A Nearly Great E.J. Dionne Op-Ed

The reason I say that E.J. Dionne's most recent op-ed is "nearly" great is because a few key players were left out when it came to describing the cover-up of which TreasonGate was a part. For example, Senator Pat Roberts decided that his Senate Intelligence Committee would not investigate BushCo's Iraq Intelligence manipulations until after the 2004 election (we're still waiting for the results of your post-election investigation, Senator). And TIME Magazine was in on the cover-up as well.

Dionne, however, does do a good job covering the Bush Administration's involvement in all this. Read the whole thing. Here are some of my favorite paragraphs:

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.

You can tell the president worries that this won't work, because yesterday he did what he usually does when he's in trouble: He sought to divide the country and set up a bruising ideological fight. He did so by nominating a staunchly conservative judge to the Supreme Court.

Dionne ends his piece on this foreboding note: "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."

That is really what it is coming to, isn't it -- Fitzgerald will do all this hard work, then Bush will make it all for naught by pardoning Libby and anyone else who comes under indictment. In other words, Bush will perform the last act of this cover-up personally.

This is why it is critical that the Democrats regain the House in 2006, and once that happens, immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney -- that is, if Cheney is still VP. I have a feeling he might retire soon.