Evidence Dick Didn't Declassify the NIE
As part of Dick Cheney’s attempt to regain the love of his adoring Fox viewer supporters the other day, he threw in a tidbit completely unrelated to the accidental shooting of his friend.
Q  Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a VicePresident has the authority to declassify information?
THE VICE PRESIDENT:Â There is an executive order to that effect.
QÂ Â There is.
THE VICE PRESIDENT:Â Â Yes.
QÂ Â Have you done it?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ve certainly advocateddeclassification and participated in declassification decisions. Theexecutive order —
QÂ Â You ever done it unilaterally?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to get into that. There is anexecutive order that specifies who has classification authority, andobviously focuses first and foremost on the President, but also includesthe Vice President.
As a result, a number of very smart people have revisited the question of whether Dick Cheney does, in fact, have the power to unilaterally declassify something. But I think we’re getting distracted from the matter at hand.
Dick Cheney, Hunting the Truth
One of the most fascinating things about Dick’s little hunting accident is that it exposes Dick violating the rules–rules that few are going to argue are partisan. When Dick and Libby broke the law to out Valerie Plame, wingnuts proclaimed they were just exposing an unfair partisan attack. When Dick and Bush broke the law to eavesdrop on American citizens, most Republicans excused it by saying Democratic complaints about the law-breaking just proves they’re pre-9/11 partisan sissies. But many of the same conservatives excusing Dick for breaking the laws of the United States are the same who will tell you–in no uncertain terms–that you don’t shoot your gun without looking where you’re shooting. My blogmates (who are much better shots than I) are better qualified than I to pursue this line of thought. Meanwhile, though, I’d like to talk about a similar object lesson this shooting incident might offer.
Cheney’s shooting accident and the bungled aftermath demonstrates clearly (again, to people who have doubted this in the past) many of Cheney’s and Rove’s favorite techniques for lying.
Repeating the Lie until It Becomes True
My favorite of these is a technique that is quickly becoming ineffective. Just keep asserting something to be the truth over and over again. Will it to be true.
Libby's Motions
Yesterday and today, we’ve gotten more news that Libby’s defense team is requesting all manner of stuff. ReddHedd explains that this is normal operating procedure, not to read too much into it. And while I’ll cede to RH’s expert judgment on legal issues, I wonder whether there isn’t something more going on.
After all, this is only nominally the "Libby Defense Team." In reality, Libby’s team of lawyers is attempting to ensure that the Plame scandal reaches no further than Libby, that it doesn’t taint the rest of the Neocon cabal who participated in outing Plame and, more importantly, made the false case to bring the country to war. The fund is managed by a lifetime Republican operative, Barbara Comstock and chaired by Mel Sembler, Ambassador to Italy when the whole Niger caper was planned. In addition, the fund includes such notable contributors as Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lewis, and James Woolsey. These folks are not just trying to bail out (literally) a good friend. They’re trying to prevent their entire Neocon project from being severely damaged by the trial.
So what do I think they’re after, this Neocon Defense Team with their motions? Well, they’re after stuff that Libby knows about–but that the Defensedoesn’t know whether or how Fitzgerald knows about. They’re trying toascertain, I suspect, how much evidence Fitzgerald has against othermembers of the team. And if they can figure that out, they may adjustLibby’s defense accordingly.
