Timing is very important to Bush and his weasels

E.J. Dionne

Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?

In his impressive presentation of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed the wish that witnesses had testified when subpoenas were issued in August 2004, and "we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005."

Note the significance of the two dates: October 2004, before President Bush was reelected, and October 2005, after the president was reelected. Those dates make clear why Libby threw sand in the eyes of prosecutors, in the special counsel's apt metaphor, and helped drag out the investigation.

Bush and his disciples would like everyone to assume that Libby was some kind of lone operator who, for this one time in his life, abandoned his usual caution. They pray that Libby will be the only official facing legal charges and that political interest in the case will dissipate.

Fitzgerald has made clear that he wants to keep this case going if doing so will bring us closer to the truth. Lawyers not involved in the case suggest that the indictment was written in a way that could encourage Libby, facing up to 30 years in prison, to cooperate in that effort.

But there is a catch. If Libby, through nods and winks, knows that at the end of Bush's term, the president will issue an unconditional pardon, he will have no interest in helping Fitzgerald, and every interest in shutting up. If Bush truly wants the public to know all the facts in the leak case, as he has claimed in the past, he will announce now that he will not pardon Libby. That would let Fitzgerald finish his work unimpeded, and we would all have a chance, at last, to learn how and why this sad affair came to pass.

Dream on, Mr. Dionne. One of Bush's hallmarks is that he will say all kinds of things he's going to do and then just plain not do them. He's a lyin' sack of shit whose word is just plain no damn good. He'll say one thing, mean another, say he's going to do something, do something else, and then blame yet someone else.

The White House, and that includes Bush, I think, 'cuz he's supposed to be in charge, knew all about what was going on in the Traitorgate deal since its inception. Hell, it was them that did it! Of course they knew about it.

They knew damn well their lying us into war would come up as a result of the investigation. They just wanted to put it off 'til their criminal machine safely re-installed them.