Bush: Out of touch or guilty of obstruction of justice

Did Bush commute of Scooter Libby's prison sentence as a payoff for Libby's self-sacrifice in protecting Dick Cheney? If it was a payoff, then Bush is guilty of obstruction of justice because he aided Libby in shutting down Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the ringleader of the Plame leak cover up. So far solid evidence that could be used to prove Bush's obstruction of justice in a court (or Senate trial of impeachment) has not surfaced. That makes the short blurb from Scotty McClellan's proposed book naming the five White House individuals who sent him out to lie to the public exciting.

Monday we learned that Bush's previous spokesman, Scott McClellan, intends to publish a book that names Karl Rove, 'Scooter' Libby, the vice President Dick Cheney, the President's chief of staff Andrew Card, and the president himself as having directed the cover up of the leak of Valerie Plame's name as a CIA officer. The term used was "were involved" in covering up who did it.

The exact actions behind the term "were involved" were not explicitly described beyond just lying to McClellan and getting him to lie to the public, but they are clear in context. The two events that provide the context are first, Patrick Fitzgerald's closing statement at the Libby trial in which Fitzgerald directly pointed the finger at Vice President Dick Cheney as the boss in charge of the Plame cover up and second, the obvious payoff to Libby when Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence. There is little room for doubt regarding what McClellan meant when he named the five principals who "were involved."

Today CNN Political Ticker reports an interview with Valerie Plame's husband, who clarifies what Scotty's revelation means.

(CNN) — The revelation by a former White House spokesman that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were "involved" in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's identity shows how the White House "closed ranks" to protect themselves, her husband, Joe Wilson, said Wednesday.

The information — from an upcoming book by Scott McClellan — also shows how important it was to the administration to commute the sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Wilson said on CNN's "American Morning."

"I think it now makes it very clear the extent to which the vice president was involved, which, of course, then makes it very clear how important to the vice president the commutation of Mr. Libby's sentence was," the former U.S. ambassador said.

Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted in March of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to investigators and a federal grand jury about his contacts with reporters concerning Wilson.

Just before Libby was to report to a federal prison in July to serve 30 months behind bars, Bush commuted his sentence, although the president stopped short of a full pardon and Libby still had to pay a $250,000 fine.

"They basically closed ranks, guaranteed that the cloud (special prosecutor Patrick) Fitzgerald said was over the vice president's head would not be lifted. And now because of McClellan's statement, that cloud is over the president himself.

"He is either completely out of touch or he's an accessory to an obstruction of justice both before the fact and after the fact," he said.
[Link added to the quotation - Editor WTF-o]

Scooter Libby was convicted in March for perjury and obstruction of justice. He was guilty of lying to FBI agents and to a grand jury to conceal his actions and those of others in revealing Valerie Plame's name to the Press. It was not provable who the others involved were because of Libby's lies.

Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine for his conviction. Just before he was to report to prison, President Bush commuted his sentence so that he did not have to spend any time in prison. That left the $250,000 fine and presumably the Republican high rollers paid the fine. And the damage to his post-White house career? There is little doubt that Libby will be on 'Wingnut welfare' so that he will not be hurting for money for the rest of his life. He quickly was hired by the conserative think tank, the Hudon Institute, at $160,000 per year. That's roughly what he was paid at the White House. The fix was in. Someone really didn't want Libby talking to avoid the prison sentence. Patrick Fitzgerald, in his concluding summary of the prosecution at Libby's trial stated There is a cloud over the vice President.

In no uncertain terms, in his most public statement, Fitzgerald made clear that he believed that Cheney was the one behind the crime for which he was prosecuting Libby. It was Cheney who was the boss, Cheney who gave the orders, and Cheney to whom Libby was the loyal soldier, and it is Cheney for whom Libby is covering up.

Scooter Libby's lies and obstruction of justice prevented Fitzgerald from going after the boss who directed the cover up, Cheney. Scooter was amply repaid for throwing himself onto his sword. Scotty's short excerpt from his book (promised for April 2008) reopens the entire story, placing both Cheney and Bush into the cross hairs. So why has McClellan made this statement? And why now? Five months before the release of the book seems a little early for the publisher simply just to be trying to build excitement for the book. Here's what I suspect.

Either someone failed to provide for Scotty McClellan in the way he expected and he is blowing the whistle, or this is a public move by Scotty telling the White House and Dick Cheney - "Meet my terms or I go public." I'd guess that when they meet his terms, the publisher will withdraw the short blurb they have presented and make excuses that say "Oops! Mr. McClellan didn't say that. Someone in our office was playing around on the computer and it accidentally got posted, but it's not true."

There is also the minor possibility that Scotty actually is an honest man with a conscience, but he is a Republican who acted as spokesman for the Bush White House, which makes that a very unlikely possibility.

This story is another tiny window into the actions of the single most incompetent, venal, dangerous and crooked Presidency America has ever had. It was obvious when bush kept Libby out of prison that he was paying Libby off. That is pure obstruction of justice. Can a case for obstruction of justice be proven in court? That's a separate question, but this really stirs that pot. We'll have to see where it goes.

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Update 3:38 CDT
Well, that didn't take too long. Someone has gotten back to Scotty and made him an offer of some kind already. Go see Greg Sergent's report at The Horses Mouth, posted at 1:35 PM EST (12:35 PM CST.) I posted the above at 12:32 PM. "Publisher Of McClellan Book: Scottie Won't Implicate Bush For Lying About Plamegate, After All."

As I predicted.