Dick Cheney is claiming that he is immune from the civil lawsuit brought by Valerie Plame and her husband Joseph Wilson for the damage done to Plame and Wilson through the illegal revealing of her covert CIA status.
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune,
Attorneys for Cheney and the other officials said any conversations they had about Plame with one another and reporters were part of their normal job duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate “policy dispute.” Cheney’s attorney went further, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role, and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit.
Aside from the fact that constitutionally Cheney is not akin to the President (even though existentially Bush is Cheney’s fluffer) Cheney’s argument should be repudiated by the Supreme Court. Yeah right. This is the Supreme Court that ruled that President Clinton was not immune from a civil suit brought by Paula Jones, and that said suit would not really hinder his ability to do his job as President. That was a load of crap then, and it continues to be a load of crap now. But is not this idiotic ruling still precedent? Would not a Supreme Court filled with 9 honest judges rule that, like the Jones suit, the Plame suit should be allowed to go forward because it will not unduly hinder the Vice President’s only job of daily inquiring as to the health of the President?
Of course, the real purpose of the Paula Jones suit funded by Scaife and other lunatic right wingnuts was to precisely hinder the job performance and public perception of President Clinton. This was politics by lawsuit.
In the Plame suit, Valerie Plame suffered actual financial damages (she lost her job) and considerable emotional damages arising out of the loss of her CIA cover. Since she was working on non-proliferation, I’m certain her life was and continues to be in danger.
Erwin Chemerinsky, a Duke University law professor who represents Wilson and Plame, said the leak was no typical policy debate. He said that after Plame’s CIA cover was blown the couple feared for their safety and their children’s safety, and Plame lost any opportunity for advancement at the CIA.
This lawsuit should be allowed to proceed now rather than wait until Cheney is out of office because of the precedent of the Jones suit. That the Supreme Court may rule in Cheney’s favor should open some of those justices to impeachment charges for such a blatantly political ruling. Added to the Court’s blatant theft of the 2000 Presidential election, such a ruling would completely destroy the Courts position as a co-equal non-political function of the federal government.
This issue could become a watershed moment for impeachment. It will reveal how the Republican Party has sacrificed all governmental functions like providing for the common defense and instituting justice on the altar of their own obsession with power.
http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1191142.html
