I really wish I had more time to write my thoughts on all of this, but let’s be clear: Someone, hopefully some higher-ups, but definitely some people very close to the White House, are going down. Soon.
There’s talk of Cheney being indicted and/or stepping down, and there are rumors flying as to who will replace him. Rice and McCain are possibilities. I don’t know that it will get so far that Cheney will have to step down, but it IS a possibility.
WaPo has some really great stories:
White House adviser Karl Rove told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity was revealed, a source familiar with Rove’s account said yesterday.
In a talk that took place in the days before Plame’s CIA employment was revealed in 2003, Rove and Libby discussed conversations they had had with reporters in which Plame and her marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV were raised, the source said. Rove told the grand jury the talk was confined to information the two men heard from reporters, the source said.
The Post article gives a recitation of some key facts and it named a lot of names. All the key players in the Bush Admin. have been tainted by this scandal in some way. These are all the different players that appeared in today’s article:
President Bush
Vice President Cheney
Karl Rove
Scooter Libby
John Hannah, “an aide to Cheney”
Ari Fleischer “former White House spokesman”
Mary Matalin, “a former top Cheney adviser”
Catherine Martin, ”[Cheney’s] former communications adviser”
Jennifer Millerwise, ”[Cheney’s] former spokeswoman”
Scott McClellan “spokesman”
Dan Bartlett “senior adviser”
Adam Levine “former communications aide”
Colin L. Powell “then-Secretary of State”
Stephen J. Hadley “Bush’s national security adviser”
Andrew H. Card Jr. “Chief of Staff”
Condoleezza Rice “then-national security adviser” ,
Karen Hughes, “adviser”
Nicholas Calio “White House director of legislative affairs”
George J. Tenet “Former CIA director”
John E. McLaughlin “ex-deputy [CIA] director
Bill Harlow “CIA public affairs director”
More about that at AmericaBlog.
Billmon and OneGoodMove have been sent an unconfirmed and possibly fake, but very detailed and interesting, email:
What follows is some extremely sensitive information about the impending conclusion of the Valerie Plame investigations. The sources include two senior members of senate and key staffers; counsel for individuals that have been called before the grand jury; and two journalists taking a lead position in investigating the case. the following represents a composite of the information from those sources.
Plamegate coming to conclusion. The investigation has focused mostly closely on Vice President Cheney and his staff, as well as US Ambassador to the UN (and former undersecretary of state for arms control) John Bolton and his staff. We are told that eight indictments have already prepared, with the possibility of another ten. These indictments include senior white house staff, most notably Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, Fred Flights (special assistant to John Bolton), and-
very surprisingly-national security adviser Steve Hadley. apparently, Libby and Hadley have both been told by their lawyers to expect indictments. the indictment of senior bush political advisor Karl Rove seems highly probable.Most critically, a plea bargain process has evidently been opened with Vice President Cheney’s lawyer. that does not mean that an indictment is coming. but i’ve some critical background around the issue.
During the meeting, Powell recounted to the senator that he had traveled on air force one with Bush and Cheney, and brought to their attention a classified memorandum about the issue of whether there was indeed a transaction inolving Niger and yellow cake uranium. the document included Ambassador Joe Wilson’s involvement and identified his wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert agent. the memorandum further stated that this information was secret. Powell told McCain that he showed that memo only to two people—president and vice president. according to Powell, Cheney fixated on the Wilson/Plame connection, and Plame’s status.
Powell testified about this exchange in great length to the grand jury investigating the plame case. according to sources close to the case, Powell appeared convinced that the vice president played a focal role in disclosing plame’s undercover status.
But the problem (and why this might be fake), as Billmon points out, is that Cheney didn’t go on the Africa trip.
Anyway, this, along with DeLay’s indictment and the warrant out for his arrest, are causing me to pay more attention to the news than my work… oh, well, how often in life do you get to witness a White House shakedown?