Larry Johnson wrote me:
Had lunch today with a person who has a direct tie to one of the folks facing indictment in the Plame affair. There are 22 files that Fitzgerald is looking at. These include Stephen Hadley, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney, and Mary Matalin (there are others of course). Hadley has told friends he expects to be indicted. No wonder folks are nervous at the White House.
after asking whether Larry meant 22 counts against an unknown number of people, Larry told me:
My understanding is that Fitzgerald has identified 22 people who could be indicted. They all could be indicted and none could be indicted. My friend told me that Hadley fully expects he will be indicted.
If Larry is right, this will be the biggest political event since Nixon resigned.
Update [2005-10-18 17:8:30 by BooMan]: US News & World Report
Sparked by today’s Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney’s office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“It’s certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario,” said a Bush insider. “And if that should happen,” added the official, “there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP.”
Said another Bush associate of the rumor, “Yes. This is not good.”
if the words “22 people who could be indicted” give you an erection?
LMAOROTF!!!!!Good one pal!
anna in philly.
Guess I missed something…was pretty much gone for 10 days.
You didn’t miss any drama–well, none that I’m referencing–just some hilarious comments she made a few threads ago.
If I had the plumbing, I’d have one!
Think Progress has a program of the cast of characters we can all follow along with.
That’s awesome, catnip!!
The pictures of Bush and Cheney are hilarious!
Ditto…very cool with the break down of everyone and their positions and when they were questioned, etc. Thanks for the link Catnip!
yet for being a bitch to you last week?
I think not. I am sorry.
Oh geez…last week was really tough on a lot of people. Don’t give a second thought to it. hugs
a ninth thought to it?? I kinda already thought about it a lot…
Thanks!
(((((catnip)))))
As long as you’re okay now – that’s what matters – I was really concerned. 🙁
I think so — I’ve been labeled “moody” since I was about 7….
Lotsa stress lately ’round these parts — unfair taking it out on those who ameliorate it. I may be in for some ups and downs here in the next few months, but I won’t lash out at you all again. Thanks for understanding and for your concern…
Last night on Larry King CNN, Powell said Valerie Plame`s name was definately not in the Air Force One memo.
Holy crap is right!!
22!?!
once indictments come down (if they do, heehe) I hope a new name comes down with it. We really need a better name for this White House Crime story. Plamegate..Rovegate..Cheneygate..Treasongate..yuck.
Let’s give them one that sticks with them for years and destroys the Repub crime family once and for all.
btw/ your subject line is to long..it bounced back to me to change it.
Plame-thrower Conspiracy?
or for people who don’t know French: the Plame affair. I hate this suffix “gate” being added to everything. Enough already–Watergate happened a long time ago.
I never understood why it was the suffix, and not the prefix, that stuck. Let’s call it Waterplame.
I can’t think of a nice catchy name but I do wish it would have bush in it somewhere so there’s no doubt who the crime belongs to and with bushs name in it that would tag all repugs also I think.
but I recall a hip-hop tune called “Push in the Bush”. Got the nice connotation of how Bush and cronies screwed Plame and the country…
“Republican Business As Usual” seems to work….
That works for us and them.
Fitzgeralded: to be caught being a lying, thieving, low-count, no-count, war-mongering, vicious, deadbeat scumbag and thrown in the pen for 20,000 years.
Loooooooooooooooooooooooove Larry Johnson, he is so connected!!!! I am crapping my pants right now. I truly believe the shit will hit the fan tommorrow sometime. Another sleepless night…ugh! Pop the champagn cork folks….this could be it. WooHoo!!!
last week they said the GJ would be back next Wednesday…and that would be tomorrow. Buckle up kids..we might be in for the ride of our lives. An E ticket like no other we have ever taken.
YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!
We’ve got the 4’s necessary to deal with the situation
Eyewitness Muse…Fitzgerald Issues Frog-Marching Guidelines…comic relief.
Peace
Very Funny indeed!
I am trying very hard to get excited with you all here right now!!!!!!!!11
I will believe it when I see/hear it with my own eyes/ears!
Congrats, Booman…I hope all is right here with your info……
Mary Matalin? Will Carville be throwing her an anvil? Talk about strange bedfellows.
wouldnt you love to hear their pillow talk???? :o)
In a word, no. And in fact, I would bite the head off a kitten if that’s what it took to erase that mental image.
oh ye of no fun! ;o)
public frog-marchs
no bail
incarcerated at gitmo
orange jumpsuits
and lots of prison tattoos
I’m getting really nervous. I know I’m a wet blanket. I go from yes we finally got them to maybe they’ll get out of this by claiming they didn’t know she was covert. I see rove has been canceling appearances for the cons. That’s a good sign. Man this is gut wrenching.
Oh I think alot of the indictments will go down but how long will it take Bush pull off a blanket pardon? Do they have to be convicted before he can do that? If so the trials will take at least a couple years. We would have to really string them out so that he could not pardon everyone while still in his throne.
To answer your question, no, he does not have to wait for a conviction to issue pardons. If I recall correctly, that’s exactly what Ford did for Nixon.
Thank you eodell. I forgot about that pardon.
Rumor hath it that Fitzgerald may bring some indictments on the State level — where they cannot be given a Presidential pardon.
I think that quote by the Bush insider re: machiavelli is grasping at straws… oh yeah, brilliant political move, the entire administration, including the VP is corrupt and it’s all just some ploy to elevate Condi Rice to the spot… like she’d have a chance in 2008… all the piano lessons in the world won’t erase the lies.
Do they really think that will play with their red neck white base that’s responsible for black genocide in New Orleans? I’m sorry I just can’t buy that one….and I’ll have nightmares if they do it…
This feminist would like nothing more than to see a woman as Prez or VP….but not Condi….pretty please…not now and not ever….
Wait, I thought the line of succession would put Denny in the VP slot…
Need to brush up on my U.S. Govt. 101 …
if Bush and Cheney died then Denny would become President. But if Cheney resigns (like Agnew) then Bush can appoint a successor (like Rice) but she must be confirmed.
This would be outstanding political theater! Yeah, Bush can blanket pardon everyone to avoid airing all the dirty laundry in trials but it would all come out anyway during confirmation hearings for anyone he chose as replacements.
I don’t care how many terra-terra-terra alerts they staged, no one in the media will talk about anything else if Fitz comes out with 22 indictments. And, who’s to say Condi won’t be one of them…
Actually, on a fearful note, they might have to launch a for-real terra-attack to deflect this shit from national attention. Hope I’m not being a buzz-killer. Sheesh. I just creeped myself out.
I just said the very same thing to my friend this afternoon. scarrrrrrrry isnt it!!??
with this partical list we have here, it looks like the WHIG group is all about to go down.
22 indictments. Hmmm. That sounds familiar. Thanks for inside scoop Booman. All this, and on CNN — it is a Baltimore train terror alert. What a laugher.
You know, they gave the Medal of Freedom to Tenet and Bremer. What could they possibly do to honor the members of WHIG if they get indicted?
I’m betting there’s a strong chance they’ll all be pardoned. Well, everyone except for the snitch. Does anyone disagree? It would be disastrous for Bush if he did it, but having a trial and airing all his administration’s lies in public might be even worse.
Too bad it’s not right before the mid-term elections.
I fully expect pardons. I just hope the resulting opprobrium lasts through 2006 and the dems retake both houses of congress so we can get on with impeachment. 2008 is probably too much to ask right now–that’s a long way away…
wow, so if somebody knocks off bush, condi could be the first woman to be president!
now that would be life imitating art.
Only if the art in question is Revenge of the Sith.
Just got a really bad visual from that thought of yours Andy! Thanks alot…lol!
A woman with African heritage as President?
That actually has a certain appeal. Certain members of the Right Wing would go absolutely bat-shit looney.
And if it’s a question of George (The Re-Run) or Condi. Hell. I’d take Condi any day.
Directions: Add names to the indictment list. No fair using one’s Larry’s given.
First: Michael Ledeen, Wilson’s “pretty close” to it forger of the Niger letter.
Then this list — the members of Donald Rumsfeld’s intelligence manipulators. A group known by various names, including the “B-Team” and the Wurmser-Maloof Project. But more formally known as the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group. Members include:
Harold Rhode, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser, Richard Perle, F. Michael Maloof, and Donald Rumsfeld.
These are the folks who brought you the “evidence” that Iraq was producing and had produced WMDs, primarily nuclear. They are also the propaganda mouth-organ for linking Saddam Hussein to terrorism, even perping the 9/11 attack.
Having fun? Why not add others who, in some capacity, served as Minions of the Manipulated Message, perhaps:
William Luti, Andrew Marshall, Karen P. Hughes, John Bolton, and Bernard Lewis.
Now you get the idea. Why not play along? For those who like gambling, start a pool.
I’m in – who’s gonna run it? All proceeds to BOOTrib.
I’m in too!! Is it ok if I play with fake $$ though?
Being bankrupt is fun!
😉
Or in shrimp. Anything that’s of value. How about doses of anti-bird flu vaccine?
What the world needs–truly–is for a prosecution that recalibrates Nixon’s resignation the way 9/11 recalibrated Kent State.
Because we sure as h* are facing a modern threat that compares that way.
Oh god, it’s 1973 and I’m a young guy trying to impress girls again (didn’t work the first time, but what the hell). Nixon’s going Down! Oh, wrong President, sorry, Bush is going Down! What ubikikiu said.
.
Just a reminder – LOL.
One year before the President would resign – happy days are here again!
New comments to my diary ::
▼ ▼ ▼ A MUST READ
when I heard about the “terror alert” in the Baltimore tunnels…
Bushie-poo will appoint Stepford Laura and all will be well in Freeperland.
via Talk Left: Reuters is speculating that Fitzgerald may be offering putative defendants one last chance to make a deal…also life sentences may be within the realm of possibility [see link in story]
The heat has definitely been turned up the last few days…
and who’s this?…and why’s he sneaking in here?
Peace
There are already hints of “donor fatigue” amongst folks who have been opening their checkbooks for the tsunami, Katrina and Rita, the Central American mudslides, and now the Pakistani earthquakes. The legal defense funds would produce right-wing “donor fatigue” on a massive scale…
Over at the orange place, Georgia10 has been front-paged with her top ten suggestions for dealing with Fitzmas. Definitely full of belly laughs and almost as cool as the PISS meme started here.
I just can’t stop grinning but I’ll take her advice and go about my business tomorrow which takes me out in the boondocks, far, far away from media input. If I was Fitz, I’d wait until 5pm anyway to maximize my impact on the evening news…
Popcorn? Check…
Beer? Check…
Comfy pillow? Check…
Okay, I’m set for the day… 🙂
Dana Milbank told Keith that if Cheney resigns he will eat his shoe with ketchup and mustard on camera. If Cheney actually does resign I will bake up a shoe-shaped Challah bread for Dana…
The 22 indictments has been floating for about a week or ten days (time flies when you are in PISS). It comes down to this. If Fitz goes for the conspiracy, there are close to two dozen persons in the dock. This means that he was able to widen the investigation to the whole WHIG operation, which means in effect the whole war. There was some discussion whether the 22 referred to counts or individuals. We still don’t know. I’m hoping for individuals. How satisfying it would be to see Bolton and Rice — such bosom buddies as we know — walking down the aisle handcuff in handcuff. A perfect couple.
We should definitely add him in!
Ah, but how to score it? I’m thinking Wagner. RIng cycle. Ride > Gottendamarung. With a nice Mosel. Perhaps tonight a mood setter with the stirrings of the Niebelungen.
How about you? What are you putting on your HiFi? Or whatever you call it.