.

By Larry Lipman
The Palm Beach Post
from Truthout

Rep. Robert Wexler says President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence “is nothing short of (a) political quid pro quo, and Congress must go on record in strong opposition.”

Wexler has drafted a resolution to censure Bush and plans to introduce it when Congress returns next Tuesday. A censure is a rare public reprimand but does not carry any other penalty.

House leaders could take the resolution directly to the floor, but that’s unlikely. More likely is that the resolution will be sent to the House Judiciary Committee of which Wexler is a member. Since this is a “sense of the House” resolution, it would not require Senate approval.

Wexler said Bush’s “intervention is an unconscionable abuse of authority by George W. Bush, and Congress must step forward and express the disgust that Americans rightfully feel toward this contemptible decision.

“Scooter Libby was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice by a jury and was appropriately sentenced by a judge President Bush himself appointed. This deceitful chain of events began with the administration’s falsifying of intelligence on Iraqi nuclear capabilities. It is clear that the perjury of Mr. Libby in this case effectively protected President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials from further scrutiny regarding the clear political retaliation against former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA agent.”

The last president who was censured was James Buchanan in 1860, so the odds are pretty long against this one being adopted. Previous censured presidents were Andrew Jackson in 1834 and John Tyler in 1842. The House did not use the word “censure” in those instances, but its meaning was the same.

Here’s the text of Wexler’s censure resolution:

Resolution Relating to the Censure of George W. Bush

Whereas President George W. Bush has failed to comply with his obligations under Executive Order 12958 concerning the protection of classified national security information in that the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency operative was revealed to members of the media, and in June 2003 Bush Administration officials discussed with various reporters the identity of Ms. Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency operative;

Whereas on July 14, 2003, the name of Ms. Wilson and her status as a CIA operative was revealed publicly in a newspaper column by Robert Novak, and on September 16, 2003 the Central Intelligence Agency advised the Department of Justice that Ms. Wilson’s status as a covert operative was classified information and requested a federal investigation;

Whereas knowingly leaking the identity of a covert agent is a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (P.L. 97-200);

Whereas Arthur Brown, former Asian Division chief of the CIA, stated that, “cover and tradecraft are the only forms of protection one has and to have that stripped away because of political scheming is the moral equivalent to exposing forward deployed military units”;

Whereas Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, effectively stopped the investigation into this potentially grave national security crime by lying to FBI investigators, and Mr. Libby’s perjury shielded the Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush from further inquiry;

Whereas on March 6, 2007, in U.S. District Court a jury found Mr. Libby guilty on four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI investigators regarding an investigation into the actions of the White House regarding leaking the identity of Ms. Wilson in retaliation for her husband’s contention that the Bush administration twisted intelligence facts to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq;

Whereas on June 5, 2007, Mr. Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000;

read more at TRUTHOUT.ORG

By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent

Note to Tony Snow: STFU - JS

WASHINGTON - The White House on Thursday made fun of former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for criticizing President Bush’s decision to erase the prison sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

“I don’t know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it,” presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.

In his commutation decision, Bush left a $250,000 fine. Libby paid the fine on Thursday.

Libby’s friends and supporters have raised more than $5 million to cover legal fees and were continuing to raise money but Libby paid the fine himself, according to someone close to the fund who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the account are private. The cashiers check filed with the court was issued in Libby’s name.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has scheduled hearings Wednesday on Bush’s commutation of Libby’s 2 1/2-year sentence.

“Well, fine, knock himself out,” Snow said of Conyers. “I mean, perfectly happy. And while he’s at it, why doesn’t he look at January 20th, 2001?”

In the closing hours of his presidency, Clinton pardoned 140 people, including fugitive financier Marc Rich.

read more at YAHOO NEWS